I'd be plenty happy to see Acura get a V8. It'd be interesting competition for Lexus, especially if Honda extracts better mileage out of theirs. I'd put the Acura V8's initial displacement around 4.5 liters, with a 7-7500 redline. Say, 350hp and 270tq.

But now I'm putting the carriage before the horse...

As far as the Ridgeline is concerned, it shouldn't get a V8 until Honda is willing to make it a real truck and not a car-based one. It doesn't necessarily need one at the moment, given the market it serves.

 

The Eclipse 50% American 50% Japanese FYI... It isn't really relevant, but I felt like pointing it out lol.

Anyway, I don't see Honda half-assing their debut V8. Given that the engine is going to be in the RL, I doubt it will be all that high strung. I'd guess 4.5-4.8 liter V8 making around 350-380 hp and redlining between 6800-7200. I'd also expect that block will be pretty bullet proof allowing for a hotter version with a different top end. Another possibility would be chopping off 2 cylinders from the V10 in the next gen NSX. In that case I'd imagine the displacement would be lower (around 4 liters) and it would be much more highstrung... but that doesn't really seem to fit with the RL.

 

It is relevent, since the cars that were listed were done so for the purpose of 'Powerplant' design not the 'car' design.

What percent of the Eclipse powerplant is made in 'America'?

I believe it's 100% Japanese. Basically for the purpose of this article and references belonging to it, the Eclipse is 100% Japanese.

 

While they're talking about putting a V8 in the RL, I hope they will also consider making it more interesting looking. Right now it looks like a partially used bar of soap.

The appearance of the car leaves your consciousness 2 seconds after you turn away from it. I had to go to the Acura website just to remember what it looks like. That is a big design failure, in my opinion. Maybe if they got that right, they wouldn't need a V8 to sell the car.

 

Well, the NSX looks good and it hardly sells, so look != sales, unless the looks are beyond what is normally attainable at a given price. Also, Lexus vehicles, while looking nice, did not knock my socks off for the first couple generations at least. But they still moved cars well.

Good sales numbers are about the sum of all the parts being or appearing to be greater than the whole.

 

Let's say that Honda offers the V8 in the RL. How many V8 RL's do you think they'll sell over the V6? I seriously doubt that there'll be more V8's sold over V6's. But with that said, a V8 is absolutely necessary to Honda's upscale image.

And as an RL owner, I will say that the V8 will be very welcome. Before purchasing the LS430, I was one of the many who used to say that the RL doesnt need a V8, the V6 has more than enough power. Well.. not anymore. I absolutely love and am totally addicted to the silky smoothness of the 4.3 Lexus.

 

I agree that it's about damn time Honda stepped up with a V8. Isn't Honda the biggest manufacturer of internal combustion engines in the world?

Although I trust that whoever designs this engine (American Honda or Honda of Japan) will put out an exceptional product, I just hope that it's not "too little too late" for the poor RL as far as sales are concerned. The RL should've been RWD with optional SH-AWD to begin with.

 

you can keep your v8's just make the ****ing TL rear wheel drive. lol