Ferrari 488 GTB’s turbocharged V8 wins Engine of the Year Award

The 3.9-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine of the Ferrari 488 GTB and 488 Spider has won the Engine of the Year Award at this year’s Engine Expo in Stuttgart.

The new supercar engine has been recognised for its flexible performance and significant improvements in efficiency over its naturally aspirated predecessor, picking up a total of four wins. These were in the categories of the Performance Engine award, New Engine award, 3.0-litre to 4.0-litre category and overall main prize.

Graham Johnson, co-chairman of the International Engine of the Year Awards, explained why the team of 63 jurors chose the Ferrari unit, saying: “It’s a giant leap forward for turbocharged engines in terms of efficiency, performance and flexibility.

"It truly is the best engine in production today and will forever be remembered as one of the all-time greats.”

“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,” said the awards committee.

“It was the powertrain’s sophisticated design – loaded with advanced 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,” Dean Slavnich, co-chairman of the International Engine of the Year Awards said.

Autocar UK’s own experience of the 3.9-litre unit has confirmed it has no detectable lag and a rev-hungry nature – a trait normally reserved for naturally aspirated units. The engine produces 661bhp, which equates to an impressive 169.2bhp, and emits 260g/km of CO2. It can also manage a claimed combined fuel efficiency figure of 24.8mpg.

The turbocharged V8’s predecessor, the atmospheric 4.5-litre V8 featured in the 458 Italia, produced 562bhp and emitted 275g/km of CO2, while offering around 21-24mpg. It won two awards at the 2011 Engine Expo for the Best Performance Engine and Above 4.0-litre categories.

Ford’s EcoBoost 1.0-litre three-cylinder unit had picked up the main Engine of the Year prize over three consecutive years between 2012 and 2014. 

Ferrari also won the Above 4.0-litre Award at this year's event for its naturally-aspirated 6.3-litre V12 engine, which powers the F12 Berlinetta and F12tdf.

BMW’s 1.5-litre petrol-hybrid motor was pronounced the best engine in the '1.4 to 1.8-litre' category class. The i8 features a 228hp petrol engine driving the rear wheels with a 132hp electric motor powering the front axle.

Tesla’s full-electric engine powering its Model S and Model X won the 'Green Engine' trophy and with that, Tesla became the first carmaker to clinch this title for three consecutive years. 

In the '1.0 to 1.4-litre' category, the PSA Peugeot Citroën 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo retained the award it won last year when it had displaced Volkswagen’s 1.4-litre TSI engine, which was a winner in this category for a whopping nine consecutive times.

The Mercedes-AMG 2.0-litre turbo engine powering the Mercedes A45 AMG, CLA 45 AMG and the GLA45 AMG, won the award in the '1.8 to 2.0-litre' category for the second consecutive year.  In the past 10 months, the high-performance powertrain has witnessed key revisions such as the fitting of a new valve assembly and tweaking of the engine timing, both of which have resulted in a bump in power and torque. The fight for the top spot was a closely contested one with Audi’s 2.0-litre four-cylinder TFSI, which powers cars including the TT, A4 and the VW Beetle and Superb, coming in second.

Audi’s 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo remained dominant this year in the '2.0 to 2.5-litre' category, a position it has retained six consecutive times. The unit, which displaces 340hp and 466Nm torque in the RS Q3, has been recently included in the RS 3(367hp). It staved off competition from Porsche’s 2.5-litre turbo which drives the 718 and the Boxster S. Interestingly, the 2.5-litre turbo will also power the most powerful Audi TT yet, the new TT RS.

Big news in the '2.5 to 3.0-litre' category was that Porsche’s new 3.0-litre six-cylinder (Porsche 911 Carrera, 911 Carrera 4), which had stunned purists due to the addition of turbos unseated BMW's dominant 3.0-litre twin-turbo (M3, M4) that has earned victory in this category a staggering 14 times. The new Porsche 3.0-litre engine comes in two states of tune – 370hp and 420hp – while torque figures have gone up significantly by 60Nm to 450Nm and 500Nm depending on the model.

In the 'Above 4.0-litre' category, Ferrari’s 6.3-litre V12, powering the F12tdf, was given the best engine award. Other engines the Ferrari’s naturally aspirated unit had to beat were the 5.2-litre V10 from Audi (R8 range), and Mercedes-AMG’s 5.5-litre V8 turbo (E63, S63).

The jury of the International Engine of the Year Awards comprised a panel of 63 motoring journalists from 31 countries including Hormazd Sorabjee, editor of Autocar India, Autocar Professional’s sister magazine.

Also read: Ford’s 1.0-litre EcoBoost wins best small engine ‘Oscar’ for fifth year running