The Wards Auto top 10 engines of 2014 were announced on December 12th, shocking people with the presentation of amazing 20th anniversary winners. The list of winners is incredibly diverse and demonstrates a special appreciation for a variety of powertrains.
This competition was created by the Wards Auto group 20 years ago to give recognition to outstanding international builds and encourages the development of better more impressive engines year after year. Winners this year came from a pool of 44 finalists varying from both direct fuel injection as well as forced induction. Vehicles must qualify under the adjusted base price of $60,000.
2014 Winners:
-3.0L TFSI Supercharged DOHC V-6 (Audi S5)
-3.0L Turbodiesel DOHC I-6 (BMW 535d)
-3.0L Turbodiesel DOHC V-6 (Ram 1500 EcoDiesel)
-83-kW Electric Motor (Fiat 500e)
-1.0L EcoBoost DOHC I-3 (Ford Fiesta)
-2.0L Turbodiesel DOHC I-4 (Chevrolet Cruze Diesel)
-6.2L OHV V-8 (Chevrolet Corvette Stingray)
-3.5L SOHC V-6 (Honda Accord)
-2.7L DOHC H-6 boxer (Porsche Cayman)
-1.8L Turbocharged DOHC I-4 (Volkswagen Jetta)
Normally at least 4 engines are repeated on this list from the prior year (2013 in this case) winners, however this year only 2 winners were on the top 10 list again. Possibly the price adjustment at a base cost from $55,000 in 2013 up to the new 2014 amount of $60,000 had something to do with it but more likely this years production of fantastic new diesel engines were the true cause. According to the history of the competition this is the first occurrence of more than two diesel engines making the final 10 list.
Changes happened in the traditional winners characteristics, less 4-cyl engines were awarded that last year by 3 winners, new brand names were dropped and the turbo diesels shook things up. Fiat has finally made an appearance on the Wards list with the -83-kW Electric Motor (Fiat 500e) after some years of being expected to appear and GM has two winners on the list for the first time since 2008. Overall fuel efficiency was the biggest game changer this year with more cars putting out massively impressive MPG ratings.
This years Ward top 10 engine winners were picked in the traditional manner of judging with editors spending October and November in Detroit scoring the cars on observed fuel economy, vibration and harshness, competitiveness and noise, power, torque and technology.
Photo credit: iabusa / Foter.com / CC BY-SA
