Did Lexus limit the power of the 2GR-FE engine in their 2013-2015 RX350? I read that the engine is supposed to produce between 295-314 hp, but officially, Lexus claims it only pulls 270 hp. Its not that much of a difference realistically, but I'm curious as to why Lexus claims it does 270 HP. Is it electronically limited, limited by hardware, or did Lexus lie about the power output of the RX?

 

Many manufacturers publish very modest specs regarding their horsepower ratings. That approach is probably to protect themselves from lawsuits claiming that customers are not achieving the higher horsepower ratings.

 

KK, that makes sense. TY. : D

 

I wonder if they resorted to specifying the use of regular unleaded gasoline instead of premium.

 

My wife's 2015 RX350's owners manual specifies regular unleaded gasoline. That is what she buys and the vehicle performs exactly as designed. Currently at 51,400 miles.

 

This engine was used in a lot of different vehicles each with slightly different rated power. The 3 things I think make up the power rating:
a) model specific tuning
b) whether or not premium or regular fuel was to be specified
c) darts used by the marketing folk in deciding where to position the vehicle in the line up.

 

I wouldn't sweat the HP number. I'd be looking at the 0-60 , 0-30 times, 50-70 pulls......

 

What also affects the power of the same engine in different model vehicles are the different designs of their intake and exhaust systems due to the demands of different body and engine compartment spaces.

 

This^^^^^ + to add the ecm/pcm programming/tune.