The brand new Lexus NX
The completely brand new Lexus NX crossover hasn’t arrived in the dealership showrooms yet but we at youwheel.com wanted to show you anyways since it’s a slick looking vehicle. We all know there are two trims that will be offered in the US market: the turbocharged NX200t and the hybrid NX300h.
Will there be an F-Version?
Ready for more interesting news today? The NX’s chief engineer recently hinted the possibility of a high performance F-version of the NX CUV. In an interview with Australian media, Lexus NX’s chief engineer Takeaki Kato said he personally want a high performance version of the NX which has similar output with the Mercedes-Benz GLA45 AMG. He added that the 2.0L turbocharged 4-cylinder engine (Toyota codename: 8AR-FTS) currently in the NX200t, is actually designed with various performance
tunes for different applications in mind.
Some Technical Design Details
This fits perfectly with my previous analysis of the Toyota 8AR-FTS engine, which predicted that it must have high-output version in the future. In short, the reason why we believe Toyota will make high-output version of this engine is due to some unusual technical design details: an air-to-liquid intercooler, and also an integrated 4-2-1 exhaust manifold. Such features are definitely not common in engines that
are only making 200+ hp; in fact those design features are usually seen in racing oriented engines which are capable of delivering 350+ hp with 2.0L displacement.
Below photo: the 4-2-1 exhaust manifold highlighted in a Toyota engine:
Toyota is very good at cost control, it does not make sense that they will over-engineer the 8AR-FTS engine if they do not have to.
The F-Badge Reputation
While it will dilute the F-badge’s reputation that producing a FWD-based NX-F, which I believe Lexus will be quite hesitate to do; but it does make sense to provide some other Lexus models with higher output versions of the 8AR-FTS engine. The first one I can think of is the IS250, and we know its replacement, the IS200t, is coming. Currently the IS250 is still using the 4GR-FSE naturally aspirated V6 engine, which is almost 10 years old (2006 IS250 already has it).
Even though there is still a long way to get the NX-F be approved by different layers of the higher management process, I do hope Lexus can provide a higher output version of the NX CUV, which has around 280hp.
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