We’ve been hearing rumors of a next generation VTEC technology for years. In 2005, Honda finally confirmed that they were well along on the development path of their next generation Advanced VTEC (A-VTEC) system. Apart from promises of superior economy and performance, scant details were revealed. Our suspicions were that this would be a system that could continuously vary lift or duration (akin to BMW’s innovative Valvetronic system), rather than using a stepped change as both VTEC and i-VTEC have used. As tidbits of information began to coalesce into a meaningful picture, some of our readers pointed us to a patent filed by Honda for a continuously variable lift system. After poring over the details of this public document, it would seem that the cat is out of the bag. With a high degree of certainty, we believe that this patent does indeed represent the next generation A-VTEC valvetrain technology.
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