Ferrari’s 3.9-litre V8 Bags International Engine Of The Year Award

The Maranello (Italy) based supercar manufacturer, Ferrari has won the International Engine of the Year award for its 3.9-litre V8 motor. This latest engine is a turbocharged unit that finds home in the 488GTB, which was launched earlier this year in India. Quite notably, it’s after almost three decades that Ferrari has introduced a turbocharged motor in its car and it’s after ten years that an engine with more than 6 cylinders has won this accolade. The 3.9-litre unit also bagged the top spot in ‘New Engine’, ‘Performance Engine’ and ‘3.0 to 4.0-litre’ categories.

For the past six years this award has gone to below 2.0-litre engines. Commenting on this, the award committee stated that, “At first glance it would seem the winning powertrain takes this downsizing trend and rips up the rulebook… The 488 heart is proof that performance cars – and all passenger cars – need not fear the downsizing trend.”

The deciding committee constitutes of a panel of 63 motoring journalists from 31 countries.

Dean Slavnich, co-chairman of the International Engine of the Year award said: “It was the powertrain’s sophisticated design – loaded with the advance technologies – that saw off a serious challenge from last year’s winner, BMW’s i8 PHEV creation, as well as Porsche’s new straight-six turbo in the 911, to take top honours.”

Apart from the ‘engine of the year’ award, engines are also awarded on the category or capacities’ basis. The best engine in the ‘1.0 to 1.4-litre’ category went to Peugeot Citroen’s 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo charged motor for the second consecutive time. BMW, who was awarded last year’s engine of the year, won the best engine award in the ‘1.4 to 1.8-litre’ category.

Mercedes, on the other hand, won the same award for its 2.0-litre AMG motor in the ‘1.8 to 2.0-litre’ category; it’s available in the A45 AMG, CLA45 AMG, and the GLA45 AMG. The German faced tough competition form Audi’s 2.0-litre TFSI motor, which is bolted to the TT.

However, Audi can still get over this award as its 2.5-litre inline five-cylinder turbo motor retains its accolade in the ‘2.0 to 2.5-litre’ class for the sixth consecutive year. It was stacked against the Porsche’s 2.5-litre unit.

It is evident that the toughest fight for the best engine award has been amongst the Germans, and this year, Porsche did the most unnatural thing as it dethroned BMW’s 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder twin turbo motor (available in the M3 and M4). A motor that has been the champ in the ‘2.5 to 3.0-litre’ category from the past 14 years. Porsche’s all new 3.0-litre six-cylinder motor produces 370bhp and 420bhp in its two versions and power the likes of the 911 Carrera and the 911 Carrera 4.

Ferrari’s 6.3-litre V12, which powers the F12tdf, was declared the best engine in the ‘Above 4.0-litre’ category. This motor was stacked against Audi’s 5.2-litre V10 and Mercedes-AMG’s 5.5-litre turbo charged V8.

Lastly, Tesla and Ford kept the American hopes high with the best engine awards in the ‘Green Engine’ and ‘sub 1.0-litre’ category, respectively. The Ford’s 1.0-litre EcoBoost won the International Engine of the Year for three consecutive years from 2012 to 2014.