Nerd’s Eye View: LA Auto Show 2023

Honda brought back the Prelude label. Looking at it now, it looks a bit like a mash-up of BRZ and Z. Alex on Autos was doing fun modeling poses next to the car which I will not be showing.

The car was stated to be a hybrid, but no exhaust pipe detected. But it is a show car concept, so it is likely lacking every normal functional car bit under the show body anyway.

The Civic Type-R has been out for a while, but this is the first time I have looked at one up closely. Thankfully on this generation of cars, Honda has gone away from all the random non-functional black plastic panels that made the cars look like Gundam mobile suits.

The hood vent is fully functional. This black shield underneath the opening I believe is to divert any rain or car wash water from falling directly on the turbocharger and exhaust bits underneath. There is a symbol on the shield of a little hand with a bar through it implying ‘do not touch’; this symbol is typically placed on parts that get hot if I am not mistaken. I recall the hood being heavy and therefore not aluminum, so that was a bit disappointing.

Some of the hot air coming off the radiator can escape through the hood vent which looks to sit over the hot side of the turbo and cat. That chamber on the intake pipe with the ‘Type R’ label is just for tuning the intake noise, I think. The OEMs go through a lot of trouble to tune the sounds of the engines. The intake snorkel to the airbox has a rubber bulb seal that presses against the hood to prevent sucking in hot air coming off the radiator or exhaust bits.

10 comments

    1. I’m curious to see if/when more e-turbo makes it onto cars. Mercedes has a Garrett e-turbo on one of their AMG cars. Genesis has a 48V electric supercharger and e-turbo uses the same 48V. With more cars coming hybrid like all the new super cars from Ferrari and McLaren, one logical step is e-turbo. Conversely, they could just say the electric motor does the torque filling.

      1. Yeah, we have probably hit ‘Peak Turbo’ in our civilization, but I was kind of hoping to see the development of these turbos stretched out a bit more.

        “The amount of turbocharger lag plays a key role in the driver’s perceived quality of a passenger vehicle’s engine response. This paper investigates an alternative method to the conventional design of a turbocharger turbine to improve the transient response of a passenger vehicle. The investigation utilises the Ford Eco-Boost 1.6 L petrol engine, an established production engine, equipped with a turbocharger of similar performance to the GT1548 produced by Honeywell. The commercially available Ricardo WAVE was used to model the engine. Comparing the steady-state performance showed that the axial turbine provides higher efficiencies at all operating conditions of an engine. The transient case demonstrated an improved transient response at all operating conditions of the engine. The study concluded that, by designing a similar sized axial turbine, the mass moment of inertia can be reduced by 12.64% and transient response can be improved on average by 11.76%, with a maximum of 21.05% improvement. This study provides encouragement for the wider application of this turbine type to vehicles operating on dynamic driving cycles such as passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles, and certain off-road applications.”

        https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/21/7452

          1. Yeah, that’s the turbo!

            “The amount of turbocharger lag plays a key role in the driver’s perceived quality of a passenger vehicle’s engine response. This paper investigates an alternative method to the conventional design of a turbocharger turbine to improve the transient response of a passenger vehicle. The investigation utilises the Ford Eco-Boost 1.6 L petrol engine, an established production engine, equipped with a turbocharger of similar performance to the GT1548 produced by Honeywell. The commercially available Ricardo WAVE was used to model the engine. Comparing the steady-state performance showed that the axial turbine provides higher efficiencies at all operating conditions of an engine. The transient case demonstrated an improved transient response at all operating conditions of the engine. The study concluded that, by designing a similar sized axial turbine, the mass moment of inertia can be reduced by 12.64% and transient response can be improved on average by 11.76%, with a maximum of 21.05% improvement. This study provides encouragement for the wider application of this turbine type to vehicles operating on dynamic driving cycles such as passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles, and certain off-road applications.”

            https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/21/7452

          2. So true…there’s a snail shell design for maximum vortex compound combustion…but, that’s kinda secret, for now.

  1. 1. The GTD rear suspension looks to be based on the GT500 rear. Probably tweaked a bit and converted to inbound dampers. Lower arm looks very chunky, probably just a prototype still.
    The front is very interesting. Based on other photos i have found online, the vertical height difference between the multilink lower “arm” pivot points looks to be over 2 inches.
    The exhaust tips are probably very thin wall titanium, as they are made by Akrapovic.
    2. The LT6 is impressive, the bore/stroke ratio is even greater than that of the 458.
    And the design of the Z06 is what the C8 should have been from the start.
    3. That WRX thing is hideous, oh my god.

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