The unusual engine design in the world

Back to the past: a tour of the engines.

Open the hood of a car today, you will surely find a familiar piece of metal. But in the history of automobile industry have been many attempts to offer the world something different. We have gathered for you the unusual design of the engines, which were produced over the long history of the development of the Autoworld.

How amazing Autoworld! You will see how to change cars over the last 50 years. But the changes can be seen not only in the exterior and in the cabin. The greatest number of conversions, of course, touched the engine, transmission and suspension. Today we want to talk about the most amazing power units, which were issued (and some are still issued) in the long history of the automotive industry. But regardless, the engine is removed from production or still available, all powertrains that we have collected in our review, emphasize the amazing engineering that is present in a particular motor, which is necessary for the development of the entire vehicle. So here’s all the fancy engines in the order of their appearance in the world:

A single-cylinder engine

Used: 1885

A single-cylinder internal combustion engine belongs to the very first car in the world, which was released in 1885. We are talking about the car the Benz Patent-Motorwagen (photo).

This vehicle was equipped with a four-stroke engine capacity of 954 CC Engine was installed under the passenger seat and gave out less than 1 HP

However, thanks to the simple design of the motor was easy to produce and upgrade. In the end, the new version of the engine quickly grew in power to 2 HP, single-Cylinder engines were used since then in many passenger cars and economical cars.

Use: 1889

Engine V-twin offers many attractive features for use in the car. It is compact and lightweight, since most of them were made on the basis of motor units. The first car, where they began to use a V-twin engine was the Daimler Stahlradwagen (photo). But first, this power unit has not received a lot of popularity, and only in 1920-ies the design of the engines attracted the attention when companies such as GN and Morgan, began to create sports cars.

By the way, you won’t believe, but this motor design is still produced by the company Morgan vehicles Three-wheeler. The power of modern V-twin engine is 82 HP, which is achieved with 2.0-litre volume.

V4 Engine

Used: in 1887

For many years the V4 engine has not won the confidence of the automakers. This motor has not very good reputation, after Ford experienced problems with this engine design installed on American cars in the 1960s and 1970s.

Although its compact size and inherent smoothness of operation was to make this engine ideal for use in cars of different classes. The first V4 engine appeared in the distant 1987 on the cars Émile Mors.

The big V4 engine in the history of automobile industry became the power unit Grand Prix V4 that was used in 1907 in the car George. Walter Christie. The volume of the motor in this vehicle was a giant and was 19 981 CC

The V-shaped four-cylinder engines were used by the company Lancia models Appia, and Fulvia. This motor design was experimented and the company in his convertible Porsche 919 Le Mans.

Inline eight-cylinder engine

Use: 1919

Like many other engines standing on the early cars the “straight eight” were first developed for aircraft. Power, number of cylinders, aerodynamic shape of the engine would have been perfect for this type of air transport. In the car the engine began to be used in Isotta Fraschini. Then, eight-cylinder engine appeared in the car company Leyland Motors (1920). But, popularized by its company Bugatti, which began to sell cars not only in Europe but in the United States. So what series the engine was exposed to the world.

Cars Bugatti (pictured) with this motor for a long time dominated the world, becoming winners in competitions like the Indianapolis 500, Grand Prix tournaments and at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Inline 12-cylinder engine

Is used: 1920

From the very beginning of the emergence of a powerful 12-cylinder engine, the car manufacturers realized immediately that it can be used in luxury cars. For example, the motor in the experiment was installed on the car Packard (pictured).

The volume of the motor was 7238 CC

The W12 Engine

Use: 1927

Despite the fact that W12 engine popularized by Bentley, they appeared in the distant 1920. The motor was developed by John Cobb and Malcolm Campbell, the company’s Land Speed Record. It was called Napier Lion W12 aero.

But the idea of the motor later became widespread in the automotive industry. And only in 1990 this engine came on the car Life F35 Grand Prix. However, it is recognized as not sufficiently reliable.

Then Audi decided to use the W12 engine for its concept Avus. In subsequent W12 motor began to put on different cars of the VW Group.

V16 Engine

Used: 1929

Maserati was the first in the world, who used their cars engine block configuration V16. For the first time this strange engine was established on model Tipo V4. Then, Alfa Romeo has installed it on Tipo 162. Also this engine was used by the company Auto Union in the creation of the 490-strong car for the race.

During the Second world war with the V16 engine experimented the company BRM (pictured). This car was powered by a 1.5-liter engine capacity of 600 HP But the problems with the pressurization system showed that this motor is not sufficiently reliable.

Star-shaped or radial engine

Used in: 1935

The ease and simplicity of the design of the radial engine allowed it to be used not only in aircraft but also in tanks. However, the size of radial engines and valve design makes this power unit is less attractive for application in automotive industry. So this motor came in the car industry only in 1935. So, these engines were equipped with some of the cars participating in the Grand Prix of Monaco Trossi (pictured).

Two-stroke radial air-cooled engine used a supercharger and is equipped with two rows of cylinders (8 PCs.).

The power of the motor was 250 HP Is not so impressive, given the fact that the volume of the engine was a 4.0 liter.

This power unit has proved problematic: it often overheated. Also had problems with the car, which was installed this heavy engine. The fact that 75% of the weight of the car with a radial engine was centered over the front axle, which led to a understeer car.

Flat engine Flat-12

Use: 1946

In 1947, Ferdinand Porsche came up with the 1.5-liter Cisitalia engine (pictured) intended for sports car racing. This car was supposed to be the Porsche 360. But in the end he never went to the track.

In 1964, the Ferrari took the baton for the development of this type of engines, placing it on a Formula 1 Ferrari 1512. However, when in the late 1970-ies there was a winged race cars requiring ventilation with the air flow, wide flat form of Flat engine let the air flow and the Ferrari company decided not to use the engine in the F1 cars.

Equipped with this engine and the Ferrari 312T, which helped Ferrari to become the Champions of Formula 1 in the 70-ies. Engines Flat-12 was also in production models: the Berlinetta Boxer and Testarossa.

The gas turbine engine is in the car

Is used: 1950

The first gas turbine engine in the car, surprisingly, used a conservative British company Rover model Jet-1 (pictured). After the Second world war this technology in the automotive industry, Rover was the leader. The first gas turbine engine was installed on highway R4. The car from 0-100 km/h were dispersed for 14 seconds. The first motor could accelerate the car to 145 km/h.

Further modernization of the engine allowed the developers to bring its power up to 230 horsepower, raising the maximum speed to 245 km/h.

General Motors and Chrysler also made efforts in the creation of automotive gas turbine engines, and even equip them with some sports cars to race at Le Mans and Formula 1. But in the end the Americans were unable to push this idea further.

Today, turbine motors are often used in tanks and other military equipment.

Linear three-cylinder engine

Use: 1953

Linear three-cylinder engine first appeared in the 1950-ies, when the company DKW (pictured) and Saab started using them in their new models. However, at that time the experts did not appreciate the model of the three-cylinder engine, considering it a very skoromniy. It today these engines are like gold due to its light weight, efficiency, etc.

Now the three-cylinder engines are installed on many models. The popularization of these motors in the 21st century began in the auto world, Ford and Volkswagen.

The BRM H16 engine

Used: in 1966

In 1966, the British team of the Formula 1 British Racing Motors unveiled a strange new motor for my car, which was called the BRM H16. Motor design, in fact, was represented by two flat eight-cylinder engine, installed one above the other. Each of them was equipped with a separate crankshaft, to which were attached gears that made the whole construction is very heavy.

This motor was installed on the Lotus 43 (pictured), at the wheel which sat Jim Clarke, who in 1966 was the winner of the Grand Prix of the USA. However, it was the only victory of the car with the engine H16. Soon the development of this engine ceased in favor of more progressive V12 engine.

Rotary engine

Is used: 1967

The company Mazda from the beginning was tied to the rotary engines. So many famous cars Mazda used in their construction rotary motors.

But the rotary engine was not created by Mazda company. Its author is a German engineer Felix Wankel, who worked in the company NSU. After the invention of the rotary engine the NSU company was bought by Mazda. That’s where the Japanese technology rotary power units.

By the way, on the basis of rotary engines came to light Mazda Cosmo 110S (photo), based on which the Japanese founded a line of sports cars.

Boxer eight-cylinder engine

Used: 1968

Boxer eight-cylinder engine has long been popular on airplanes. Yes, boxer engines of the road, but the smoothness of their stroke negates this disadvantage. First boxer engine appeared on the Porsche 908. This car was built for racing. A volume of 3 liters, the power of 355 HP

It was a bad experience.

Engine V5

Used: 1983

When you start talking about engines V5, then, as a rule, just remember the fourth generation of the Volkswagen Golf and Volkswagen Bora, in some versions which used this kind of powertrain. For the first time this motor VW used in the Passat in 1997. Engine power was 148 HP, This engine became the alternative for a powerful V6 and insufficiently powerful four cylinder inline motor.

But, despite the innovation, these motors are met with suspicion.

For the first time these engines start to use the company General Motors, which developed diesel V5. However, the serial production of GM it never came.

The W16 Engine

In use: since 1995

Usually, when talking about the W16 engine, just remember the Bugatti company, which has equipped its sports car Veyron this engine, which is then passed and the new supercar the Chiron. But the first who made the W16 motor, was a Frenchman Ramon Jimenez, who built a supercar with such an incredible engine (pictured).

The Frenchman joined four motorcycle engine Yamaha 1000cc. The engine is equipped with two crankshafts and 80 valves. The capacity of the motor made 560 HP

Bugatti have gone further, creating a W16 engine for a supercar Veyron, whose power ranges from 1000 to 1200 HP Car also Chiron, which replaced the Veyron has a capacity of 1500 HP

The W8 Engine

Used: 2001

Perhaps this motor was a technological dead end, but the engine of the Volkswagen W8 is still pretty intriguing. It combines two narrow-angle V4 motor with one common crankshaft, which allows eight-cylinder engine to take the space, which, for example, is a conventional V6 engine.

More cylinders give more power, torque and smoothness. For example, this engine was installed in a 4.0 litre Volkswagen Passat W8. But this modification of the car. It has sold over 11,000 vehicles with W8 engine.