The winners of the 2017 International Engine of the Year Awards have been named during the Engine Expo 2017 held in Stuttgart, Germany.
A panel of 58 motoring journalist from 31 countries crowned the Ferrari 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8 – codenamed the F154CB – the overall winner for the second straight year.
The winning twin-turbo V8 Ferrari powers the 488GTB, 488 Spider and with a slightly smaller displacement the California T and GTC4Lusso T.
The engine is the fifth to win the top award on consecutive occasions (BMW 5-litre V10 2005-06, BMW 3-litre Twin Turbo 2007-08, Volkswagen 1.4-litre TSI Twincharger 2009-10, Ford 990cc three-cylinder turbo 2011-12).
Delivering 493kW of power at 8,000rpm and 760Nm torque at 3,000rpm in seventh gear, and a throttle response time of just 0.8 seconds at 2,000rpm in third gear made the Ferrari engine a clear winner for this year’s judging panel.
“It is this level of universal praise from the awards independent judging panel which sets the Ferrari V8 aside as a truly great powertrain,” said International Engine of they Year co-chairman, Dean Salvnich.
“It is fitting that probably the best turbocharged engine ever developed has secured back-to-back outright International Engine of the Year Award titles. It’s blend of heart-thumping performance on both road and track, with a glorious V8 Maranello rumble and an ultra-sophisticated design that’s loaded with advanced technologies, makes the Ferrari V8 unbeatable for another year.”
The twin-turbo V8 Ferrari also edged out the new 4-litre Porsche boxer engine (found in the 2017 GT3) for Performance Engine and 3–4-litre Engine of the year honours.
Ferrari would end the evening with four awards, also winning the Above 4-litre category with the naturally-aspirated 6.3-litre V12 from the F12 Berlinetta.
Honda has had a miserable time in Formula 1 this year, but engineers back in Japan can take pride in the engine work done on the new Honda NSX, with the high-tech 3.5-litre V6 bi-turbo hybrid winning the 2017 New Engine award. A welcome return for Honda, who hasn’t been mentioned on the awards list for 11 years.
This year the Green Engine category (open to clean and frugal petrol and diesel units, as well as EVs and hybrid models), was joined by a new Electric Powertrain category, designed specifically for 100 per cent battery electric vehicles.
The Green Engine and Electric Powertrain categories had entries from the likes of Volkswagen, Renault/Nissan, Toyota, GM and BMW.
But it was Tesla that would take out both categories for its full-electric powertrain used in the Model S and Model X. This year’s result is the fifth win for Tesla in the Green Energy category.
The 1-litre to 1.4-litre category saw last year’s winner, the PSA Peugeot Citroen 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo, take the crown for the third time, beating off competition from BMW, Volkswagen, and Fiat Chrysler.
BMW won the 1.4-litre to 1.8-litre category, for its 1.5-litre three-cylinder electric-gasoline hybrid powertrain found in the i8.
It was a good day for Porsche, picking up wins in the 1.8-litre to 2-litre class for the 2-litre turbo from the 718 Boxster and Cayman, and winning the 2.5-litre to 3-litre category for the Porsche 3-litre six-cylinder turbo in a tough field including Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-AMG and BMW.
Rounding out the awards was Audi who saw off Porsche in the 2-litre to 2.5-litre class with their 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo engine found in the TT RS.