Honda Turbos

Honda seems to be first of the Japanese car makers to put turbo charging with a small engine into its mainstream model with the new 10th generation Civic. It is a fine example of engine downsizing coupled with a turbo. Lexus did it with the NX200T but this model is meant for the premium market whereas the Civic is more for the masses. Honda was well know for using turbos in the 1980s and it had great success with turbo engines in Formula One. The Civic is the first time Honda is using turbos again after 2 decades and it looks like they did a fine job with the 1.5 litre turbo.

174hp and 220Nm from a 1.5 litre is nothing to scoff at. it is very efficient and powerful. On a recent dyno run in the US, a car review video put a new civic on the dyno to test its power output and to be surprised it managed 177hp and 258Nm which is more than the factory claim. This is very surprising considering that most factory claims are never met or exceeded when the car is tested on a dyno machine.

This car will get many young buyers excited as this opens up the doors to tuning. With a turbo engine extra power can easily be squeezed out with increase of turbo boost or increasing fuel pressure. The only down side about this new Civic is the transmission. Honda decided to stick to the CVT for the sake of fuel economy. If the car was paired with a manual transmission or a twin clutch gearbox the car will be fantastic all round.

I wonder which Japanese car company will follow this path. It is rumoured that Toyota is planning to introduce their own turbo charged small engine car soon. Daihatsu has been making small engines with turbos for many years but these cars are popular only in Japan and rarely seen outside Japan. The Civic is a global model that is sold in US, Europe, Middle East, Asia. Honda's decision to follow the footsteps of the Europeans seems like a logical one despite the low oil price but the oil price will never stay low forever. the new Civic does offer many advantages over earlier Civic models and that is torque. The turbo engine enables the much needed torque for low and medium RPM driving. Honda's have traditionally had low engine torque but high horsepower at high RPM. this is good for racing where engine speeds are high however in city driving conditions one would need good torque spread and high torque at low and mid RPM is always more enjoyable to drive.