[Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
[Profile/Gallery]
, Wed, 29 Aug 2001 01:55:14
Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup
the 2.8 N/A in the old 12 valve guise (I have the 30 valve engine) USED to be 170 hp!
So why bother with a V6 is what I want to know. And the answer is customer/market perception. People think a V6 MUST be more powerful. The 1.8T is vastly de-tuned in order to promote that perception. (And my wife and I sort of bought it... Well kinda. She wanted the leather package, which was only availble with the V6. Marketing. More on that later...)
Now as to your question as to where the power hits, well, again in the loaner I drove, being stock 170hp, it is kind of peaky. But then so is our 2.8 V6. You really have to rev it. What is cool though is the variable valve cams. You can feel our V6 kind of "run out of breath", but then the the cam comes on and it gets its "second wind". The 1.8T also has the variable cam, but the turbo tends to mask this feeling and smooth out the acceleration. In stock form the turbo does not have the huge torque we feel in the Saab.
Why 1.8 and not 2.0? From what I've read, the 1.8 is in fact the VW/Audi 2.0 N/A block with a smaller bore and stroke. Seems the block, being designed much more recently than our Triumph derrived engines, and there was never a lot, if any, room for over-bore. Turbo's always need a lesser compression ratio than the equivalent N/A engine. And while the charge air more than makes up for the reduction in CR in boost pressure, that boost pressure puts undue stress on the cylinder walls had they remained the 2.0 format. To reduce that stress and provide a more robust block, the cylinder walls are thicker, and displacement is reduced to 1.8.
Makes sense.
Looking at the bigger picture though I see that Audi is an absolute master at marketing. They come out with the basic engine/car combination and sales roll along for a while, sales start to falter then they introduce the larger engine, sales boost for a while (no pun intended). Over time, sales falter once again, time to introduce the sport model (S-model). Sales cruise for a while, and again when they begin to falter, the introduce the new body style, and the cycle starts all over again. They have it down to a science and like clockwork, you can see the updates coming right as the sales volumes give just a hint of falling.
Amazing.
'Nuff ramblin' YMMV, IMHO, and all the other discaimers apply here...
Jim M.
posted by 12.146....
, Thu, 30 Aug 2001 15:28:20, Wed, 29 Aug 2001 09:46:08, Wed, 29 Aug 2001 01:55:14
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
