“Here comes the 3.0-liter inline-four Porsche,” you might say to yourself. Sure, it’ll be on this list, but Porsche’s uber-four is a weed-killing engine compared to the full-displacement fours. Spoiler alert: one of the engines here has more displacement than a Dodge Viper, Bugatti Chiron, Bentley Continental GT W12, and Mustang GT combined.
Why are big fours so rare? Let’s think like engineers and consider the pros and cons of four-cylinder engines. Manufacturers find fours attractive because they can be built with fewer parts and achieve better efficiency than, say, a V12 or V8. They are also lighter and take up less space. The problem is that inline patrols tend to vibrate like washing machines washing a block of cents on the spin cycle. To keep the squares smooth, you need balance shafts and/or crankshaft counterweights — or, like the Subaru, you can use two banks of two pistons at 180 degrees to cancel out some of the vibration. But of course, everything goes up with displacement, and once a four-cylinder gets big enough, it loses its size advantage. As a result, manufacturers would prefer turbochargers with quiet and easy-to-manage fours to produce the required power. Turbos be damned, though, the engines on this list have decided there’s no substitute for displacement. Just to warn you ahead of time, we are left with four that power cars or car-like things. Sorry Fairbanks Morse 172L 32D fans, but those engines spent their lives powering mills and rock crushers instead of frying tires with sick burns.
Read more: Why Formula 1 engines went from V12 to V6
The smallest giant: the 3.0 liter Porsche M44/41 and M44/43
A close-up of a Porsche M44/41 3-liter four-cylinder fully restored from a Porsche 944 S2 in a workshop over a multicolored carpet – Only A Roadtrip Away/YouTube
This 182-cubic-inch four-cylinder is essentially half of a Porsche 928 V8. Rather than being an economical four-pot, the 3-liter M44/41 as installed in the Porsche 944 S2 uses aluminum-silicon alloy blocks, forged crankshafts, double overhead cams and Mitsubishi’s balance shaft technology. The M44/43 in Porsche 968s increased to 236 hp thanks to VarioCam (variable valve timing) and a slight increase in compression from 10.9:1 to 11:1. Sure, the Porsche 968’s parts availability and short service intervals are frustrating, but it’s a four-cylinder with twice the displacement of a 1.5-liter V16 BRM!
The 944 S2’s 0-60 time was just under 7 seconds, and the 968s bettered the same run at just 6.1 seconds. As is so often the case with cool, high-performance versions of cars, turbocharged 968s were not sold new in the US. Porsche built 14 examples of the 305 hp 968 Turbo S (or 13 or 15, or some other number, depending on how much you like to argue). It kept the same displacement but added forced induction and replaced the 16-valve head with an 8-valve one from the old 944 Turbo. This car was good for a smoking 4.9-second 0-60 in 1994. The final boss of the 968, however, is the 350 hp 968 Turbo RS, which was born for Germany’s ADAC GT racing series. Porsche only managed to sell four of them, and they could hit 60 in just 4.4 seconds.
Not even on the podium yet: the 3.2-liter Pontiac Trophy 4
A close-up of the blue-painted Pontiac Trophy 4 3.2-liter four-cylinder engine topped with a four-barrel carburetor – Lafontaine Classic Cars/YouTube
Like Porsche’s M44, Pontiac’s Trophy 4 is basically half of an existing engine. Pontiac engineer Malcolm McKellar ran a 389 four-piston V8 and found that decent power remained while providing good fuel economy, proving the concept was viable. After physically removing a bank of cylinders, the Trophy 4 was born. With 10.25:1 compression and a four-barrel carburetor, it put out 166 hp. To isolate their vibrations, the Trophy 4s are supported by the driveshaft and gearbox at the rear and marshmallow rubber mounts at the front. These days, you can find 1962 Pontiac Tempests under 7 grand, with a four-cylinder that vibrates like a massage chair and weighs as much as a small-block Chevy V8.
If you’ve ever read NASCAR legend Smokey Yunick’s memoir, “Best Damn Garage In Town: The World According to Smokey,” you probably expected me to mention that Smokey claims he designed the Trophy 4 as a favor to Pontiac’s assistant chief engineer, John Z. DeLorean. This must have happened between racing the Indy 500 and prospecting for gold in Ecuador (no, not a joke). It was certainly mechanically brilliant, and its ‘hot steam’ version of the four-cylinder Iron Duke apparently managed 250bhp and up to 51mpg, so it had the capability. But how much of Trophy 4 was Smokey’s and how much was McKellar’s is probably a “he said/she said” argument.
Almost three liters per cylinder: Model 90 Simplex 11.1 litres
Simplex 90 races at the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup, black and white photo of two men covered in dirt at the wheel as the car speeds past the finish line – Bain News Service/Wikimedia Commons
You have to be careful when looking for Simplex machines. A 1903 Mercedes-Simplex sold for $12 million, but this isn’t the Simplex we’re looking for. There’s also American Simplex in Mishwaka, Indiana, but that’s not the Simplex we want either. In fact, American Simplex renamed itself Amplex because there was already a New York-based Simplex, which is the Simplex we’re talking about. Specifically, we’re focusing on the engine powering the Simplex 90 pictured above from the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup.
AD Proctor Smith and Carleton R. Mabley debuted the Smith and Mabley Simplex in 1904, offering either 18 hp or 30 hp versions. The pair had imported Mercedes, Renaults, Fiats and Panhards, so they knew what a quality car meant. Indeed, it appears that Smith and Mabley based their car on the 18/22bhp Mercedes Simplex and even slyly used Mercedes suppliers.
In 1907, the 9.8-liter, 50 hp Model 50 arrived, followed by the 75 hp Model 75, which had the same displacement but larger valves. Then there was the 1909-1913 90, which according to the established model should put out 90 hp, right? Well, Hemmings talked to a Simplex 90 owner named Joel Finn, who threw his Simplex’s 11.1-liter four-cylinder Speed powered car on a dyno and got 172 hp. “I don’t know of any early car with more horsepower,” he enthused, “It takes off like a rocket.”
Piston paint buckets: Blitzen-Benz 21.5 liter
21.5-liter four-cylinder from a Blitzen Benz at the Pebble Beach Concours about to start – EarthAdvocate/YouTube
To be clear, the Blitzen-Benz was not the fastest car in the world when it debuted. It was simply the fastest thing in the world. In 1909, it managed 202.6 km/h or 124 mph, making it faster than trains – and even airplanes! This was not only the land speed record, but the absolute record, and was probably the fastest speed anyone had ever experienced and lived through at the time. Human terminal velocity, the fastest we can fall before air resistance cancels gravity, is about 120 mph, although you can go headfirst and possibly reach 200 mph, which would be necessary to outrun the Blitzen-Benz. Then, in 1911, it reached 228.1 km/h (137 mph), which was twice the speed of the fastest airplane. It lives up to its name, the German word “blitzen” which translates to “flash”.
At 1,312 cubic inches, Blitzen-Benz’s 21.5-liter four is bigger than many studio flats and makes 200 hp and about 1,000 pound-feet of torque. The block is not even one cast, but two! Each holds a pair of reinforced pistons under the cooling jacket, gripping the crankcase with 12 massive lugs. Five main bearings support the crankshaft, which is roughly the size and shape of Lombard Street in San Francisco. This horizontal skyscraper could outrun any vehicle on the planet and is the forerunner of all fast Mercedes-Benzes, from super sedans like the 300SEL 6.3 or 450SEL 6.9 to later cars like the pre-merger 6-liter Mercedes AMG Hammer coupes.
Number of the Beast: 28.4 liter Fiat S76 Beast of Turin
Fiat S76 Beast of Torino passes hay bales and grass on a racetrack with white shadows and trees in the background – Sarnia/Shutterstock
Better known as the “Beast of Turin” or “Mephistopheles,” the Fiat S76 produces 300 hp and 2,000 pound-feet of torque from a 28.4-liter four-cylinder. It’s not a car so much as a Saran-wrapped engine. The poor clutch responsible for transmitting the power of the engine has 90 plates. No, not nine, but 90. Each cylinder displaces 7.1 liters, which is more than a 426 Hemi V8. At 300 rpm, Mephistopheles is at highway speed. Just 1,000 rpm is enough for almost 130 mph. This is also a rare antique engine – and by that I mean there is one. The only other S76 engine built no longer exists.
Belgian driver Arthur Duray attempted a speed record in 1913, but mechanical problems prevented the average round trip required. According to Fiat Club America, he said, “I was using all my years of experience to drive the Fiat fully in third gear. It would have taken the courage of a thousand men to drive it fully in fourth gear.” Then, in July 1924, British driver Ernest Eldridge – the man who actually designed this beast – took Mephistopheles to 146 mph and set a new land speed record. Somehow this was accomplished on public roads and all involved survived. God bless Duncan Pittway who led the restoration of the Beast of Turin and drove in the rain at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Seriously, God, take care of him, that thing is scary.
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