May 13,2008  From www.tootoo.com

May 13--BMW has walked away with six awards for five engines at this year’s International Engine of the Year Awards.

For the second time in succession, the 3.0-litre straight-six engine with Twin Turbo and High Precision Injection — found in the 135i Coupe, the 335i Sedan and Coupe and the soon-to-be-launched BMW xDrive35i — has won the overall ranking. The 225kW unit also repeated last year’s victory in the 2.5 to 3.0-litre engine category.

Only one engine had previously ever succeeded in repeating overall victory at the awards: the 5.0-litre V10 employed in the BMW M5, M5 Touring, M6 Coupe and M6 Convertible received first prize in 2005 and 2006. This year the 373kW mill won the above 4.0-litre category. BMW M also had a further winner: the 309kW V8 engine used by the new BMW M3 won the category for engines in the 3.0- to 4.0-litre category. The 1.6-litre four cylinder with Twin Scroll Turbocharger and direct petrol injection employed in the MINI Cooper S managed to repeat last year’s win in the engine class 1.4- to 1.8-litres.

And the 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel with Variable Twin Turbo employed in the BMW 123d received the award for Best New Engine of 2008. This is the first time in the history of the competition that the category has been taken by a diesel engine. The 150kW four-cylinder diesel with Variable Twin Turbo has earned this award due to a unique relation between performance and efficiency. As the world’s first full-aluminium diesel power unit it delivers a specific output of more than 100bhp per litre of displacement. At the same time it facilitates in the BMW 123d an average fuel consumption of 5.2 litres per 100km in an EU test cycle and a CO2 emission level of 138g/km.

This engine is not destined for South Africa in the short-term.

The International Engine of the Year Award has been presented since 1999 by an international jury consisting of car journalists. This year the team of experts comprises 65 journos from 32 nations which include the USA, Japan, China, Russia, India, Germany, France, New Zealand, Korea and South Africa and, this year, Romania and Poland. Prizes are awarded for eleven categories as well to the winner of the overall rating. The award ceremony was held on 7 May during the “Engine Expo 2008” in Stuttgart.

Editor: Haijing Qu