Rotary and Hybrid Engines Highlight
Winners of 2004 Ward’s 10 Best Engines
Two unique and unusual engine “formats” headline the
winners of Ward’s 10 Best Engines awards for 2004, a highly anticipated auto
industry award competition that for a decade has served as the auto
industry’s most-recognized barometer of powertrain-related product
development.
The Ward’s 2004 list of
honored engines marks the 10th anniversary for the Ward’s 10 Best Engines
awards.
Mazda Motor Corp.’s all-new Renesis rotary engine and Toyota Motor
Corp.’s more-powerful hybrid-electric Prius drivetrain are two
non-traditional engine systems winning Ward’s 10 Best Engines honors for
2004. Renesis is the exhilarating new iteration of the rotary engine design
to which Mazda alone has remained devoted since the company’s first
production engine in 1967. Mazda has over the years launched successive new
generations of its innovative rotary, and the Renesis brings significant and
exciting new improvements to the design.
Ward’s 10 Best Engines judges this year also reward another
non-traditional engine design, Toyota’s Prius hybrid-electric drivetrain
that combines several high-tech components into a gasoline-electric “system”
that delivers high mileage, excellent responsiveness and remarkably low
emissions. Toyota’s hybrid “system” is comprised of a small, highly
efficient 4-cyl. gasoline engine, an electric motor to enhance the gasoline
engine’s power and a continuously variable transmission. A sophisticated
powertrain-control unit leverages the best attributes of each component.
Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.’s Subaru arm earns its first spot on the
Ward’s 10 Best Engines list with its high-performance horizontally opposed
“boxer” 4-cyl., which powers the critically acclaimed Subaru WRX STi. The
turbocharged boxer engine delivers one of the highest horsepower-per-liter
ratings of any engine available in the U.S., making it unusually powerful in
relation to its size – an attribute always appreciated by Ward’s 10 Best
Engines editor-judges.
Rounding out the new entrants to the 10 Best Engines list is Audi AG with
its power- and technology-laden 4.2L DOHC V-8, which powers the special S4
variant of the company’s A4 compact sedan/wagon lineup. The thrusty Audi V-8
produces 340 hp and 302 lb.-ft. (461 Nm) of torque, making it one of the
market’s most powerful V-8s.
Trucks and SUVs continue to account for a significant portion of the U.S.
market, and engines powering those types of vehicles are well-represented in
the 2004 Ward’s 10 Best Engines. A significant first-time winner is
DaimlerChrysler AG’s 5.9L inline 6-cyl. turbodiesel, developed in
conjunction with and made by well-known diesel engine maker Cummins Inc. The
new Cummins 600 turbodiesel is the standard engine for DC’s Ram Heavy Duty
pickup line and is the most powerful diesel engine available in the segment.
Two truck/SUV engines returning as Ward’s 10 Best Engines winners are
General Motors Corp.’s outstanding Vortec 4.2L dual-overhead-cam inline
6-cyl. and DC’s 5.7L Hemi Magnum V-8. Both engines are emerging as stalwart
winners on the Ward’s 10 Best Engines list and the Hemi “definitely is the
best-marketed, best-advertised engine in the industry,” says Bill Visnic,
Ward’s senior technical editor.
Six-cylinder engines, the most popular choice of U.S. vehicle buyers, are
represented by Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.’s “VQ” 3.5L DOHC V-6, the only engine
to win a Ward’s 10 Best award each year in the competition’s decade-long
history, Honda Motor Co. Ltd.’s 3L SOHC V-6 available in the Accord and
BMW AG’s renowned 3.2L inline 6-cyl. found in its M3 coupe and convertible.
The Ward’s 10 Best Engines for 2004
(engine and tested vehicle):
Audi AG 4.2L DOHC V-8 (S4)
BMW AG 3.2L DOHC I-6 (M3)
DaimlerChrysler AG 5.7L Hemi Magnum OHV V-8 (Dodge Ram)
DaimlerChrysler AG 5.9L Cummins 600 OHV I-6 turbodiesel (Dodge Ram
Heavy Duty)
General Motors Corp. Vortec 4.2L DOHC
I-6 (GMC Envoy)
Honda Motor Co. Ltd. 3L SOHC V-6 (Accord Coupe)
Mazda Motor Corp. 1.3L Renesis rotary (RX-8)
Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. 3.5L DOHC V-6 (Infiniti G35)
Toyota Motor Corp. 1.5L DOHC I-4 Hybrid (Prius)
Five of 2004’s 10 Best Engines are first-time winners, which Visnic says
symbolizes the increasing fractionalization of the U.S. vehicle market – and
highlights the intense competitive pressures at work on the auto industry’s
powertrain developers and engineers.
“Multi-year 10 Best Engines winners may become more rare,” says Visnic.
“Powertrain-development cycles, just like those for the entire vehicle, are
becoming increasingly more compressed. The effect will be obvious: We’ll see
more new or revised engines coming to market more often.”
On the 10th anniversary of the Ward’s 10 Best Engines competition, this
year’s winners show more diversity than at any time in the past, Visnic
adds. “The spread of engine types – and even the vehicles they power – is
refreshingly distinct. This year’s list includes a high-mileage,
eco-friendly hybrid system arm-in-arm with several powerful V-8s. And
although performance-oriented engines always enjoy a certain edge with Best
Engines judges, the reality is that because most of these engines power
vehicles that can essentially be considered mainstream, there has never been
so much engine performance available to buyers of reasonably common
vehicles.”
Visnic stresses the most relevant aspect of the Ward’s 10 Best Engines
list may be that it highlights the crucial relationship between engines and
vehicles that are successful in the market. “A Best Engines mantra
essentially has emerged over a decade of presenting these awards,” says
Visnic. “It’s simple. With very few exceptions, each and every 10 Best
Engines winner over the past decade has powered a commercially successful
vehicle. We are convinced that is no coincidence.”
During a 2-month test period, six editors from Ward’s Communications
evaluated the engines nominated from 32 different cars, trucks and SUVs.
Scoring encompassed the crucial engine characteristics of power, torque,
noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), technical relevance and basic
comparative numbers. All engines nominated and tested were in vehicles with
a base price under $52,500. “The engines in high-priced vehicles should be
outstanding,” says Visnic. “By setting a realistic base price, we ensure the
awards have value and relevance to the average consumer.”
BMW 3.2L DOHC
I-6
There have been other
100-plus-horsepower-per-liter engines to win past Ward's 10 Best
Engines awards, but none has enjoyed the staying power of BMW AG’s
magnificent 3.2L DOHC I-6 “M” engine. Credit one thing: BMW’s stalwart
inline architecture.
To make in excess of 100
hp/L inevitably requires a high-rpm power peak. Internal combustion
engines essentially are air pumps; the more air one can “move,”
theoretically the more power one can produce. Moving lots of air
typically requires lots of rpm. Ask those Formula One engine guys, who
squeeze out hundreds of horsepower per liter, if you don’t believe us.
Past engines that have
enamored us in the specific-output stakes eventually have proven to be
rather “boring” one-trick ponies. Revving a 4-banger to 9,000 rpm – in
each and every gear, all the time – inevitably becomes a grating chore
to extract, say, 80% of an engine’s power. Few engines genuinely
reward perpetual redline visitation.
Stunning
power and smoothness from BMW 3.2L DOHC I-6.
BMW’s always-spectacular 3.2L
DOHC I-6 is one, however. The inherently balanced inline 6-cyl. layout, so
marvelously refined by BMW over the past four decades or so, virtually
rejoices in bouncing the tach needle into the scarlet.
Equally important, you the
driver enjoy it, too, because even with 103 hp/L, the 3.2L “M” engine gives
no quarter to demons of ill-refinement. Spin this engine with disdain, and
it responds with nothing but the same velvety demeanor whether turning 3,500
rpm or 7,000 rpm. “Thrashy” simply is not in this engine’s vocabulary.
And who couldn’t smile at the
notion of six discrete throttle bodies – one for each cylinder – toiling at
your whim? Or better yet, the “M Driving Dynamics Control” electronic
throttle control that allows you to select an almost laughably sensitive
setting for those six trumpets? It’s a sublime engine-management trick that,
frankly, we’re surprised has yet to be replicated – or upstaged – by any
competitor.
The 3.2L DOHC I-6 still
represents the pinnacle of BMW engineers’ development of the I-6 format.
Although some of its
technology-showcase starpower has been eclipsed by the company’s Valvetronic
V-8/V-12s and even direct-injection technology, the inline 6-cyl. layout,
which BMW says would be foolish ever to abandon, continues in this variant
as BMW’s ultimate – and ultimately most significant – expression of its
heritage.
by
Bill Visnic
December 10, 2003
courtesy
WardsAuto.com
