harryra

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm not sure why Lexus does not currently have a turbo charged engine on any of their models....maybe the LFA being the only exception. Most of the European autos have all gone to turbo charging giving a huge boost in both HP and fuel economy. I know the Asians are always a step behind but this way behind.....

praetor

LFA is a V10 no FI. The Asians have had turbo'd cars for ages but dropped them from the lineup probably due to lack of sales aka the Supra TT. Nissan has had huge successes with the Skyline GTR but it's $100K price tag keeps it out of most people's garages as most people who want to spend that much on a car don't want a Nissan badge.

The Japanese are weird when it comes to how they make their cars. Honda for one will not make a V8. Back in the day the big 3 Japanese makers had their gentlemen agreement on HP. All the Japanese sport cars were published as 280HP sports cars. Put them on the dyno though and we all know that was an understatement.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

turbos dont always boost fuel economy. If they were truly fuel efficient all around why arent all cars turboed. Turbocharged engines are volumetrically efficient, meaning high power in a small size. Turbos have a lot of drawbacks as well. RCF chief engineer specifically wanted N/A for the RCF

praetor

Biggest drawback from FI might be reliability and the Japanese pride themselves on building reliable cars. From what I have seen, the Japanese dropped the turbos in favor of high revving smaller displacement engines. Back in the day, there was the Celica, Intergra, Prelude and RSX where you had to drive them like you stole them. Rev those little engines to 8K+ RPMs.

These days, it seems the Japanese are in favor of hybrid technology like 450h.

harryra

Not being very familiar with Japanese or Asian auto tech its hard for me to comment. I bought the Lexus GS for none performance reasons so its not an issue for me. Other autos I own are turbo charged and experience a tremendous boost in HP and fuel economy, hence my statement. They are certainly high tech machines compared to none turbo. I personally like the benefits. We have a little 4 cylinder Mercedes C250 that my daughter drives. It is turbo charged and quite peppy for its size. Without that turbo it would be a dog with fleas...

neegroy

iTrader: (19)

honestly im thinking for 60 hp gains is too little. i mean pricewise if your considering 10-15 thousand then its too much lol

praetor

The irony of your statement is that turbo's are not high tech machines. It's been done for ages and is generally straight forward. Many of the earlier model Japanese cars were turbo'd, MR2, Supra, Evo, Eclipse, ...etc. There is more advance and modern technology involved in making a normally aspirated engine squeeze out as much power per liter of displacement as possible while being reliable and efficient.

In the end it is all about philosophies of the manufacturers. The Japanese choose not to go the turbo or V8 route anymore. Where manufacturers like Saab swear by their turbo technology. I myself prefer a normally aspirated engine. I hated dealing with turbo lag and allowing turbos to cool, ...etc.

harryra

That's certainly not what I meant. Lexus is the only Japanese or Asian vehicle I've ever owned so not familiar with the others you mentioned. Turbo charging has been around a long time now and is not unique. What makes it a bit difficult is the ability to have the turbo charging unit last longer than previous decades where you used to have to sit in the car and let the unit wind down and they would still burn out. All of today's engines in any vehicle are high tech to some degree as they all seem to have computerization at the helm. I personally like a turbo charged engine but others do not.....to each his own.

bigblack06

iTrader: (20)

Just to correct some, technically Lexus has a turbo vehicle. The NX that is due to come out is turbo charged, although turbo would be nice I see it being harder to install on this high compression engine. I would love the supercharger that Apexi was working but it looks like it died out no info on it. 60hp gain isnt truly enough for the cost but we still don't know the cost.

praetor

Yes to each their own but the original point again was that the Japanese are not behind on turbo cars. If you do a tad bit of Googling you will see how the Japanese had a fleet of turbo cars that were tough to beat. The Japanese choose to go in different direction like you said, to each his own.

blacksun

(This thread has been hi-jacked, and I'm going to be part of the problem, not the solution. LOL)

Good discussion, but I think we need to remember the REAL reason most manufacturers have turned to turbo+DI in the first place. Rapidly rising fuel economy requirements put in place by regulators have forced auto manufactures to develop more fuel efficient vehicles. The industry has adopted Turbo+DI engines because, 1) they are more efficient than NA engines, and 2) they are much cheaper to design and manufacture than hybrids.

I wouldn't say Japanese auto makers are "behind" on turbo tech. They already had a solution for the rising fuel economy requirements and probably just chose to spend their R&D budgets developing and manufacturing their hybrid technology. (The same hybrid technology they license to US and European automakers.)

Schmexus

They make them, just not for the general public. They're also planning on releasing one next year that WILL be available to us.

praetor

Interesting. It took them forever to release a V6 Accord. Honda just likes to do things their way.

Rudiculous

iTrader: (15)

The Ridgeline currently has a V8 if I'm not mistaken

jjscsix

You are mistaken. It has a V6.