Engines Revealed: Top 3 power and beauty favourites
A lot of drivers don’t give much thought to the engine of their car, and there’s probably no reason why they should.
All an engine has to do is provide enough power to drive the car. Preferably without using much fuel or making a lot of noise. As long as you have a motor which can achieve this, then you can probably ignore it.
However, engines are fascinating things. The way they can convert fuel into energy is magnificent. For over a century, thousands of engines have been designed and built, below we’ve taken a look at some of the most celebrated, all of which are certainly described by motor heads as ‘classics’.
1. Lamborghini V12
Lamborghini’s very first car was the 350 GT and was introduced in 1964. It was equipped with a 3.5-litre V12 engine. This motor went out of production in 1966, although the engine was still powering on for approximately half a century later. This was due to it being fitted to the Countach, Diablo, Murciélago, amongst many other models.
2. Rolls-Royce L-Series
When Rolls-Royce developed a large-capacity V8 to be featured in its 1959 Silver Cloud and Phantom, there was no speculation that it would become one of the lonest-lived engines in motoring. It was available in sizes up to 6.75 litres, and was sometimes turbocharged. Used for a very long time in all Rolls-Royce and Bentley models, this proved as a very powerful and impressive favourite.
3. Porsche Type 901
The Type 901 was the engine fitted to the original Porsche 911 in 1963. The engine was a ‘flat six’ that had three cylinders which sprouted horizontally from each side of the crankcase. It was also cooled by air, not water. This was just another of Porsche’s fabulous engine builds.
All of these engines were hugely impressive in their time and probably still are. Which do you think is the most impressive?
