May16
BMW took exactly half of all the awards at the 2008 edition of the International Engine of the Year awards. The “engine oscars” have been awarded since 1999, and are given out by 65 automotive journalists from 32 countries judging modern engines in terms of drivability, performance, economy, and refinement, as well as application of advanced engine technology. BMW cleaned up this year, also taking the coveted International Engine of the Year for the second year in a row. This, the overall winner, is picked from the winners of the 11 separate categories.
The awards are divided up by displacement or mission, with BMW’s 3.0-liter, twin-turbo inline-six also taking the class win in the 2.5 to 3.0 liter class. The N54B30 engine is rated at 306hp and 295lb-ft of torque, and does duty in BMW’s 135, 335, 535 passenger car and X5 and X6 SUVs. The German manufacturer also grabbed the top prize in the Best New Engine category with its N47D 2.0-liter diesel featuring a sequential twin-turbo set-up. The engine is rated at 204hp and 295lb-ft and provides spirited performance in the 123d, and is not offered in North America. The 420hp 4.0-liter V8, engine code S85B40, from the M3 range won the 3.0 to 4.0-liter class, beating out the Nissan GT-R’s 480hp powerplant and Porsche’s 3.6-liter twin-turbo motivator.
Porsche did not go home empty-handed, however, taking the Best Performance Engine class with the 480hp or 530hp variable-turbo powerhouse used in the 911 Turbo and GT2, respectively. It narrowly edged out the 507hp BMW 5.0 liter V10 (itself a winner of the above 4.0 liter class) from the M5 and M6, as well as the M3’s V8.
Moving down to less powerful and exotic engines, Subaru’s EJ25T engine family took the honors in the 2.0 to 2.5 liter class, beating out BMW’s naturally breathing inline-six from the Z4 roadster by a single point. This included the 305hp version of the turbocharged flat-four in the Impreza WRX STI, as well as the tamer, 224hp version used in the Impreza WRX, Forester 2.5XT, Legacy 2.5GT and Outback XT.
The Audi / VW 2.0-liter turbo inline-four with direct injection took the 1.8 to 2.0 liter class for three years running, edging out the BWM Best New Engine by just 2 points. The widely used engine makes 200hp in the VW GTI, and up to 272hp in the Audi TT-S.
The 1.4 to 1.8 liter class was dominated by the 1.6 liter inline four found in the Mini Cooper S, good for 175 horsepower. Developed in conjunction with BMW and Peugeot, the engine features a twin-scroll turbocharger, an overboost function and direct injection, and took the class win for the second straight year.
The 1.0 to 1.4 liter class was won by an engine not familiar to North Americans, as VW’s 1.4 liter direct-injected and twin-charged unit is not featured in any products available on the continent. The mill uses both a supercharger and turbocharger to return impressive fuel economy. The engine makes 168hp, or about what a naturally aspirated 2.0 liter would make, says VW.
Toyota rounded out the winners as one of the only Japanese manufacturers to make the list, with its inline-3 1SZ-FE 1.0-liter engine taking the sub-1.0 liter category. The built-in-Poland 67hp engine weighs just under 148lbs thanks to all aluminum construction and resin throttle body and fuel delivery pipe, among others. It wins the class for the second year in a row.
Toyota also earned the Green Engine award for its advanced 1.5-liter Hybrid Synergy Drive powerplant found exclusively in the Prius. The powerplant won this category four years in a row, and racked up a total of eight International Engine of the Year awards in total.
Where’s the torque in these engines, i’ll stick with my GM lS-2.
The actual figure of the twin turbo I-6 has been dynoed at around 349-360 lb/ft. The engine is ultra smooth as a regular Bimmer 6, but has so much thrust right off the bottom. Tremendous motor.
You must drive one to see how nice it is. What an engine. V8 levels of torque in a lightweith ultra smooth package.
Don’t critique this engine until you drive one. BMW does need to get their diesels here ASAP, but this motor is amazing.
man BMW just took all the awards, surprised Merc-Lambo or Ferrari didn’t win a thing
Hmm… I see the LNF didn’t win anything like the LSJ did when it first hit market. Too bad. I can’t believe that they gave the award to the Audi/VW 2.0T and not to GM’s direct injected dual scroll turbo LNF.
Very interesting: 3.0L twin turbo I6 develops no more torque then 2.0L turbo diesel: 295 lbs. Question for intellectuals: if you can wait 1 second to get from 0 to 60 and get 40% more fuel efficiency which one will you take? Well one is not available in US at any cost. Engine Nazis!
the GM LNF 2.0T makes more power than the VW 2.0T, but doesn’t win? It’s not GM’s fault VW is afraid to put a bigger turbo on there. A production engine that puts out 20 PSI no sweat is pretty impressive.
I drive a Golf R32, so I’m not a GM fanboy, I just call it like I see it.
I would really like to see VW bring their twincharged engine over to the states… that little beast would do wonders.
Also youngm7… gotta love the R32… one of the sweetest exhaust notes around.
RaineMan, you stole my post. The LNF has a mind-boggle torque ‘curve’ that puts out a constant 260 ft lbs of torque from 2000 RPM. Anyone with a real engineering background would be amazed. Unfortunately this award is decided by journalists and has a very heavy European tilt. I’m waiting for Saab to wake up and drop the LNF into the 9-3.
LLN,
BMW won Engine Of The Year FORTH year in a row (2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008), not second! Get your facts straight!!! Source: http://www.ukipme.com/engineoftheyear/previous04.html
How did that 1.6L MINI engine win anything but last place? Go to any MINI site or YouTube and read up on or watch first-hand the FRIGHTENING start-up experience owners are having … many of them would have NEVER bought the car if they knew what they were in for. This award is absolutely meaningless when put in perspective.
My bad Renton, I dont work for Motor Trend so I cant.
The award is pointless.
1.
This is the prestigeous award and these tend to be about personal opinions rather than tests, research and use penetration. More than often a car that utilizes the engine rather than the engine itself are rewarded. Most of journalists would like to have the BMW monster. But nobody judges how it is to live with the engine for more than few laps on the racing circuit in a car kindly donated for a test drive by the manufacturer.
2.
The jury composition raises few questions.
Two jurors from Japan and one from Korea doesn’t really reflect the reality of today’s automotive world. On the other hand, Britain (a sponsoring country) had 4 members on the jury, despite the fact that the country is absolutely meaningless when it comes to cars manufacturing. (I know, many manufacturers have factories in Britain, but using the same rule, Slovakia would be the world’s No. 1 motoring nation since it produces most of the cars per capita in the world.)
Japanese manufacturers are largely ignored in the main category, the only exception is real innovation (Toyota Hybrid Drive, Mazda’s Renesis) ignoring of which would emberass the Award and raised a few questions about biased approach.
^^ Shouldn’t it be something like a mix of engineers and race drivers dishing out engine of the year awards, not journalists?
Engineers to judge the engines from a techical, and “on paper” standpoint, and race drivers to actually judge their in-world performance?
Guys, the only engine VW deserves an award for is the 1.9tdi, my buddy is a VW tech and every day he tells me how terrible their engines are. Swear to god, every day, new story, new car, the 1.8t is a piece of crap, the VR6 as much I love the engine, they got so many problems. They’re a mess, I see effort in VW, but they just dont get the big picture.
kitko,
if you check actual website (see my link above) then you’ll see that both Honda and Toyota are winners in sub 1-liter category besides Hybrid powertrains. Also there’s a Subary Turbo engine.
What the f*ck, 2.5L z4. don’t make the engine anymore. Also there is no twin turbo 3.0L in the X5 only in the X6 SAV’s not SUV’s. LEFT LANE NEWS PLEASE EXPLAIN!. Also how do you compare a NA motor to a Twin turbo M3 vs. THe GT-R. This is so wrong and far off on how it happens.
I drove 335 and engine is above and beyond anything else in the automotive world. Also, it mated with superb clutch and transmission. And considering it performance level it uses fuel niggardly. On highway it is near 30 mpg in about 80 mph driving.
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foster what twin turbo m3 are you talking about? there is no m3 in existence that comes stock with twin turbos, it seems like they chose BMWs m3 v8 engine because a) its naturally aspirated b) it revs to 8400 and the powerband is awesome c) despite being larger than the S54, it weighs less. the skyline just uses a VQ slapped a couple turbos on there and called it a day, theres nothing phenomenal about that engine, the gt-r is awesome i love the thing, but i can see why the judges picked the bimmers v8 over it. the germans have that knack for engineering probably because they have nothing else to do over there hehehe now only if they improved on their electrical, they’d be unstoppable, they almost are.
but seriously, i agree with some of you on how they select these engines. what they should do is get feedback from the people that drive them, along with the judges driving it themselves. these “engine oscars” have only been around 9 years im sure as time progresses they’ll make it tougher to win one of these awards.
There is no justifiable reason for picking the M3’s engine over the GT-Rs.