what if honda revived the A-series engine?

[newaccorddriver]

heh, this question has always been on my mind. what would happen if honda decided to look back into the past and replace the D-series with the A-series engine? considering how much power the A20 had back then, how much would they possibly get out of it with all this new technology they have now?

[EX-ileAccord]

they would make the mistake of making it with an aluminium block and it would be down hill from there

[ZackieDarko]

ooooooh

vtak

[snoopyloopy]

get an f20 and presto, mission accomplished. because really, what other technology do you want them to put in it? 16 valves? vtec? both? (yes, you can have a 12v vtec set-up.) because that's about all there is left to do in the honda world. since honda was never one to go the turbo route. which we mourn, but considering the civic si/rsx-s make as much power as their competitors on a n/a engine and no one else does, you can't coplain there.

[newaccorddriver]

i guess its true, but i wonder why they never kept the A series engine still. making it 16 valve would be nice, and also VTEC. i think the nicest thing would be to do what they did to the prelude Si and give it a DOHC head. then your probably going to make about 180 or so HP with that kind of setup.

when your comparing NA to FI, i think its important to note that FI has power throughout the powerband while NA has power during certain points of the powerband. i like how hondas are fuel efficient, but alot of them lack the balls until they hit higher RPMS

[bobafett]

if honda brought back the a20 i would have to go to buy a jacket because hell would have frozen over.

[sinisterfuzzy]

lol

[3gmodifier]

there is a factory turbo car now. the all new RDX. it's a revamped model of the mdx. v6 turbo. there is already comercials out on tv now.

[86hondadx]

the rdx has the new k23 2.3L dohc i-vtec turbo inline 4

[snoopyloopy]

i guess its true, but i wonder why they never kept the A series engine still. making it 16 valve would be nice, and also VTEC. i think the nicest thing would be to do what they did to the prelude Si and give it a DOHC head. then your probably going to make about 180 or so HP with that kind of setup.

what you're wishing is that honda kept the mounting points for all engines the same. because all of what you described was available in honda engines after the a-series. the a-series had a useful life, but technology advanced beyond the a-series. no doubt they're good engines. all of us on this board can attest to that because a number of us have clocked over 200k miles, some of us 300k, and a select few even more than that on these engines without extensive and comprehensive engine work.

when your comparing NA to FI, i think its important to note that FI has power throughout the powerband while NA has power during certain points of the powerband. i like how hondas are fuel efficient, but alot of them lack the balls until they hit higher RPMS

very true. and what kept honda in the game was their building light cars instead of building a heavy car then turboing it. however, any car can have reasonable gas mileage, just depends on the tune and the driver. there's a guy on the dsmtalk forums who says he gets 440 awhp in his eclipse and still gets 30 mpg. and that's one thing i wish honda did put in a car earlier on. everyone else had awd cars available, but apart from the fugly civic wagon, honda is lacking in that department. and they still are. the rl is not a sports car, it's a luxury sedan. honda needs an entry-level awd sports coupe.

[newaccorddriver]

what you're wishing is that honda kept the mounting points for all engines the same. because all of what you described was available in honda engines after the a-series. the a-series had a useful life, but technology advanced beyond the a-series. no doubt they're good engines. all of us on this board can attest to that because a number of us have clocked over 200k miles, some of us 300k, and a select few even more than that on these engines without extensive and comprehensive engine work.


very true. and what kept honda in the game was their building light cars instead of building a heavy car then turboing it. however, any car can have reasonable gas mileage, just depends on the tune and the driver. there's a guy on the dsmtalk forums who says he gets 440 awhp in his eclipse and still gets 30 mpg. and that's one thing i wish honda did put in a car earlier on. everyone else had awd cars available, but apart from the fugly civic wagon, honda is lacking in that department. and they still are. the rl is not a sports car, it's a luxury sedan. honda needs an entry-level awd sports coupe.

i completely agree with everything youve posted... the mounting points are basically what i would have liked to see continue on. although, id like to figure out an estimate on what the A series would have put out if it was 16 valves and had VTEC.

honda needs an AWD car thats not an SUV or a van, just a car in general(i dont count the new RL). also, they need to drop the FWD setup when they make sporty/sports cars like they did the S2000, the civic si should have been RWD IMO

[carotman]

AWD, Turbo cars, nice powerband. Honda has these since the late 80's. There is a world outside the USA.

Honda just focused on what the average american Joe wanted.

Too bad they never imported the Turbo Legends, AWD civics and all the other stuff.

[AccordEpicenter]

they imported the awd wagovans into the us

[MessyHonda]

they imported the awd wagovans into the us

too bad they are ugly...

[snoopyloopy]

AWD, Turbo cars, nice powerband. Honda has these since the late 80's. There is a world outside the USA.
Honda just focused on what the average american Joe wanted.
Too bad they never imported the Turbo Legends, AWD civics and all the other stuff.

yeah, i think they really would've sold better than they thought. but even though they have turbo legends, awd civics, etc., there's still no real entry level turbo and/or awd sports coupe. dsm had the eclipse/laser/talon, nissan is kinda flat in that area but you can get a turbo motor for a 240 relatively easy, toyota has the celica gt-s. but what does honda have in that area? although hondas do do really well with na engines. getting numbers out of na engines that everyone else has to turbo their engine to get for production. and people have been turboing hondas for years, it's evident the kind of numbers that could be gotten even from a conservative tune from the factory. but at least they're finally getting around to bringing the turbo over here in the rdx. but they've missed the tuner market imo.

too bad they are ugly...

i say transplant the drivetrain from one of those things into a crx or hatch. that would be sick.

[carotman]

There was an EF sedan with that drivetrain. I wand one

There even was a DC integra AWD with a D15 somewhere in the world (Aussie I think)

[Steve_Si]

The JDM 6th gen accord/torneo comes out as a 4WD, but only with the 150HP SOHC F20B The SiR and SiR-T are all still FWD.

It's quite common in the 6th gen JDM Accord Wagon, but again only in the SOHC models.

[speedpenguin]

i completely agree with everything youve posted... the mounting points are basically what i would have liked to see continue on. although, id like to figure out an estimate on what the A series would have put out if it was 16 valves and had VTEC.
honda needs an AWD car thats not an SUV or a van, just a car in general(i dont count the new RL). also, they need to drop the FWD setup when they make sporty/sports cars like they did the S2000, the civic si should have been RWD IMO

If the A-series had 16 valves and VTEC, it wouldn't be an A-series.
I agree that Honda should diversify the lineup of their drivetrains beyond the RL and S2000, but if the Civic Si was RWD, it wouldn't be a Civic, it would be something else, just like we don't really count the Lancer Evolution as a Lancer. The Civic Si is a special edition of the Civic, it's not a completely different model. Besides, if they developed a completely new drivetrain for it, they certainly wouldn't be able to sell them for under 20 grand.

[maxoutracer]

i always been in the honda community... honda are ez to fix and doesn't give me much problems... plus good on gas except my honda legend, hehe... so yeah...

[snoopyloopy]

If the A-series had 16 valves and VTEC, it wouldn't be an A-series.
I agree that Honda should diversify the lineup of their drivetrains beyond the RL and S2000, but if the Civic Si was RWD, it wouldn't be a Civic, it would be something else, just like we don't really count the Lancer Evolution as a Lancer. The Civic Si is a special edition of the Civic, it's not a completely different model. Besides, if they developed a completely new drivetrain for it, they certainly wouldn't be able to sell them for under 20 grand.

i think they could still sell it for no more than 25 large if they didn't try to develop an entirely new car, but instead re-engineer an existing one. but put it in the rsx body, it looks better that way.
and mitsu released the eclipseb in a non-turbo, a turbo fwd, and a turbo awd model and they're all still very much an eclipse. i can spot one from other cars when driving. obviously, the driving will be different from a 1.8 na vs. a 2.0 na vs a fwd turbo vs. an awd turbo. but the essence of the car is not lost. and the same could go for an upgraded civic beyond the si. i believe honda could do it and still maintain excellent driveability/handling and good fuel economy. now we just have to see them do it.

[speedpenguin]

Oh, I think they should too. But I still think it wouldn't be a Civic. They wouldn't do it in the RSX, though. The RSX has been discontinued.
Nor would I buy one. Call me crazy, but I actually like small FWD cars. Something about them just makes me happy. I think what we need to remember is that even though they are used for various forms of racing does not make them sports cars. Honda already makes a sports car, it's called the S2000. And then there's the "temporarily discontinued" NSX. Should they make an entry-level sports car? Sure, but I don't think they will.