My mate said i had a chicks car so basically, to prove the RX is no longer the stereotypical girls car, we had a little drag race on the lights. I know I know, its very naughty but he has a Q7 3.0 TDI and at first his car just took off, as in, it seriously took off pretty well. At this point I was thinking "Ive lost this" but then the RX450h just came alive, it has some serious pull at higher speeds and enough to overtake the Q7 too.

Any idea why the 450h is like this? Over about 40mph the car pulls like a train, never experience this with any other cars at all and im just curious really.

 

That sounds familiar, i experienced that on my old ES Lexus, sometimes i would floor it, and from 0 to 20-30mph it would go slow, but once it hit 30 it kicked it and went vrooom and gained speed, i saw mechanic about it, he said it was normal, nothing wrong with the car. I had that few times when i would put cheaper gasoline, my friend had the same on 2001 Maxima. Maybe because its a hybrid it kicks in that way. I floored my rx last night for the 1st time from 0mph actually at night just to try it, and it took off right the way, no holdup. I tried both on Drive and on Manual

 

The hybrid engine if I recall is smaller and so a diesel is going to have a lot more torque of the line. The Japanese cars are also known for having more HP which is acceleration at higher speeds and American and German cars generally have more torque in their numbers.

I think the F-Sport is not a chick car at all. I think the regular design for the RX with the slat grille on it is a bit more feminine, but is passable for a guy car.

I personally hate Audis and VW cars as I have had those for the last 8 years. They originally were good, but through cost cutting maneuvers and service that comes nowhere close to Lexus, do they have any appeal. I think German cars are more of the high maintenance loving crowd. I'd rather be out roaming the streets at my leisure.

 

Audi look muscular, and manly, I will give your friend that. I admire any one who purchase luxury car, whether it is Mercerdes, or Audi, BMW, or Lexus, even Acura. Only people who can make stable income, and of some status to afford these vehicles.

Anyways, BarrettF77 Nailed it correctly. Diesel has a lot of Torque, and Torque is what moving your car at Stop Point. Though Hybrid, and Electric Motor has a lot of Instant Torque too, but not as much as Diesel at stop point. Until your Electric Motors working together with your Gas Engine = where you gain even better Torque, and that was what happen

There is no shame in a Gasoline engine losing to a Diesel......for all that said.....Japanese cars are lighter, and very responsive. You can test drive those German and American made, you will see.

The only big different is that Diesel engine last much longer, and run more efficiently, but who said Hybrid is bad ? I know Toyota will last forever, and that is a fact. Any other Brands will have more stuff breaking down than you can imagine. It is stupid like that.

 

It IS actually slower off the line, but with the extra 20hp and the CVT tranny you're finding out why very few races are only run to 40mph. How were you to 60 mph which is what a lot of folks look to as the 1st performance figure? And at what speed did you overtake him (as if you were doing a serious entry onto the hwy)? Any video?

 

As already been pointed out, diesel has a lot of torque at low RPMs and it starts to drop off with speed. Gas is the opposite, however, RXh has electric components to offset it. Electric motors have flat torque "curve" starting from 0 RPM.

With RX being mostly FWD vehicle, the VDIM killed the engine to stop the wheel spin. Next time, turn the trac off and hold on to the steering wheel. This thing has serious torque-steer under WOT.
I would even go as far as trying a sport or even snow mode. In snow mode, the rear electric motor gets more action.

In other words, Q7 got you beat because it has a really good AWD.

 

Lol, now I think about it, why does 2 Soccer Mom Vehicles doing Drag, or 60MPH race ? I would tell him

hey....uhm...these cars are all about Reliability. We will bet $10,000 into 5 years later. We will compare every Receipts, and Service Records to see who is on top.

If you spend more to maintain your car than mine, you lose
If you sell your car before that, you lose
If you drive less than 5k miles a year, you lose

Now, lets start saving 2k a year for the next 5 years. I guarantee you that you will have 10,000 to down payment another 2019 RX350

 

You did technically win so why sweat the small stuff. The RXh isn't about 0-60. And chick car, really? That's really getting old. While it might have been true years ago, I see more male drivers than female. At least you're not the one sporting the third row seat, LOL. Next time keep it legal and have your wife verify your masculinity

 

The Q7 lost. My RX was in sport mode and up to 40mph the Q7 was in front. From 40mph the RX really started to shine and gained speed really quickly and by 100mph my car was a good distance ahead. The overtake was roughly at about 50mph where the Q7 seemed to lose its oomph.

I am not criticizing the RX450h. I actually rather enjoyed it and also, I did not feel that it was going slow up to 40mph but I did realise that over 40mph the engine genuinely came to life, kind of like it got extra energy from somewhere.

 

electric motor will have better torque, even againts diesel engine.
Challenge the Tesla S, and you'll be left behind.. The official 0-60 on their website is 4.4secs but there have been reports of 3.9 secs as well

 

Not really a good comparison since a hybrid has essentially an assist motor. Yes, it will have instant torque but it's limited. You're not going 0-60 on electric alone in a RX450h. If you could it would take a loooong time.

The "boost" at 40 is interesting. I'm driving an Altima Hybrid now and it gets off the line in a hurry. It's a great sleeper car. Once it gets to about 40 it loses that intial umph and doesn't feel different than a gas only four cylinder Altima. Still can't complain. Getting around 33 mpg and drive the heck out of it. The performance benefit of some hybrids is a little known secret. The perception is hybrids are slow because of all the people hypermileing their Prius with no regard for the vehicles around them. The original Accord Hybrid was a great car that showed the performance benefits of a hybrid and how the torque of an electic motor can really make a car scoot.



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The Audi Q7 TDI is some 600 to 700 pounds heavier than the Lexus RX450h. That is a lot of mass to overcome. The Audi's diesel torque is a great advantage off the line, but as speeds increase and horsepower becomes more important the Audi is at a disadvantage by about 70 HP. Transmission gearing would also be important to compare, but I think the differences shown above are enough to help explain what you experienced.

The Audi is about 1.3 seconds slower in the quarter mile according to Motor Trend testing. So, you were just confirming in the field what has been seen previous in test results.

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...t/viewall.html

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...t/viewall.html

 

I thought we were talking about the hybrid here. Tesla is another different species. It is all electric, and Tesla motor is genuinely 6-7 times more powerful.

Pure electric vehicle have instant torque at 0 RPM, but limited HP....well a lot instant torque with anything close to 200 hp is super fast already.

Hybrid motors are smaller, and still will have some instant torque, but it is no where enough to move the heavy weight as fast.

Those are the reason why many people really dislike the hybrid. Wait until Toyota 3rd gen hybrid technology come out, it will be different. More instant torque, and more HP. I believe this technology was used in a racing in Japan, and toyota as the first hybrid also won the first place