10 Best New Car Engine For 2014

In a latest release by Forbes, “10 Best New Car Engine for 2014”, Audi S5 with its 3.0 L TFSI  Supercharged DOHC V-6 engine, has topped the list. Forbes is highly reliable source and has published this list on the basis of testing done by experts at WardsAuto. WardsAuto released this list on January 15 at a ceremony in North American International Auto Show in Detroit, USA. The cars were tested on road near the Detroit area in local conditions to get a realistic performance data of the cars. Complete top ten list is as follows:

Rank	Automaker	Engine Specifications
1	Audi S5	3.0 L, TFSI, Supercharged           DOHC, V-6
2.	BMW 535d	3.0 L, Turbodiesel, DOHC 16
3.	Ram 1500 Ecodiesel	3.0 L Turbodiesel DOHC  V-6
4.	Fiat 500e	83-kW Electric Motor
5.	Ford Fiesta	1.0 L Ecoboost DOHC I3
6	Chevrolet Cruze diesel	2.0 L Turbodiesel DOHC I4
7	Chevrolet Corvette Stingaray	6.2 L OHV V-8
8	Honda Accord	3.5 L SOHC V6
9	Porsche Cayman	2.7 L DOHC H6 Boxer
10	Volkswagen Jetta	1.8 L Turbocharged DOHC I4

Source:http://www.forbes.com/pictures/ehmk45lmdg/audi-s5-3-0l-tfsi-supercharged-dohc-v-6/

Source:http://www.forbes.com/pictures/ehmk45lmdg/audi-s5-3-0l-tfsi-supercharged-dohc-v-6

But this articles is not just about informing you about the best engines but also do a technical analysis to help people come out of the rumors and  the fascination caused due to aesthetic beauty of the cars. The engine was evaluated on the basis of multiple factors such as emissions, fuel economy, running smoothness, adherence to engine specification, load carrying ability etc to get a complete idea of a best car.

If you carefully parse the list, car at rank 7 appears as a power beast because of its eight cylinder 6.2 L engine, gulping loads of fuel. I bet people passionate about feeling the real thrust would love to take multiple rides of the Chevrolet Corvette. All other engines have cylinder volume in the range of 3- 1.8 L with the exception of Fiat 500e which is an 100 % electric car running on a heavy motor and 24 kWh Lithium ion battery (87 miles in one charging). It is hatchback car and is very popular these days as it topped the sales chart in year 2013 in USA. Another interesting fact that comes to the mind is the use of “DOHC” technology by almost all the best engines. What is this technology and why  all the automakers adopted it?

DOHC  is not a new  technology but is proven arrangement to increase the engine speeds and power. DOHC stand for “double overhead camshaft” meaning, two cams over the cylinder head of an engine. Advantage of using two cams is that engine designers could have four valves for each cylinder and therefore engine could breath more amount of air delivering high power. One cam operates the intake valves and another cam operate exhaust valves. In addition, automakers could bring turbocharging effect by carefully designing the intake runner giving the extra thrust during the operation. Techandtalk can post more about DOHC technology in case viewers are interested.

All the engine prefer  “V” engine arrangement over Inline engine arrangement to have more balance at high torque and speed conditions. Supercharging or turbocharging in the engine is done to boost the power of the engine by increasing the intake air pressure by utilising exhaust energy. Using turbocharging or supercharging in a car has become a convention now days.

In the ranking, Chevrolet  could manage to come up with two best engines whereas giants such as Ford & Porshce, known for technical excellence, could just manage to make it to the list of best engines. Ram 1500 Ecodiesel, is excellent in its category as the sales figure proves its worth. Although, it is expensive but in the truck segment, many say that it is a game changer. Chrysler group has announced to boost the production of Ram 1500 Ecodiesel to meet the demand in the 2015.

Now coming back to the king of the road, Audi S5, that used an extremely efficient engine using TFSI technology. Wait!  Do you know what TFSI is?  TFSI stands for Turbo fuel stratified engine that uses direct fuel injection system to inject fuel directly within the cylinder at the right time. Stratification implies proper fuel air mixing leading to high combustion efficiency and therefore this engine generates high power with relatively less fuel and exhaust emissions. No wonder, Audi has put lot of research effort to develop such an fuel efficient optimised engine. Engine could reach a benchmark of 60 mph in just 4.9 seconds and to achieve this has a 333 Hp engine at 5500-6500 rpm. Unbelievable isn’t it !  It should feel like driving  a racing car on the road. Kindly comment  to give your valuable feedback.