sufall96

JohnDoe2

Do you think Dolly Parton needs larger breasts?

angler67

Your thinking of direct profitability, but that is not where they will see the payback. It will be with the MB and BMW folks who will not event look at Acura because it is not in the same "class". The low-volume high output "flagship" models are to bring the friends and family of those who will spend anything for a car. If I buy 50-60K car that I love, I will also suggest the car maker to my firends and buy lower models for my children.

That is the end of the market that eludes Acura and relegates them to the near-luxury status. Acura owners already know how great the cars are and we are sold. The "business sense" is this group that loves German enginerring, or Won't think of not buying American.

Also there are the fans like us. Please tell me you would not want to drive a TL with 320-350 HP with AWD?

Does Acura need it? No, not to keep things as status quo. But, yes if they want to expand their market share.

TLer

I agree with you 110%. Acura has the means to put out those kinds of hp and torque figures. If Nissan/Infiniti can do it with a 3.5 litre v6, this feat should be easy for Honda/Acura to meet or surpass especially with knowledge gained from their F1 experience. A prime example was the S2000 with it's naturally aspirated 2.0 making 120 hp per litre. Unfortunately, this kind of tech would mean a serious premium hike. Besides, even if the TL had 300+ hp, it would need an all wheel drive system to better manage the power/torque since a front drive would not be able to do so effectively, and this I believe is not far in Acura's future when the RL's all wheel drive becomes available to the TL folk. So is it possible that a type s iteration of the TL is in the works? I sure hope so.

DMZ

I remember her once saying.......

"You Wouldn't Believe The Cost of Industrial Strength Bras These Days".

TLer

I agree with angler67. The return is in the fact that they have demonstrated that they have the capacity to run with the big dogs like MB and BMW. These v10's you speak of are in fact just statements being made by the automakers to demostrate to their target audience that they are truly the epitome of the auto industry. As competitive as the auto industry is today, as a manufacturer, at the end of the day you could spend an absurd amount of money to advertise your product on paper and not get your message across or you could build some bad ass machines and put them up against the big dogs and let actions speak louder than words. Already you have caught the eyes of millions of people who once thought Honda was just a conservative econo box builder and here they are building these high tech machines and one comes to think hmmmm! there must be something to their product so you go to the dealer and you drive, you like, you buy and voila you have just snatched a coveted market share once dominated by the likes of MB and BMW.

F23A4

Specific hp output is a bit overplayed, particularly with Honda motors (read: S2000). An F1 motor needs to turn 18,000rpm by the nature of this type of racing and the S2000 with its 8,900 redline F20C (2.0) just holds itself true to being a purpose driven vehicle. But, it's power delivery is not conducive to good low end acceleration unless you do 7k clutch drops. So if you dont drive with a purpose (pun?), it'll feel like a Civic EX.

Conversely, Nissan's HP numbers with the VQ35DE are very good but arent stellar ('298hp') as the RL's 3.5L now puts out 300hp. (Heck, Honda America massaged 300hp out of the J30A motor from the 6G Accord V6!!)

It's the VQ's 265-288lb-ft of actual torque (various applications) that Honda needs to work on. (IMHO, iVTEC is a great step towards enhancing low end power delivery but so far, cam phasing iVTEC only exists on the K-series.) That'll go a long way towards nullifying the need for a V8.

But your statement (below) is a more telling indicator of why this hasnt happened yet with Honda: