ICEs! We are of course talking about the internal combustion engine and not frozen desserts, but the auto industry does love a good acronym. They have long been the beating heart under the hood (or trunk) of our cars and they still will be, at least for the foreseeable future at any rate. Alternative-fuelled cars (some of them more sustainable than others) are steadily occupying more and more space in the market and this is obviously both a good thing and inevitable as time marches on. But in the interim, what becomes of the oily tangle of pipes, cables, belts, and chains that have kept us moving since the beginning?

The truth is, even before the climate problem became a thing on social media, engines in cars were already going through a sort of slow revolution. Not that they got slower obviously, but they had to learn to go about their business in a more efficient way. Arguably this has been most visible, or at least most contentious in the sports car world.

Smaller Is The New Bigger

audi V6 engine

Ever since they have been around, sports cars and indeed just cars were powered by engines built under the philosophy of: ‘if it needs more power, then put more engine in’. Well not quite, but what they did was put smaller engines in smaller cars and bigger engines in bigger cars or sports cars. More displacement meant more power and more power – well you know the rest. From the early 70s and through the early 80s the (two) fuel crises and creeping-up emissions limits required a lot of engines to either downsize or otherwise have their performance potential suppressed. The Pontiac Firebird went through the same process, by the time it reached its 3rd generation in 1982, it could be specified with a 2.5-liter engine making just 90hp. This engine was known as the Iron Duke. Interesting name.

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The Mustang’s engine line-up also downsized progressively not long after its launch around 1964. You could have this with a 2.8-liter engine in the beginning, but generally, the smallest engine available until the mid-70s was a 3.3-liter straight-six. The rest were all larger capacity including the 7-liter available until 1971. The end of the 70s saw the 3rd generation Mustang lose some of its muscle car image with a complete style change and the addition of a 2.3-liter four-cylinder motor which wouldn’t have been particularly virile even back then, but at least the fuel economy was ok and that was becoming a priority.

It’s Not the Size, It’s What You Do With It

Subaru_BRZ
Via Best Cars

A lot of people knew that apart from adding new technology like fuel injection and designing engines with more valves there was no replacement for displacement, especially for sports cars. Another way to get more results while satisfying emissions and economy regulations was to keep the smaller engines but add a turbocharger. It goes something like this: if a car maker who produces a car with a 4-liter engine that makes 300hp is then told it needs to be more fuel-efficient; they could make the motor smaller. Okay, so they either design from scratch or source a 2-liter engine which makes only 140 horse-power but uses almost half the fuel as the bigger engine that was previously fitted. Except, this won’t do now will it, in the same car with the same power requirements that would have existed before. Bolting on a turbo might bring up power to acceptable levels once more, it might now make 250hp for example.

Turbos aren’t particularly bleeding-edge technology though and had been around since the end of the 19th century. They were, however, not particularly efficient or worthwhile back then and were largely forgotten by car manufactures until cars like the Porsche 911 made them popular. The first version of the 911 made around 260hp depending on where you look, which was plenty. It suffered from a phenomenon known as turbo-lag; a period of time between when the driver puts his or her foot down on the accelerator and when the car begins to pick up meaningful speed. It also tried to kill unsuspecting drivers not careful or not wise enough to handle its character. The Saab 99 turbo from the early ’90s is also generally accepted as being a flag-bearer for early turbo technology. Since the mid-80s the word turbo was synonymous with speed or power, it was as much a marketing tool as a functional object in its own right. As time went on, however, the turbo enabled smaller cars with smaller engine bays to accommodate engines with considerable power outputs – these same cars would be unable to hold larger, more powerful naturally-aspirated motors that already existed.

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Turbo Chargers: An Ongoing Investment, For Now

Mercedes-AMG turbocharger

Ford has spent a substantial amount of time refining its own version of the small engine/turbo system, the Ecoboost, in the last 10 years, they claim a 30% improvement in fuel efficiency comparing like-for-like engine power outputs. For a while now you have been able to buy a Ford Fiesta (small city car) with a 1-liter engine. Except that it makes more or less 140hp. From a 1-liter engine. When you do the same thing with a larger engine (2.3-litres) you can make enough power to put it in the current-gen Mustang and people will choose it over the classic v8 option. Well, some people will.

Maybe. But you get the point. BMW engines have gone through the same evolution and if you buy one it will most likely have a turbocharger under the hood. Or two. The 3.5-liter model name designation is not actually true – the same car will now actually be using a 3-liter unit with turbo power. Almost all manufacturers are doing this, you can still buy cars with no forced induction, there are plenty, including cars and trucks in the US running on v8 power, small economical cars, and yes some sports cars. But soon, if it has not already, the naturally aspirated sports car will largely become a thing of the past and will become a specialist, niche object.

One thing to note, either way, is that downsizing is only really a temporary solution to lengthen the life of a technology that is being phased out. Soon the act of starting an engine, the aural pleasure of hearing small explosions under the hood, the drama of the power delivery once on the road will have changed forever. Turbo or not, the oily-engine era is almost over, enjoy it while you can.

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