Originally posted by cjbaldw: And as far as pushing it as far as it can go, nowhere close I'm afraid. The biggest limitation is the 300HP limits due to Japanese law at this point. That's why all Jap cars (yes even those largely produced here in the U.S.) aren't "rated" over 300HP (350Z, EVO, STi, and the list goes on). The new 05 G35c's are rated at 298HP for this reason. The engineers could easily push the VQ series engine way beyond 300HP if need be. Sure the Jap manufacturers could produce "U.S. only" engine variants, but this minimizes lean production efficiencies when they do so, hence the reason these engines all stay under the "rated" 300 HP mark.
Not to be nit-picky, but there is no actual "law" prohibiting Japanese automakers to go over the 276hp limit. It was simply a "gentlemen's agreement" between the automakers themselves although all they simply did was label the engines being rated at 276hp, but in reality they would push upwards of 300hp to the wheels.
Nonetheless, that agreement has been null and void for the past 4 years or so. It's no longer an excuse for Nissan to limit the amount of power from their V6 powerplant.
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