What makes German auto engineering different than Asian or American engineering
Lexus Champion
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From: Knoxville, TN
The pollution was specifically caused by exhaust emissions which has been fully documented. Making a car more fuel efficient equals less emissions, which equals less pollution. The bigger the engine, the more fuel it burns. No way around that equation. If you want a more powerful engine that burns less fuel, you have to downsize it's displacement, reduce the number of cylinders and use forced induction, hybridization, or a combination of both. No way around it. NA V8's and V6's just don't cut it anymore with the price of gasoline today, especially here in California where is hitting nearly $6 a gallon
my large displacement lexus 5.0L v8 does not have a lot of immediate torque.
in fact, max torque comes at 5000rpm!
Lexus Champion
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There is no free lunch. Tap into the boost liberally and you’ll barely beat a V8, if at all. Like the 4cylinder turbo Silverado that got a whopping 3MPG worse than the “big” 5.3 V8 highway mpg? That 4 banger turbo truck is giving off significantly more emissions than the V8 at highway speeds at least.
Last edited by AMIRZA786; Mar 6, 2022 at 09:15 PM.
Lexus Champion
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From: California
As a last note, I really hate autocorrect...
Last edited by AMIRZA786; Mar 6, 2022 at 10:51 PM.
Lexus Champion
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From: California
Lead Lap
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From: San Diego, CA
That's where forced induction is absolutely on another level. Generally speaking, you're seeing max torque at under 2000 rpm, and those max torque numbers can be significant. The big Lexus V8 didn't deliver maximum torque until close to 4000 RPM, and the maximum torque delivered was well under 400 lb/ft. So you had lower HP (late 300's), and lower torque (late 300's) with the torque delivered much higher in the rev range. Both engine designs have their advantages, but I know which configuration appeals most to me.
Last edited by swajames; Mar 6, 2022 at 10:41 PM.
Lexus Champion
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From: Ohio
Like you, I'm not a fan either, I've owned one and sold it after a year. Let's remove trucks because towing and hauling applications are different from regular use. In regular driving scenerios which is 80 to 90 percent of the times, the smaller turbo charged engines are more fuel efficient than the bigger engines they are replacing while generation the same or more HP. The mpg difference may be small in some cases, but every additional mile adds up. It's true that they lose a lot of this efficiency when going hard throttle, but most people the majority of the time drive normal
Interstate is the clearest example of the new tech underperforming since it's biased toward EPA testing. That's why a corvette LT4 in cleaner emissions wise than a hell of a lot of engine and still fantastic in mpg and power, it has an absurdly good BSFC and FPM figure. Turbo engines of the same output and fuel use have much more pollution and ones with similar pollution have less power or mpg.
Though relative to a bare exhaust modern cars haven't changed much at all pollution wise since cats were frost introduced.....the improvments we have had for the last 20 years have been increasingly fractional benefits since a 20% improvement on something that is over 99% clean is not much on an absolute scale.
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Lexus Champion
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Modern cats don't interfere too much actually, you can see maybe a 10hp loss in a 700hp engine and turbo engines care even less since you can set them up to have a huge cat and and downpipe so after the turbine pressure drop flow is basically the same as a bare pipe. That's why you see nearly no change from de-catting on newer stuff and normally headers or something are required for any real gain. Unless you are boosted, that just allows an instant 30% gain from increased PSI limit
but obviously the LC would leave it in the dust.
As a last note, I really hate autocorrect...
Lexus Champion
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From: Knoxville, TN
Lexus 5.0 is a peaky engine to be fair. The other V8s have plenty of torque. You can drive the LS430 around and still beat traffic without even topping 2100RPM. It slow by today’s standards but it definitely wafts around on a wave of torque like a proper luxury sedan should.
Lexus Champion
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From: Ohio
Lexus 5.0 is a peaky engine to be fair. The other V8s have plenty of torque. You can drive the LS430 around and still beat traffic without even topping 2100RPM. It slow by today’s standards but it definitely wafts around on a wave of torque like a proper luxury sedan should.
Lexus Champion
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 17,019
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From: Knoxville, TN
Lexus Champion
Joined: Oct 2019
Posts: 18,096
Likes: 1,740
From: Ohio
Last edited by Striker223; Mar 7, 2022 at 09:12 AM.