Preferio

I have read tons of posts that talk about vtec. There is always a couple of people that say, vtec isn't for performance, it's for fuel economy. I understand that with say, sohc motors, like the cx, and vx civics, and the ex accords... There have also been a few people who say, you can disable vtec with a kit like say, toda, and get more horsepower... My question is this, then why did they use a vtec setup in their top of the line cars, marketed with a racing sense to them... i.e. NSX, S2K, ITR?? Why? I just want opinions, not to be flamed? I really want to hear from the people that say, vtec isn't for horsepower/performance, but for fuel economy... I understand that it is... but why put it into the formentioned HiPerf cars they produce?

gsrious

different cars have differnt characteristics.

a type r was made for the road courses... while a gsr was made with less aggressive cams and not as beefy componets.

vtec is made for saving money(small lobes for that economical drive down the road... big lobes for that rush down the track). when modified with different specs... vtec then becomes your friend.

it really depends on how you use your car.

the vtec killer by toda is made for use in high rpm's only... it's like high lobes all the time.

**when people say "vtec kicks".. it really not that. vtec is vtec. it works all the time(saving you gas with the small lobes and entertaining you with the big lobes). although when the engine changes the cam profile to the bigger lobes, it's simply doing what it was designed to do. the phrase," vtec comes on at so so rpm is really just someone say that because you can feel/hear the difference.

i hope this helps you.

Zuul

All that VTEC is for is to make two cam profiles available while the car is running since engines have different characteristics and requirements at different RPM. Whether VTEC is used for performance or economy is entirely up to the camshafts used. Sports cars with VTEC use aggressive cams. The first lobes are optimized for low-end power and the others for high-end power. Economy cars use VTEC in the same way but the two profiles are tuned for economy.
VTEC is not specifically for either performance or economy, it is to have more tuning options available.

LSvtec03

the answer is both, so the cars can have more performance without sacrificing gas mileage for normal driving.

kchungb17a

The only way VTEC can be for economy is like LSvtec03 said. When the car is off VTEC, it's more streetable, using less fuel. With the non-VTEC cam lobes, you are running a lower profile lift and duration. That in accordance with your stock PGM-FI setup yields lower fuel consumption (smaller squirts from the fuel injector). The VTEC cam profiles are larger in both lift and duration, which equals more fuel consumption (larger squirts from the injector). Now enter in the fact that VTEC is in the middle to upper range of the RPM band and you get a higher frequency of squirts from the injector in the same amount of time, =ing even more fuel consumption. So you can see from that how VTEC does not directly = economy. VTEC is for performance. Economy does not come at 8k rpm with high cam lift and duration.

honda1982

Just like he say. It's both. At low RPM you save gas and when you want power the V-tec come on @ high RPM and do it's work. "V-tec was make to compete w/ turbocharge car, It perform like a turbo car but drink gas like a true honda" (I remember reading somewhere about this) and this was back in the late 80's, early 90's where many car including turbocharge car doesn't perform too well and drink gas like heck compare to today technology. many other company nowaday use similar method like V-tec on there car. A stock V-tec car is a stock V-tec car. They where built to perform pretty good off the factory but if you want more the potential is endless. I really like the new RSX type S alot and the K-series motor are very very good.