There would be no two in a row for the BMW i8’s 1.5 litre three-cylinder turbo hybrid powerplant, as it had to bow to Ferrari’s new 3.9 litre twin-turbo V8 engine in this year’s International Engine of the Year awards.
The downsized turbo’s overall win is a first for Maranello, and the 488 GTB’s motor also scooped three category wins – Best New Engine, Best Performance Engine and Best 3.0 to 4.0 litre Engine. It scored 331 points to leave the i8’s three-pot a distant second at 278 points. Porsche’s new 3.0 litre turbo flat-six (267 points) from the facelifted 911 completed the podium.
Look at the leaderboard and you’ll find that all but the last two are modern downsized turbo engines following the same principles – reduced capacity (and sometimes cylinders) with forced induction to increase efficiency while improving real world performance compared to their naturally aspirated forebears. There’s no turning back now, so we should stop living in the past, fellow NA lovers.
The Ferrari 488 GTB‘s 3,902 cc biturbo V8 is from the F154 engine family, and is related to the 3,855 cc V8 in the California T, although much is new.
New pistons, crankshaft and cams, con-rods, dry-sump lube circuit, even exhaust manifolds and cylinder heads, which are thinner walled, get slapped on, as well as fresh twin-scroll IHI turbos, complete with ball-bearing shafts, compressor abradable seals and titanium-aluminium alloy compressor wheels, the latter offering faster turbo response.
It puts out 670 PS at 8,000 rpm and 760 Nm of torque at 3,000 rpm, which is a big jump from the 4.5 litre NA V8 (four-time winner of the Performance Engine sub-category since 2011) in the 458 Speciale, which delivers 605 PS and 540 Nm. And that’s versus the Speciale; the biturbo has 100 horses more than the standard 458 Italia’s 570 PS. 0-100 km/h in three seconds, 0-200 km/h in 8.3 seconds, top speed of over 330 km/h.
Having wrung the 2016 International Engine of the Year in the 488 GTB, our Anthony Lim grudgingly admits its very good. “The new V8 has a nice growl to it at full pelt, but nothing like the old NA song for a real tune. Sonically, something is inevitably missing,” he said, adding that while the car perfectly fits the intent of today, “the flipside is that it does feel a bit emotionally detached if you delve deep into its character.”
Read our review of the 488 GTB. Here are the category winners:
International Engine of the Year: Ferrari 3.9-litre biturbo V8
Best Sub 1-Litre: Ford 998cc three-cylinder turbo
Best 1-Litre to 1.4-Litre: PSA Peugeot Citroen 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo
Best 1.4-Litre to 1.8-Litre: BMW 1.5-litre three-cylinder electric-gasoline hybrid
Best 1.8-Litre to 2-Litre: Mercedes-AMG 2-litre turbo
Best 2-Litre to 2.5-Litre: Audi 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo
Best 2.5-Litre to 3-Litre: Porsche 3-litre six-cylinder turbo
Best 3-Litre to 4-Litre: Ferrari 3.9-litre biturbo V8
Best Above 4-Litre: Ferrari 6.3-litre V12
Best Green Engine: Tesla full-electric powertrain
Best New Engine: Ferrari 3.9-litre biturbo V8
Best Performance Engine: Ferrari 3.9-litre biturbo V8
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Just for the fun of it, I wonder how much would Proton’s maCAM takPRO engine would score?
They forgot “International Car company of the Year to get FREE money”
This award goes to Proton. Now I hear all car companies in the world are envious of Proton cause only Proton can get FREE money from the Government to the tune of RM1.5 billion every few years and RM15 billion the past few years.
Japanese should come together… create quad turbo-hybrid of combi (VVT-i + VTEC + electric) which can feed petro and diesel. German will lick their shoes for sure
No room for the Japanese at all. Too money minded
Just for the fun of it, mana pegi semua jepunis engine? Isnt the most innovative thinking is wrenching out vvt from an existing vvt engine?
samlor would say all above got no RV
Indeed best engine….but once the engine broken or needed repair……the repair bill will be one of the highest too.
Believe me, my ex boss owned a couple ferrari…..and he dread everytime his ferrari goes to service centre, much more if the car needed repair.
He never fail to be billed a 5 figure RM amount for service or repair.
The worst sounding Ferrari in my recent memory has to be the F360. It sounded like a lawn mower.
I havent heard this new V8, but I like the F355 alot.
“Sonically something is inevitably missing.” Betul betul betul. Watch this clip of the least powerful Ferrari engine at work. They don’t make engines that sound like that anymore. .http://youtu.be/xC10NHPql6Q
All orang putih car dapat best best, in reality i think combine japs manufacturer got the best sales.