Power sells--pretty simple formula IMO. One can point directly to Toyota's introduction of the V-8 in the Lexus LS as the defining moment where Lexus stepped away from Acura as the leading Japanese luxury brand--and they never looked back.
It's always been about the power game except in the economy period of the late 70s-early 80s. The reason there are 600hp MBZs is because of demand and marketing. Yes, these engines are getting more powerful but they're also getting smaller and/or utilizing FI. Power sells--always has, always will. It's only going to get worse as electronic aid such as TC gets more sophisticated. Why do cars need sophisticated, Formula One based TC systems? Because their drivers can't handle 600hp! No one
needs 600hp--the speed limit is 65! But it's about what the cars are
capable of. People want to drive a car they know is fast even if they don't drive fast.
As for the V-6 it's not possible in the long run to get the kind of performance to compete against a V-8 out of a V-6 without extreme displacement, inefficiency and compromised reliability. This is paraphrased directly from Shigeru Uehera's statements:
During the design process of the original NSX, exotics such as 328/348 and 911 all had “3 liter class” engines, because it was the standard in an Exotic (small block with high PS rating); however, the approach has changed through time. The only way to get more PS is to build bigger engines. Ferrari for example, redesigned the entire chassis on the 308/328 replacements to allowed bigger engines to be fitted. From 348 and on, the reversal of trunk and radiator location was the evident of this new approach. This method also shifted the weight distribution more to the rear. Unfortunately, the NSX was originally designed to meet the “3 liter class as well as the gentleman's rule of 280ps for the domestic market; also under the consideration was the domestic market taxation on engine size greater than 3.0 liter, which was much higher; those rules set gave the design team the base blueprint for the NA1 NSX.” It was a conservative move but left no room for expansion. However, the original package was ideal in a sense of performance during that time period, and the method of Carbon Reinforced Metal liner allowed us to temporary step up in the HP game. We had to hear complaints from JDM customers because the American model got 10 more PS on paper. “We all know Skyline GTR and NSX-R had more - way more, but we can't disclose it! There is only so much we can do to a production 3.2-liter engine. However, after the release of the new Honda Legend (aka Acura RL) - We broke the gentleman's rule, and the NSX will be our next offender.”
The V-8 is something Honda has needed in their stable for more than twenty years and continue to suck Toyota's tailpipes because of it. It's getting worse and worse. Watch how Toyota destroys the competition with their trucks, the new IS-F, LF-A and the forthcoming Supra successor--all most likely containing a V-8--while retaining the title as the world's most reliable car maker.
I concur--the V-10 concept--and it is still a concept--is idiotic and pointless. I too would also like to see a V-12 before a V-10--and certainly after a V-8.
Why do you think for the last 30 months Honda has continually stalled, redrawn and scrapped this V-10/ASCC project? All their top engineers and advisors (who have been there forever) are probably screaming at Fukui how moronic it is and keep showing very little progress in R & D because of it's inherently flawed nature. It's possible that after extensive testing for the last 3 years Honda R & D simply cannot produce a V-10 up to the standards of other Honda engines. It would not surprise me at all if Honda has simply been unable to construct a high-output V-10 to their standards by now. It just might not be physically possible to extract that kind of performance and maintain long-term reliability on a V-10 platform.
I think we'd all agree that Honda engines have historically had a much better track record than either of those companies' engines. Why? Honda's standards are clearly much higher. I can totally imagine Audi and BMW allowing their V-10s to leave the factory developed using a far less standard than Honda. Most enigine experts and even Shigeru Uehera have serious doubts about the long-term reliability of the current production high-output V-10s (BMW, Audi) and speculate they will not last past 60K miles before a teardown is needed. And since both V-10s are in cars which happen to accrue very little average mileage (E 60/61 M5/M6, Gallardo) it may be up to 8-10 years before we begin to see the results of high mileage on these V-10s.
Remember how the ASCC was going to debut for 2009? Remember how Fukui promised the "NSX successor" within 2-4 years from early 2005? Yeah, right. Honda doesn't even know which end is up from their F1 program all the way down to the declining reliability of the Civic. I believe stubborn, idealistic, narrow-minded and uninspired Fukui is continuing to beat a dead V-10 horse and consequently having to scrap/rethink/delay all of this V-10 ASCC nonsense as the R & D department keeps giving him bad news. Give it up, dude.
Developing a V-8 will allow for so many possibilties including trucks, a true NSX successor, a possible run at Lexus and many more. I hope Fukui can take a step back and figure out what he needs to do before even Nissan overtakes them next.
