Each year, Ward's Auto World chooses the 10 best engines available in cars sold in the United States.
To be eligible, the engines must be available in regular-production vehicles with a base price of no more than $52,500.
Here are this year's winning engines and the cars in which they were tested.

TOYOTA 3.5-liter V-6
Horsepower: 306
Vehicle: Lexus IS 350

G.M. 2-liter in-line 4
AUDI 2-liter turbo in-line 4
Horsepower: 200
Vehicle: A3 2.0T

AUDI 4.2-liter V-8
Horsepower: 340
Vehicle: S4 sedan

BMW 3-liter in-line 6
Horsepower: 255
Vehicle: 330i

CHRYSLER 5.7-liter Hemi V-8
Horsepower: 350
Vehicle: Dodge Charger R/T

FORD 4.6-liter V-8
Horsepower: 300
Vehicle: Mustang GT

GENERAL MOTORS 2-liter supercharged in-line 4
Horsepower: 205
Vehicle: Chevrolet Cobalt SS

MAZDA 2.3-liter turbo in-line 4
Horsepower: 274
Vehicle: Mazdaspeed 6

NISSAN 3.5-liter V-6
Horsepower: 298
Vehicle: Infiniti G35

SAAB 2.8-liter turbocharged V-6
Horsepower: 250
Vehicle: Saab 9-3

 

MAZDA 2.3-liter turbo in-line 4
Horsepower: 274
Vehicle: Mazdaspeed 6

DAMN. that makes me sad. I wanted to buy the RX-8, but it was too weak, and very poor on gas mileage for such a weak car.

 

I drove one of those before buying my baby and trading in my stock Mazda6. They are a mean car, but if you search around the Mazda boards they are having a lot of problems with the car. Window and door issues, engine issues ( engine is not holding the boost well and the boost just crashes around 5700 RPMS) I feel bad for the car, cause it is a nice machine, but needs work before becoming a quality player.

 

Old news: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=191118

Wards released their 2006 list back in December 2005.

 

My bad, my crystal ball let me down

 

so you are saying they are having problems typical of a ford?

 

I would never say that

 

Good finding and thanks for the re-find SolaraToIS, although its old news. Some pple might have missed the original.

 

Now this would be the list I wish the IS's engine made it into. Looks like BMW took top honors...

How come the IS's engine didnt make it here?

International Engine of the Year Award 2006
1 BMW 5-litre V10 (M5, M6)
2 Volkswagen 1.4-litre
3 BMW Diesel 3-litre twin turbo

Best Performance Engine Award 2006
1 BMW 5.0-litre V10
2 Ferrari 4.3-litre V8
3 Mercedes-AMG 6.0-litre twin-turbo

Best Engine Above 4-litres Award 2006
1 BMW 5.0-litre V10
2 Ferrari 4.3-litre V8
3 Mercedes AMG 6.0-litre twin-turbo

Best Engine 3.0-litre to 4.0-litre Award 2006
1 BMW 3.2-litre six-cylinder
2 Toyota 3.5-litre V6 hybrid <---- Which engine is this???
3 Porsche 3.8-litre six-cylinder

Best Engine 2.5-litre to 3-litre Award 2006
1 BMW 3.0-litre twin-turbo six-cylinder diesel
2 BMW 3.0-litre six-cylinder
3 Honda 3.0-litre V6 hybrid

 

I believe that is the GS450h engine...

 

Ohhhhhhhhhhh.... whys it not called the GS 350h?

 

Because it's a Hybrid 6 cylinder that rivals the performance and power of a 450hp v8 vehicle. That's the same for the RX400h. 3.3L V6 mated to the Hybrid Synergy Drive.

 

I would guess because Ward's thing limits the maximum car cost to 52k. The M5 and M6 is much more than 52k

 

Maybe its just me, but unfortunetly it seems like things like that seem to be somewhat of a price you pay to have a hopped up version of a regular. Take M car's for example, go crawl some of those boards... I thought about an E46 M3 before I realized (although had a suspicion) that the car would be in the shop every other month. Even S4's... early 2001 S4's are famous for dying turbo's, poor connecting clamps, etc... that's why when you look for an S4 you want 2001.5+ as many of these intial bugs were fixed... give the Mazdaspeed 6 a year or 2 and it'll get better... I could go on about other cars too

Although you've got my interest about boost crashing at 5700.. I wonder if that's just a result of the turbo running out of breath at the top end (read, small turbo spools quickly, good down low and midrange, dies at top end) or a more serious issue...

Ok, sorry to go off topic.

 

You are actually quite right about the Turbo. They used a K43 turbo I think it was, I did a lot of research on the turbo and it appears to be a small application. They also mounted the IC on the top of the engine. Normally, this would not be a problem with proper venting, but what they did is when the IC is mounted this way, there's no opening behind it to allow the air to pass through. You can only imagine the heat soak they are probably getting.

Furthermore, to clarify the issue about the turbo boost problems. It seems that the knock sensor is way, way too sensative. When starting the car, the CPU is cutting all boost to the car. So your 280hp machine is not at 180 and is heavy piece of steel.

They also have the auto Window down feature that is causing a lot of problems with windows not going up or all the way down. Also to most everyone's surprise, I think the speed6 is built in Japan, not in the Ford US plants like the regular 6's, but I am not 100%.