Fiat, Ferrari, BMW triumph at engine awards
2011 Engine of the Year award winners announced. Fiat 500, Ferrari 458 Italia and BMW M3 win big
The results of the 2011 International Engine of the Year Awards have been announced.
Fiat’s 875cc two-cylinder TwinAir was voted the greatest engine available today. It also won ‘Best New Engine’, ‘Best Sub 1-litre’ and ‘Best Green Engine’ Categories. Dean Slavnich, editor of Engine Technology International and co-chairman of the International Engine of the Year Awards, says: ‘Fiat has now produced one of the all-time great engines. Who would have thought that a two-cylinder unit could have won the International Engine of the Year title when we launched the Awards in 1999?’
Ferrari’s 562bhp, 4.5-litre V8 from the 458 Italia scooped ‘Best Performance Engine’ and the ‘Above 4-litre’ category.
BMW, always a strong contender in the competition, won four categories. ‘3-litre to 4-litre’ with the M3’s 4-litre V8, the ‘2.5 to 3-litre’ with its direct-injection twin-turbo fitted across much of the range (including the new 1-Series M Coupe), the ‘1.8-litre to 2.0-litre’ category with its 2-litre twin-turbodiesel that powers the 123d and X1 and the ‘1.4 to 1.8-litre’ category, with its 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol turbo engine which it co-developed with PSA Peugeot Citroen, with whom it shared the award.
Volkswagen’s 1.4-litre TSI Twincharger engine (Polo GTI, Fabia vRS, Ibiza Cupra), outright winner in 2009 and 2010, retained its crown in the ‘1-litre to 1.4-litre’ category.
