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Honda's use of the VTEC technology has lead
to some pretty impressive achivements. This results in
three camps of people: those that think VTEC is nothing but hype, those
that know what VTEC is in terms of its benefits and
limitations, and finally, those that think VTEC is the best thing to
happen to automobiles since round wheels. Inevitably,
misconceptions about VTEC are formed and thrown around. Much of the
arguments on such forums as rec.autos.makers.honda is caused
by such misconceptions. Here are some rather common ones:
DOHC VTEC engines have low crank torque compared to non
VTEC engines of similar power output, and crank torque
alone is an important indication of how well an engine will accelerate a
car. Therefore the VTEC engine's power rating is not
"real".
An engine's crank torque is directly related
to how much fuel/air is combusted per engine cycle. For
normally aspirated engines, this means that increasing the displacement
size will usually result in increased crank torque. For
forced induction engines, the effective displacement is larger than the
numerical displacement since the air is pre-compressed
before it is forced into the engine. Unlike increased displacement or
forced induction, the VTEC system optimizes engine
breathing at high RPMs to increase power. Therefore, a VTEC engine's
displacement is the smallest of the three methods of
increasing power output. And since crank torque is limited by
displacement, a VTEC engine's crank torque output is smaller
compared to non-VTEC engines of similar power output level.
But this doesn't mean that a VTEC engine's
HP is somehow worth less. In fact, Honda automobiles
equipped with VTEC engines have performance numbers that agrees with the
tried and true power-to-weight-ratio method of
estimating acceleration performance. People hold this misconception
because they have a fundamental lack of understanding of
the relationship between crank torque, horse power, and acceleration.
Crank torque by itself is
meaningless in determining the engine's ability to accelerate the car.
This is
because the crank torque is multiplied by the gearing and final drive
ratio before it is converted to forward thrust. And physics
dictates that an engine putting out 160HP absolutely will provide
more forward thrust than a 150HP engine, regardless of
what crank torque the two engines have, assuming similar transmission
efficiency and optimal gearing for both cars.
This is plain high school physics. Unless someone can prove that the laws
of thermodynamics and Newtonian physics are false, there
is no way around this fact.
There is some significance to the shape of
the crank torque curve, however. When drag racing a car,
it is desired to have a bit of initial wheel spin, and then have the tire
hook up with the ground. A torque curve with a peak
early in the RPM range and then tapers off as RPMs rise is well suited to
this purpose. This is why big displacement American
muscle cars are so good at drag racing. VTEC engines, on the other hand,
have very smooth gradually rising torque curves. The
initial wheel spin, therefore, is harder to achive. And after the initial
wheel spin gets going, the level torque curve means
that very precise clutch and gas pedal control is needed to allow the
drive wheels to regain traction while maintaining maximum
acceleration. This is why VTEC engines are more difficult to launch off
the line than large displacement muscle car engines.
VTEC only works in high RPMs, therefore a VTEC car is just
like a non-VTEC car at low RPMs. And since most people
drive at low RPMs most of the time, VTEC is a waste of
money.
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The info on this page is a copy of the webarchive.org pull of www.leecao.com, which at the time of this posting this (10/31/2007) was no longer a valid site.
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