BMW wins third International Engine of the Year Award in a row
There is no question that BMW has some serious engine technology in its arsenal, and now those engines have more awards to show just how good they really are. BMW has won its third consecutive International Engine of the Year award, due this time to the incredible twin-turbo 3.0L inline six that resides in the 335i's engine bay. The 300hp (or more) motor combines blistering performance (car magazines report 0-60 times in the 4.8-5.1 range) with very good fuel economy and virtually no turbo lag. It won three awards in all, with the Bavarians also taking the trophy for Best New Engine and best 2.5L to 3.0L engine.
BMW didn't stop its winning ways with the twin-turbo 3.0L, either. The 1.6L turbo four found in the Mini Cooper S and Peugeot 207, the 2.5L engine in the standard 3-Series, and the 5.0L V10 that powers the M5 and M6 were all winners. Toyota and VW each came away with two victories, and Porsche won its first ever International Engine award by virtue of the 3.6 turbo in the 911. Check out all the winners in the press release after the jump.
[Source: Newspress.co.uk]
PRESS RELEASE:
Twin-turbo triumph at "Engine Oscars"
- 3-litre engine from 335i sees International Engine of the Year Award title stay in BMW's hands for a record third year in a row
- BMW takes a total of seven International Engine of the Year Award trophies in 2007
- Porsche finally wins an International Engine of the Year Awards trophy
- Evergreen Toyota Prius 1.5-litre hybrid engine still the top eco-friendly option says jury
BMW won additional International Engine of the Year Awards for its 2.5-litre inline six and 5-litre V10, but the Munich manufacturer was most delighted with the success of the 3-litre twin turbo, which also dominated the Best New Engine of 2007 category. Peter Langen, BMW's director of powertrain, commented: "This is a tremendous achievement and important recognition of the lengths our engineers have gone to in order to ensure the success of our turbocharged petrol engines. We are proud to once again be honoured as the manufacturer of the International Engine of the Year."
Elsewhere in the prestigious Awards, which are independently judged by 62 motoring journalists from 30 countries, Volkswagen's 1.4-litre turbocharged and supercharged TSI unit triumphed for a second year in the 1-litre to 1.4-litre class, with its larger sibling, the 2-litre turbo developed by Audi and housed in the Golf GTi and Audi A3, topping the 1.8-litre to 2-litre category. Toyota meanwhile saw its 1.5-litre hybrid that powers the Prius named Best Fuel Economy engine and its 1-litre 3-cylinder from the Aygo and Yaris take the honours in the Sub 1-litre category.
Some of the loudest cheers were for Porsche, who finally won an International Engine of the Year Award trophy. Its 3.6-litre turbo engine in the 911 Turbo was voted the best 3-litre to 4-litre engine in production today.
International Engine of the Year Awards 2007: Winners
Best New Engine of 2007
BMW 3-litre Twin-Turbo (335i)
Best Fuel Economy
Toyota 1.5-litre Hybrid Synergy Drive (Prius)
Best Performance Engine
BMW 5-litre V10 (M5, M6)
Sub 1-litre
Toyota 1-litre (Aygo, Yaris, Peugeot 107, Citroën C1)
1-litre to 1.4-litre
Volkswagen 1.4-litre TSI Twincharger (Golf, Touran, Jetta)
1.4-litre to 1.8-litre
BMW-PSA 1.6-litre Turbo (MINI, Peugeot 207)
1.8-litre to 2-litre
Volkswagen 2-litre Turbo (Golf, Audi A3, A6, SEAT Leon, Skoda Octavia)
2-litre to 2.5-litre
BMW 2.5-litre (325, 525, X3, Z4)
2.5-litre to 3-litre
BMW 3-litre Twin-Turbo (335i)
3-litre to 4-litre
Porsche 3.6-litre Turbo (911)
Above 4-litre
BMW 5-litre V10 (M5, M6)
And...
International Engine of the Year 2007
BMW 3-litre Twin-Turbo (335i)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Chris 9:32AM (5/09/2007)
What? No pushrods?
pffffft.
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Mattias 9:39AM (5/09/2007)
The small Peugeot/BMW 1.6l (currently 120hp naturally aspirated to 170hp turbo) will soon get a larger brother with 1.8 to 2.2l. Expect 140hp to 230hp. These engines might find their first application in Peugeot's 308, 407 and 608, but are likely to replace at least the smaller four cylinders in the BMW 1series (116i and 118i).
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j_sweeney 9:54AM (5/09/2007)
Given the way things are going, the omission of any diesel engine categories is quite significant. It's a shame diesel technology does not receive any recognition considering how much it has improved in recent years. My new 2.0TDi 170PS A3 S-Line is absolutely superb. I've no doubt this would be a VAG/BMW dominated category as well!
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Andrew Hughes 10:05AM (5/09/2007)
Why at least no categories for diesel? Methinks that this "international" engine awards is much like the "World Series" (is it baseball or some other game played by nobody else?). What about the new Audi A4 super economical diesel for most economical, or Audi 3.0 or 4.2TDI for best real world engine (or indeed VW 5.0 V10 TDI for a placing in most unnecessary along with Cayenne Turbo and any number of ancient V8 pushrods)
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Dan 10:09AM (5/09/2007)
So what are you saying here Chris? that the 1.0 Toyota and the 1.4 VW are the dream engines for the Europeans? Possibly, and for the same reason why the Europeans never graduated from scooters to actual motorcycles.
But my favorite part is this: best fuel economy the twin turbo 3 liter engine from BMW. Wow, really?? how did they measure the fuel economy? I would like to see a proof to back up this strong statement. Where is the specific fuel consumption figure for this engine? Because I can bet that in its power class it has a mediocre specific fuel consumption, like any other boosted engine.
What a pile of cr@p.
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Dan 10:12AM (5/09/2007)
FYI Andrew, OHC is a far older technology than OHV.
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Chris 10:16AM (5/09/2007)
1 litre engines - At the price of petrol in Europe, yes.
Europeans never "graduated" from scooters from motorcycles? er... Do you know anything? Scooters work in congested cities. Big SUVs (obviously) don't... and they still make some great "real" bikes.
Guessing you live in the US. Nice. Harley: speaking of no graduation.
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bcknkd 10:21AM (5/09/2007)
Engines these days are fairly underwhelming. Other than increased efficiency (direct injection, variable valve timing), even at the top end of the industry, power figures don't seem to do much more than 100hp per liter and 100nm per liter in petrol and 100kw per liter in turbo form.
We're seeing a lot of cars get LESS power (down from previous models), as anti-polution gear gets more intrusive and manufacturers pushing for greater economy.
While I don't discredit the value of either advancement, the fact that a modern Cooper 1.6 twinscroll isn't much more exciting than a 1991 4A-GZE, or BMW's 335i much more exciting than a 1997 2JZ-GTE with VVTi makes me realise that there isn't THAT much to be gained over the 1990's and that any REVOLUTION in performance has got to come from electric engines, not more advanced combustion.
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Bill 10:49AM (5/09/2007)
If the engine is so wonderful, why are there dozens of new 335is sitting on dealer lots waiting weeks/months for parts? Typical German JUNK!
What happened to Nissan's V6?
Must have been a bunch of Krauts who voted on these losers.
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Dan 10:42AM (5/09/2007)
Chris,
The average American pays significantly more for fuel than the average European, despite that fuel in Europe is much more expensive than in US. I lived in various places in Europe and I never did more than 10km for the daily commute and grocery shopping. In US, I do for the same thing about 70km daily, and compared to my colleagues this is rather average.
BTW, the European fuel prices are so high because of the insane European taxes, not because of the market price. Other than that, I really hope they'll pass a legislation to diminish the number of trucks and SUVs on the road. For instance, limit the vehicles with high ground clearance (which are so bad for the safety of other vehicles) to the legal maximum speeds of regular commercial vehicles. This would also help the fuel efficiency.
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Toy Yoda 12:11PM (5/09/2007)
I'm a BMW owner and I don't give 2-sh!ts that BMW almost always comes away with the award. Big deal. The award is completely meaningless and I laugh my ass off when I hear BMW enthusiasts quote this site. Here's how they judge things. From their site:
In every category, the panelists judged each shortlisted engine using their subjective driving impressions and technical knowledge, and took into account characteristics such as fuel economy, smoothness, performance, noise and driveability. The jurors each had 25 points to spend on their five favorite engines in each class. The maximum points that could be allocated to one engine was restricted to 15, while the minimum reward was one mark. An engine could not be tied for the top slot.
In other words, they get a bunch of auto-enthusiasts together and they vote on their tastes, there's nothing objective about it. And since we are judging engines, how do you measure an engines 'driveability' isolated from the car? Smoothness is also a matter of taste. Lots of people prefer the kick of turbos. And how do you prefer one noise over the other while not taking into account the acoustics of the cabin and the muffler system? Take away the mufflers, manifold, and cabin, and every motor I've heard sounds like cr@p.
I once emailed them and asked them well, why doesn't Ferrari come away with more awards, or Porsche, or any of the high end car makers. I got a response from an official saying something like they usually give it to a motor that's realistically affordable.
So, not only is this just a beauty contest, it's not one where contestants have the same set of criteria. When you think about it, engineers design engines to meet specifications. Those requirements come from new customers, loyal customers, marketing, economics, existing plant facilities, existing motor parts, and so on.
If every car mfg had the same requires placed on it's engines, this award may have a modicum of meaning, but given that the criteria for every car mfg is widely different, this award is completely meaningless. So, anyone quotes this award as a way of championing their favorite brand, you know they are just an brand-wanker.
Just to say it again, and not that it matters, I own a BMW 6 series.
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Bart 12:10PM (5/09/2007)
The test seems a little biased to me.
How about the Mercedes engines? Very torque-esque, power available from the low RPM-band. While returning relatively good fuel economy. But most of all, enjoyable engines. Not to mention the high end ones, especially the 63AMG 6.2 liter V8.
Or even the new Nissan V6 engines.
I'd like to know how the engines are rated. They might aswell be using standards that favor certain engines. Like BMW.
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Andy 12:21PM (5/09/2007)
Er, #5. Dan - you read it wrong - BMW didn't win Best Fuel Economy..that went Toyota. Bad formatting, I guess. BMW won best new engine. Read the article.
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jg 12:26PM (5/09/2007)
'If the engine is so wonderful, why are there dozens of new 335is sitting on dealer lots waiting weeks/months for parts? Typical German JUNK!
'
Fuel pump issues most likely. Not exactly an engine problem. Their engines (like most companies I'd imagine) will last forever its the little parts around the engine that fail.
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rv 12:37PM (5/09/2007)
Dan - you ever get your vision checked? From what I can tell, Best Fuel Economy = Toyota 1.5-litre Hybrid Synergy Drive (Prius). Don't let bad formatting lead to false info, bro.
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ZenerDiode 12:45PM (5/09/2007)
I'm surprised Mitsubishi didn't win for the 2.0litre category with the EVO engine.
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Aki 1:03PM (5/09/2007)
A bunch of fanboys with their fawning over BMW. "Toy Yoda" said it well--this is totally meaningless.
Corvette makes great fuel economy w/ great power--why wasn't it recognized? S2000's 4-banger? Mazdaspeed 3? Such garbage, oh well.
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John Challen 7:25AM (5/11/2007)
I read the comments on this site with much interest and have a few answers to the many questions that are askede and opinions that are voiced.
Firstly there is no diesel category in the Awards because, as proven with the BMW 3-litre twin-turbo and Volkswagen 5-litre V10 (two of the many former category winners that are not petrol engines), diesel engines can hold their own against petrol engines so it would be incorrect, maybe even discriminatory, to split them into a separate category.
We have already established that "Dan" misread the release or the information about the Best Fuel economy category, so we will not dwell on that, but it is the comments of 6-series owning Toy Yoda that interest me.
The International Engine of the Year Awards panel comprises 62 of the world's leading motoring scribes from 30 countries around the world. They are not "a bunch of auto-enthusiasts" who "vote on their tastes" These are people with years of experience testing cars and engines so they know what they are talking about and what is good and what is bad.
If the awards are totally meaningless, then why do winning manufacturers spend millions out of their budgets to promote them in TV, Radio and print advertising? Subaru claims that the triumph of the 2.5-litre engine in the 2006 Awards helped sales increase significantly.
And its not all about noise, turbos, etc. Fuel economy, performance, technology and packaging are all taken into account. Oh, and Ferrari hads won awards in the past and Porsche won its first Award this year!
Toy Yodi is one of many millions of BMW owners. I am sure not all of them share his opinion. For more details on the International Engine of the Year Awards, go to www.ukintpress.com/engineoftheyear
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m 2:53PM (5/09/2007)
where is the lexus 4.6 8? Direct and port fuel injection make 380hp with 27 highway.
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Phillip 5:44PM (5/09/2007)
These engine awards are all so utterly nonsensical. All these clowns ever do is review a few brochure specs and derive a winner from that. They conduct absolutely no independent quantitative scientific data gathering what so ever.
These awards are such a joke, only fools take these things seriously.
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