Groundhog awards day

Ferrari has claimed the International Engine of the Year award for the second year in a row with its twin-turbo 3.9-litre V8 fending off challenges from Porsche’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo flat six found in its 911, and the 2015-winning BMW 1.5-litre three-cylinder hybrid powerplant underpinning the i8.

Also taking the crown in the 3.0 to 4.0-litre engine and performance engine segments, the F154CB donk was commended as ‘probably the best turbocharged engine ever’ by awards co-chairman Dean Slavnich.

“This blend of heart-thumping performance on both road and track, with a glorious V8 Maranello rumble and an ultra-sophisticated design that’s loaded with advanced technologies, makes the Ferrari V8 unbeatable for another year,” he said.

Under the hood of the 488 GTB and Spider, the stonking force-fed V8 produces a hefty 492kw-760nm, while in the slightly less potent California T, output is lowered to a stillformidable 412kw-755nm.

The Italian V8 tallied 251 total votes in the engine of the year segment, ahead of the Porsche flat six with 216 votes, BMW hybrid three-pot, 151, Audi’s aluminium block 2.5-litre turbocharged five-cylinder, 139, and Ford’s 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine, 136 – which took out three consecutive titles from 2012 to 2014.

Engine awards were also split into sub-categories, sorted by displacement as well as categories for the best pure electric powertrain, electrified engine, performance engine and best newcomer.

The sub-1.0-litre title was won by the Ford Ecoboost unit, which made award history by not only winning the segment for the sixth consecutive year, but by also becoming the first ever powertrain to win its category every year that it has been nominated.