Well, there is another way to see it:

"Our current engines are so good, we dont need a V8 as bad as others."



I agree with you though. Even if it's available in 2010, it's 6 years late as I said above.

 

It sounds that the V10 is a go, or close to that and that, that fact, increases the possibility of a V8. I took that as a good possibility that the V8 will be a derivative of the V10, which means that the V10 will be around 5.25L to 5.5L large (assuming the V8 is rumored to be between 4.2L and 4.4L).

 

I don't understand, so does this mean that the V-10 is coming out before or after the V-8? According to the article it states that the next mass produced engine would be a V-8. So will the NSX successor not be considered mass-produced?

 

I'm not surprised V10 is coming out first. That's what Honda has been using for BAR team in F1 for the last couple of years. The Indy V8 is turbo-charged, not normally-aspirated like the F1 V10. But starting next season, all F1 teams will be using V8 engines. So a couple years down the road, V8 will be the reality.

 

they'll be devloping v8's for f1 and already been making v10's. so it shouldn't be a problem.

 

I am guessing not.

 

 

What do you find ?

 

That Honda's F1 experience with the current v10 and now v8 engines(being developed now for next season) should allow then to more easily trasintion to building V10 and V8 engines for the masses.

 

I don't see why an engine company like Honda needs racing experience with a particular size engine to actually develop one.

 

They don't. That's not why they are building one.

 

They don't need the experience, but since it saves a ton on R&D costs (as opposed to building an engine from the ground up), it just makes more economic sense. And we all know Honda likes to play it safe with their money.

 

Me neither.

 

90% of American Honda sales (Honda and Acura cars) have 4-cylinder engines?
What percentage have V6 engines? I would of course presume that the V6 sales chart
has steadily increased over the past 5-6 years.

Honda-Acura V8 is years late, or coming rather soon? I would argue for the latter.

 

It doesn't have to, but it will save time and money.

Because racing is the ultimate proving ground for a new technology or a new engine. Things like PGM-FI, VTEC, dual-intake runner induction, molybenum coating, etc., all come from F1 and CART racings. Otherwise Honda has to pour millions more $$ in development cost to proven new engine designs. V6, V8, and V10 all have different harmonic vibration modes and have to be balanced differently. Prior knowledge in engine design will vastly shorten the development cycle. If Honda had used the Gen2 tranny in racing application, it wouldn't be in this tranny extended warranty mess.

 

The Honda division can probably stay with I4 and V6 forever. But the Acura division is in dying need for V8 and RWD in order to compete with other makes in the same luxury vehicle class. This is image problem. People associate V8 with potent cars, no matter how powerful a V6 is.

 

i agree, consider the sales really over 90% for the 4 bangers

but they need to juice up the acura division to compete with lexus and BMW etc

 

3 years? which means 3+ years for V8 engines in anything as others have said. I'll be long since moved on to my next vehicle. And that will definetly NOT be a Honda (Acura). Even with the V8 it'd take a lot of convincing for me to stay, which isn't going to happen.

Maybe once Honda stops selling kids cars in their luxury divison I'll take them seriously again. (and not re-using the same POS tranmissions on various vehicles knowing it had flaws. It took 3+ years to get that "fixed")

Off to toyota (lexus) land for me...

 

Although I may be joining you soon.

 

Lol

 

It really sucks that Honda started the luxury division, but now they are behind Lexus and even Infiniti is catching up. They need a small coupe and sedan preferably with RWD, to complete with the 3-series. The TL is nice, but it doesn't look luxury. I know they don't like to follow the crowd and they would rather use technology in place of what's conventional eg. SH-AWD, IMA, etc., but they are behind in the game. I personaly don't think they need a V8, but they need to beef up the RL and MDX with IMA. They need to use SH-AWD in their whole line-up if they don't want to go the conventional RWD route like the others.

I don't concider them as being behind by not having a V8, but in their supercar, they need a V8 or V10 to compete with what Lexus and Infiniti has to offer in the near future.

I like that Honda does things differently. I just wish they would speed it up a little.

 

It may save time and money after the fact, once they have a racing engine setup, but right now they are already out of time when it comes to a growing company needing a larger engine and its pretty much resulting in lost sales/money.

They pour $xxx into planes, robots, shawd, ima, etc, but they couldn't have a v8 ready for production now? Think thats pretty sad as far as a company understanding the market in which they are selling cars.

 

IMO Honda is trying to do too much...

Robots and airplanes are neat and make for great press.. but when you lose your focus on your core products (ENGINES, its an engine company!) something isnt quite right.

I hope Honda proves me wrong.

 

Exactly, Honda is spreading its resources too thin to do anything quick. In comparison, Toyota is many, many times larger than Honda, can churn out completely new cars in a year's time.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...ceo-usat_x.htm

Honda CEO says hybrids must become less expensive
By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY
UTSUNOMIYA, Japan — Automakers will to have to slash the cost of developing gas-electric hybrid vehicles compared with conventional models before they truly catch on with the public, Honda Motor CEO Takeo Fukui said Tuesday, one day before Honda's new Civic hybrid goes on sale in the USA.
Honda CEO Takeo Fukui introduces the new Civic hybrid in September.
By Yoshikazu Tsuno, AFP

But the hybrid premium won't disappear until automakers can make the popular gas savers in larger volumes and gain more control over costs of their unique components, Fukui said at Honda's auto-testing center here. (More car news: Photo gallery of Tokyo Auto Show)

Honda hybrid sales are growing, he said. With the newly redesigned Civic hybrid, the first able to move under electric power alone, Honda will boost hybrid production to about 50,000 cars a year, up from the current 30,000. Toyota will sell an estimated 100,000 Prius hybrids this year.

The Civic hybrid is rated at 51 miles per gallon on the highway, a 4-mile-a-gallon improvement over the model it replaces.

The 2006 Civic hybrid is priced at $21,850, 15% more than the $19,060 for the top-of-the-line Civic with a five-speed automatic transmission. The entire Civic lineup has been redone for 2006. The 2005 Civic hybrid came at about the same premium over the top-of-the-line sedan with a four-speed automatic.

"We do still understand the price difference is rather significant for ordinary consumers," Fukui said. He said that automakers have to find a way to reduce the price difference by about half.

To reduce the price difference further will require attacking costs in the key components that separate hybrids from regular cars — the battery, computer modules and electric motors. Reducing those costs will be easier as consumer demand grows, Fukui said.

He said he sees hybrids as just one solution to the move among consumers to save energy. The company also is developing vehicles powered by hydrogen and natural gas. Fukui isn't writing off conventionally powered cars either, saying he thinks there are still more gas savings that can be wrung out of them.

In a wide-ranging interview on the eve of the Tokyo Motor Show, Fukui also:

• Said General Motors' deal with the United Auto Workers to cut worker and retiree health care costs won't pressure Honda to consider changes for its U.S. auto-plant workers.

• Said China's burgeoning auto industry represents more of an opportunity than a threat, although he can see "both aspects."

• Promised to introduce a hot new NSX sports car powered by a giant V-10 engine.

 

....Knowing Honda, I'm guessing 'giant' means something like 5.0L (i.e.: M5) and not 8.3L (i.e.: Dodge Viper). So long as Honda keeps the power:weight just right, it should be a super ride.

 

http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/04/...earth-to-cars/

this is pretty hot news. the google map interface is pretty slick and ive always wanted that interface in navis. reminds me of GTA's map system too.

 

Thats So Hot Gawd Damn!@

But that only stated they will do it for Japan. May take years for that shit to come here.

 

that's the beauty of google earth... it's a detailed mapping of the world so it wont be long before honda releases a US version here for future models. not only is google earth efficient to use, but i'm sure it's a smart costcutting strategy to streamline (one universal mapping system) for each world market

 

Now we will have advertisements on the Navi.

 

They'll probably use the in-cabin microphone and listen for keywords and then the "targeted ads" pop up on the screen..

 

any idea if this will include a 3d chip from Nvidia like in the VW google earth system?

 

Though, the navigation requires a wireless connection to the Internet. Wi-fi isn't widespread enough in the states to even bother with something like this for at least the next 5 years.

 

are you saying that the navi requires wifi?

 

isnt this a repost?

 

Not sure why it would need wifi, they could dump the google earth maps onto a blueray/ hd dvd disk and use satellite to update where the car is.

 

Then it would be no different from today's setup - just a different front end and different maps.
The beauty of a data link is that everything could be up to date all the time.

 

Think both xm and sirius offer real time traffic updates to any compatible nav screen via satallite.

Theres nothing really wrong with todays setup, this google earth thing would just make the maps 3 dimensional so when you have to go to 1500 walnut street you can see something that resembles the building you're going to on the nav screen.

 

I found the info while not official but seems coming from credible source - the Acura tech who has contacts in the engineering world that gives him inside scoops. BTW, he was one of the first who posted info on upcoming RDX that was in fact going to have a 2.3L Turbo engine.


Hope they (Honda/Acura) going to create a solid transmission to hold the power. As far as upcoming V6 engine, I like the the direction FINALLY since current belt driven SOHC VTEC is obsolete. And of course V8 is needed for both RL and Ridgeline.

 

320 won't cut it the way Infiniti works.