No turbos for us thanks: here are five old-school V8s

Monday, 5 November 2018

There's no replacement for displacement, right? Well… in the interest of maximum economy with performance from V8s, most mainstream manufacturers have actually abandoned displacement in favour of forced induction and today it is actually hard to find a V8 (that isn't in something exotic and very expensive) without a supercharger or turbo bolted to it. But here are five mainstream manufacturers who still offer old-school nat-atmo V8s in New Zealand.

Ford

Following the demise of the Falcon, the Mustang appearing in officially-imported RHD guise was a lifeline for fans of Ford V8s and factory warranties in this part of the world.

More and more manufacturers are abandoning big naturally aspirated V8s in favour of smaller boosted ones. Here are five you can buy in New Zealand that aren't.

The Mustang packs the latest 5.0-litre version of Ford's Modular engine, known as 'Coyote', that also had a home in the Falcon, and packs 339kW of power and 556Nm of torque in these parts of the world.

**READ MORE

* Five cars with great V8 engines

* Jeep's V8-powered Grand Cherokee seems to be stuck in the middle

* Five cars that are famous for doing skids**

The Mustang is the only thing still flying Ford's V8 flag these days.

A more serious 5.2-litre version (brilliantly called 'Voodoo') is jammed into the Shelby GT350 versions of the latest Mustang, but Ford has also succumbed to the temptation of forced aspiration, with the next GT500 rumoured to be powered by a 500kw+ supercharged V8 called the Predator.

HSV and Ram

Whereas Holden had to walk away from V8 motivation when local production of the Commodore stopped, HSV wasn't quite so willing.

A RHD Camaro is now a thing. Albeit in 'remanufactured' form via HSV.

While it has followed the sales and diversified a bit with the introduction of a muscled-up (in an off road sense, not a power sense, that is) version of the Holden Colorado ute, the decision to leverage parent-company Walkinshaw's experience in 'remanufacturing' Ram trucks from left hook into factory-approved RHD form and drag the Chevrolet Camaro roaring and screaming into the Aussie and Kiwi markets was always tempting.

Ram now also offers a naturally aspirated petrol V8 in the 1500 as well.

Nissan and Infiniti

A big engine for a big truck - the Patrol is still hanging in there.

Yep, that's right - Nissan are one of the few manufacturers still to offer a naturally-aspirated V8 in New Zealand and it is in the decidedly old-school and utterly huge Patrol.

The Patrol packs the Japanese company's 298kW/560Nm 5.6-litre V8 and also forms the basis for the equally massive Infiniti QX70 that is also sold locally, but features far, far more chrome.

Unsurprisingly, the V8 also does duty in a number of other vehicles in the home last safe haven of the naturally aspirated V8 - the USA. Just like everything else on this list…

Jeep

And just to keep that American theme going strong, Jeep - of course - still offer a pair of naturally aspirated petrol V8s in the Grand Cherokee line up in the form of the 259kW/520Nm 5.7-litre Hemi that is optional in the Overland model and the 344kW/624Nm 6.4-litre version in the SRT.

Lexus has the most non-turbo V8 models in New Zealand, with the LC, GS, RC and LX all getting one.

Chrysler DID offer the 6.4 in the 300 SRT up until it stopped existing in New Zealand recently and Dodge never offered any of its cool stuff (Challenger and Charger) here anyway. And now no longer exists here either.

The utterly mad Trackhawk, however, embraces the power of forced induction with the mighty 522kW/868Nm supercharged 6.2-litre Hellcat V8.

Lexus

While the Americans dominate this N/A V8 list, a Japanese brand is the only brand to offer an actual range of unboosted V8 models in New Zealand.

But it is a brand that was conceived for and still very much aimed at the American market, so that makes a lot of sense…

The GS F and RC F share the company's 351kW/530Nm 5.0-litre V8 (the decidedly non-mainstream LC 500 also gets it, albeit with 540Nm of torque), while the Land Cruiser 200-based LX 570 packs a 270kW/530Nm 5.7-litre V8.

But it probably won't last - the latest version of the big LS 500 sedan has dropped the V8 in favour of a twin-turbo V6…