Japan to join "horespower war"?
 

I've been thinking, and reading some articles; a good buddy of mine at work, who is also a automotive freak, brung this up as well.

As I suppose most of you know, during the late 1980's, a voluntary power limit of 280hp was introduced in Japan, due to the fear from the government that more and more cars would get more powerful in a "competition war", therefore cause more wreaks and safety concerns. All Japanese manufacturers joined this agreement voluntarily; although some cars actually toped over 280hp, or toped the limit over some years. For we know the Skyline GT-R, Evolutions and Imprezas. Earlier this year, the automobile manufacturer association told the Japanese government its intention to terminate the 280hp limit agreement.

The Honda Legend (Japan version of Acura RL) has been launched with a ratted 300hp; this breaks the voluntary limit of 280hp (theoretically :p). Who would have though, a sedan. Toyota is working on a supercar, and Honda has once publicly announced that the HSC could be the NSX replacement, but now they backed down :(; who knows, maybe they will come back with the "NSX", which deserved more power, but in all rights was a fine machine in my opinion. Of course, Mitsubishi is coming with the 400hp Evo, and Nissan/Infinity will have a GT-R with over 300hp I'm sure. Lexus, has recently announced that they will create a in-house tuning company much as AMG is to Mercedes.

Could there be, a 400-500+ hp luxury sedan in the future? Any thoughts.

Lexus M5? Infiniti E55? Subaru RS6? Anythings possible ya know..

sounds good! in 5 years or so i might be able to afford one! sweet!:D

its a bit ironic that Japan's about to break away fro its 206kw gentlemens agreement, whilst the idea of such a thing is looming over our heads over here...

[QUOTE=fpv_gtho]its a bit ironic that Japan's about to break away fro its 206kw gentlemens agreement, whilst the idea of such a thing is looming over our heads over here...[/QUOTE]
Well japan stuck to it and the belief was that everyoen else WOULD follow suit.
But the playing field never DID get levelled and japanese sales are suffering.
Suffering because of an artifical limit THEY put on to prevent it getting crazy.

They have the same on bikes.
BMW are about to bring a bike to the market which 'competes' with more power.
I'd expect to see the Jap bike industry take the same move and show what their engines COULD do.

The 280 hp limit has been breached by a few cars in years past. The Supra TT, the first production model from '93 were tested at 340 hp, higher than the advertised 320 hp already higher than the 'limit'. Infiniti sedans with the 4.5 V8 currently have 340 hp. This limitation is for JDM cars, cars sold within the Japanese market. Maybe considered a bad thing for the enthusiast but limiting power seems sensable. In the long run it may lead to stricter speed enforcement.:( Because horrific highspeed crashes will warrant them.

In the late 80s, the E28 M5 made 256 hp. With the E34, the M5 went to 315 hp. Then 400 hp for the E39. Now we're getting ready to embrace the 507 hp E60 M5. Now the question is what do people consider superior? Today as even minivans can have VTEC-equipt 250 hp, were's a sportsedan to go but up in hp? IMO, the horsepower wars will lead to somekind of ridiculous speedlimiter that may limit your speed based on where the car is being driven (using GPS). :( Or you go over the speed limit, the GPS system, already present in cellphones and NAV systems, beeps to warn you then calls the police. :( :( :(

*All hp figures approxi-m8 :)

It's not that they can't do it, as the Japanese with their technology can probably win an all out hp war. IMO, It's about how their cars are perceived. Right now the Japanese cars have an image of civic responsibility. People buy mostly the 4-cylinder Accords and Camrys because its the responsible thing to do. Suppose Japan became more a producer of performance cars, this would possibly harm their eco-friendly, economical image. Performance cars are also a lot smaller market segment and I think the primary goal of the Japanese auto industry is to sell as many cars as possible. So they let Porsche and BMW bask in the glory while they(JPN) sell the majority of cars.

Why I'd rather have a 500 hp BMW than a 500 hp Honda is because of this established image. What do you think?

all these figures are just the ones claimed by the manufacturer, wheel horsepower is all that matters and many cars which SHOULD have 300+ figures drop down to below the 280 "limit" because of drivetrain losses

"normal" drivetrain efficiency would be at about 85-90% for awd about 80-85

definetly, theres a strong difference between power at the flywheel and power at the wheels themselves, if the tranny and the driveshaft are no good then you can lose up to 40% or more of the engines power just with the wrong setup:(