MINI has once again captured the engine of the year award in the top award in the 1.4-1.8 liter capacity category. This is the forth victory in a row for the engine and the last with it’s current design. The updated version (with variable valve control) will compete next year. Here’s the full BMW release with all the winners from the BMW group.
Official release: Success in four out of eight capacity classes put the BMW Group in a dominating position at the “International Engine of the Year Awards” this year. Among the award-winning power units at the world’s most renowned engine competition were both petrol and diesel engines with four, six and eight cylinders. The victorious quartet consisted of the V8 engine of the BMW M3, the in-line 6-cylinder petrol engine with BMW TwinPower Turbo, direct injection and VALVETRONIC used in such vehicles as the BMW 1 Series, BMW 3 Series and BMW 5 Series, the 4-cylinder diesel engine with BMW TwinPower Turbo from the BMW X1 xDrive 23d and the BMW 123d, and the 4-cylinder Twin Scroll turbo engine of the MINI Cooper S.
The wide range of winning engines is further evidence of the outstanding expertise of the BMW Group in the area of engine development. It enables engines of great power yet also exemplary efficiency to be offered across all series and output classes. The “Engine of the Year” awards were conferred by an international jury made up of 76 engine journalists from 35 countries.
The award ceremony was held at the “Engine Expo” trade fair in Stuttgart.
The “Engine of the Year” awards have been in existence since 1999. Since then over 50 class and overall victories have fallen to engines developed for automobiles of the brands BMW and MINI. Among the serial production winners in this competition were the 1.6 litre 4-cylinder engine from the MINI Cooper S, achieving its fourth and last victory this year. Next year it will be the turn of the recently presented successor engine in the 1.4 – 1.8 litre capacity class. In addition to the Twin Scroll technology and petrol direct injection of its award-winning predecessor, this engine also has variable valve control and an output of 135 kw/184 bhp, as well as being the world’s most efficient engine in its capacity class.
The first victory in the category of 1.8 – 2 litre engines went to the most powerful 4-cylinder diesel engine in the BMW range. The 2.0 litre fully aluminium direct injection power unit with BMW TwinPower Turbo and common rail direct injection has an output of 150 kW/204 bhp and impressed jury members both with its pulling power and its outstanding efficiency. The experts commented that in view of the qualities of this engine, it appeared doubtful as to whether diesel engines will get any better at all in future.
There was an internal BMW changeover in the class of 2.5 – 3 litre engines.
The new winner in this category is the 3.0 litre in-line 6-cylinder engine with an output of 225kW/306 bhp with BMW TwinPower Turbo, petrol direct injection and VALVETRONIC. It thus replaces the predecessor engine of identical output which secured the overall “Engine of the Year” award in 2007 and 2008, as well as finishing first in its capacity class last year. Yet further proof of the dominance of BMW engines in this capacity class is provided by a glance at the ranking table. Second to the new title winner and a long way ahead of the competition is the new 3.0 litre in-line 6-cylinder diesel engine with BMW TwinPower Turbo and common rail direct injection.
The V8 engine of the BMW M3 won its third award in succession in the capacity class between 3.0 and 4.0 litres. The 309kW/420 bhp 4.0 litre engine used in the high-performance sports cars BMW M3 Coupé, BMW M3 Sedan and BMW M3 Convertible fascinated the jury yet again with its outstanding propulsive force resulting from the high-revving concept which is characteristic of this power unit. In addition to brilliant performance qualities, the experts also noted the impressive efficiency of the high-performance engine, which in the BMW M3 is combined with an Auto Start/Stop function, brake energy regeneration and other BMW EfficientDynamics measures.
<p>fantastic. put that trophy right up there on the shelf with all the awards the tritec won… well one..</p>
<p>here it says VW won engine of the year?:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.leftlanenews.com/vw-1-4-liter-wins-engine-of-the-year-award.html" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.leftlanenews.com/vw-1-4-liter-wins-engine-of-the-year-award.html</a></p>
<p>if memory serves, this engine has one this honor 4 years running.</p>
<p>I guess major issues for 3 years with severe cold start noise does not count when evaluating……..</p>
<p>Goooooooooo, MINI!</p>
<p>Way to Go MINI!</p>
<p>BTW, I’m glad we got our dose of negative commentary for this article. It’d be kind of quiet on MF without it.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>here it says VW won engine of the year?:</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are multiple categories.</p>
<p>You can read the results from those that generated them here: <a href="http://www.ukipme.com/engineoftheyear/" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.ukipme.com/engineoftheyear/</a></p>
<p>Matt</p>
<p>I’m with tomp. Clearly it is a design/performance award, not an everyday reliability award.</p>
<p>WOOHOO!!! I’ve never doubted BMW’s engineering prowess (of course, the Benz and Audi and Porsche people do good engineering as well).</p>
<p>Would be great to also see an “everyday engine reliability” award. That’s what matters when I turn the key and put my foot into it.</p>
<p>I still believe in the Tritec engine in my 08 R52 MCS. I believe it will outlast all of the modern BMW engines.</p>
<p>It just goes to show how much this award is based on a sexy initial design and filtered performance stats, and how disconnected the awarding body is to the actual operations and maintenance history. Cold start death rattle, carbon build-up, throttle body freezing — all are inherently tied to this “award winning” design and all with root causes swept under the rug by management and inconsistently mitigated with a variety of band-aid fixes applied on a case-by-case basis.</p>
<p>Does anybody consider this more than simple marketing BS?</p>
<p>Here we go – same old accusations of engine troubles. The timing chain issue is fixed. It was not a big deal. No Death involved. I’ve never seen throttle body freezing or carbon build-up. I doubt its common even if some have had it.</p>
<p>lavardera, the knock has been a persistent three-year ordeal for me and even with the fix, if the oil drops slightly, the noise comes back! Every year it was knocking horribly, it was winning awards? Despite the knocking issue, how does an engine win engine of the year when it buns roughly a quart of oil every 1000-2000 miles? I’ve had 20 and 30 year old engines from Volvo and GM that didn’t even do that! I see MINI’s switch to the internally-built 3 cylinder model as a necessity in more ways than simple fuel economy. The PSA motor is plagued with issues across the board and the sooner they can be rid of it, the better.</p>
p>@lavardera</p
<p>Geez Louise…try doing some research my friend
— The timing chain fix was their FOURTH try and is simply another band aid (i.e., doesn’t address root cause)
— Several accounts of R56 engines grenading due to timing chain breakage — even from MINI service depts
— DYIs for doing the sea foam treatment to burn out the carbon buildup are all over the place
— Must not live in a cold climate or you’d know more about the throttle body freeze (MINI does have an effective fix for this but it’s kind of a jury rig)</p>
<p>Dozens and dozens of reports of each…and that’s originating from a very small segment of the total owner population. It’s likely worse than we know.</p>
<p>…And VALVETRONIC will introduce a whole new set of problems…</p>