What makes our engines so underpowered?, Compaired to JDM's and other countries? Options

[Rjb23]

What is it that causes our engines to be so under powered? Is it the ECU's, or what?

[Jabberwock]

I think you are wrong sinner96ST...I agree with Supersprynt.

Back in the day Nissan, Infiniti, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, Acura, Hyundai, Mazda, Lexus and Subaru all had high powered cars.

Nissan - 300ZX, 240SX (Non-Turboed Silvias)
Infiniti - G20
Toyota - Supra, MR2, Celica Alltrac (GT4)
Mitsubishi - 3000GT, Eclipse GSX, VR4's, Galant VR-4's
Honda - Civic SI, Prelude
Acura - ITR, GSR, Legend, NSX, CL, TL
Hyundai - Tiburon, Elantra (Have been out for more than a decade)
Mazda - RX-7, MX-6, MX-5, MX-3
Lexus - SC300, SC400, GS300, GS400
Subaru - 2.5RS

Sinner you are comparing with the Solara, GT-S celica, and MR-S which aren't as high powered as the Eclipse GSX's, RX-7's, MR2....etc

PLUS NOW, there are no RX-7's, supras, MR2's, ALLTRACS, but there are the few new cars which are sweet.

Its not really the demand but the decision of what cars to bring out to the USA and what to make. The Auto Manufacturers seem to go in a phase every 5 years where there are Super cars, then economic cars, then super duper cars, the demand of cars probably more effect on the cheaper end....performance cars tend to be costly and focused on people who have 'money."

If you think about it on the evolution of celicas the 5GC and 6GC are a lot better than the 7GC in that they had the 3SGTE.....7GC's didn't come out with AWD turbo cars to compete with the Rally cars out now. Concluding that the Auto Manufacturers just decide what they want to sell and what they think would make more of the money during that perioud.