Vtec

Sinub

Sinub

Well-Known Member
304
83
Southern California
Vehicle Model
Civic Si
Body Style
Coupe
So what's up with vtec. Why do people specifically make fun of it? and more importantly why does Honda advertise it like no one else has some sort of variable valve timing in there engines or as if its way better? Were they the first to come up with this technology or was it the best at the time when they came out with it?
 
I guess a lot of things went into this.
Honda was probably the most ardent pusher of this technology into every car they made. They way they tuned their engines in the past, meant the engine would switch over to a high output cam at relatively high RPM, while generating much less power under the "VTEC switchover point." The power difference between normal/high on some of these engines was so great, there would be a highly audible switchover and a physical jerk as the engine suddenly output much more power than it did earlier.

It also meant the engines, despite their frentic HP figures, were rather less powerful when driven normally. Combined with ricers, general street legend, and tuners VTEC was both an altar of high performance technology in regular cars, and something "that idiot ricier in his/her slammed fartcan civic boasted about."

It was a point of contention, perhaps, that Honda would later use the technology mostly for fuel economy and emissions purposes. On a few of their higher power engines, they used VTEC (as they originally intended to) to smooth out the engines power delivery from idle to redline. On their V6 engines, they would use the system to deactivate cylinders on command (VCM - remember VTEC is a cam control methodology). Later on, Honda, in a bit of a throwback to the past, on the 8th generation Civic, deliberately programmed in a "VTEC kick," on the Civic Si's engine.

But nowadays, due to tight emissions regulation and CAFE, nearly every automaker has some form of cam profiles in their engines, standard (as noted above, for emissions purposes, mostly). But VTEC's namesake still lives on. It captures a bit of the energy from Honda's heyday, when nearly every car they made was something unusual (double wishbones at all four corners? In a FWD Civic from the 90s!?), yet sold incredibly well for what they were. Somewhat like Subaru, today, just much more appealing (though still lots of 4WD + wagon options, strangely o.0).
 
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