Quote:
Originally Posted by RAV
Many in this forum as welkl as others have been extolling the gas milage benefits of turbo charging a smaller displacment engine. When I llok at present examples it just does not pencil out. Below are some examples. If a car required premium fuel in the following comparisons, I lowered the milage by 10% to offset the premium fuel penalty. PLease tell me what I'm missing here I just do not see the benefits. I have used Hyundai in ,anmy of these expamples, not because I'am a fan but they do offer class leading fuel economy.
1. Acura RDX 240 Hp 2.4 Turbo. 22 mpg premium nets to 19.8 because of premium fuel
Hyundai Sante Fe 3.5 liter 276 HP gets 26 mpg.
2. Ford Tarus 3.5 Eccoboost Turbo = 25 mpg that nets to 22.5 It is an all wheel drive car but runs in front wheel when cruiseing down the highway.
Hyundai Genesis 4.6 liter 368 HP with regular = 25 MPG. Going to a 5.0 liter with 429 HP and direct injection that will improve its milage.
3. VW Passatt 2.0 200 HP turbo = 31 mpg that nets to 28 mpg.
Hyundai Sonata 2.4 liter 200 HP. 35 mpg
4. Fords own 3.7 liter 305 HP NA Mustang gets 31 mpg with regular and the Tarus with the 3.5 liter eccoboost nets 22.5. Ford should have made this a 4.0 liter increased the redline a little bit and the miage would still be in the upper twenties with the same HP.
5.BMW's 272 HP N53 in Europe gets 25% better milage than the N54 335 Turbo. If we apply this same 25% increase to our N54 335, the milage of the N53 ( Still no valvetronic ) in US standards would be 32.5 mpg. I really doubt the 4 cylinder will do any better than this. All we will have gotten is a coarser less refined engine.
|
This is a nice attempt but the flaw is that you are considering the horsepower numbers and not the torque curves. Max horsepower rating it just ONE point on the torque curve. 2 engines with identical max horsepower rating may have very different personalities. Consider for example the M3 and the 335. Under normal driving circumstances they have essentially the same oomph, but on paper they are 100+ horsepower apart.
To me a good metric of a daily driving car is the time it takes to cover 5-60MPH in 2nd gear.