Subaru 2.5L Boxer Engine Wins Engine Of The Year Award

[fbrdphreak]

This is a little old, but its new to me. Go Subaru!

http://www.motorimage.net/HK/news.php?newstype=latest&newsid=0

Tokyo, May 11th 2006 - Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (FHI), a global manufacturer of transportation and aerospace-related products and the maker of Subaru automobiles, today announced that its 2.5-liter, Horizontally Opposed boxer engine with a turbo charger was voted this year?s winner in the 2- to 2.5-liter engine class of the International Engine of the Year Awards. The award ceremony took place today at the Engine Expo in Stuttgart, Germany. The award granted to the Subaru engine, with which Subaru Impreza and Forester models are equipped, marks the first time a Horizontally Opposed engine has been chosen in the prestigious annual awards.

A panel of 61 renowned journalists from 29 countries served as judges in the competition organized by UKIP Media & Events - Automotive Magazines? Division, Britain?s largest group of auto-technology magazines, which includes Engine Technology International and Automotive Testing Technology International. The judges applied their technical knowledge and impressions, scoring for the vehicle?s performance, drivability, ease of handling, fuel economy, and refinement. Based on the points given by the judges, the grand prize, prizes for best engines in eight capacity classes and three other categories were awarded.

The now internationally acclaimed Subaru 2.5-liter turbo engine features powerful torque output as well as environmental considerations. By employing a secondary air injection system, improving on the engine control system and modifying combustion chamber designs, FHI has made significant improvements in lowering vehicle emission levels. The engine achieves optimal balance between nimble response in low-speed driving ranges and enhanced power output, thanks to design changes of the water jacket in the cylinder head and layout modifications in the exhaust manifolds to minimize pump loss while ensuring smooth gas flow. These engine refinements and improvements have been recognized by the judges and brought FHI its first award in the competition.

Subaru?s current Impreza and Forester models, which are sold in Europe, North America, and Australia, come equipped with the award-winning 2.5-liter turbo engines, as does the Saab 9-2X, which is sold in North America under a supply agreement with Saab.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Man, that engine's probably been around for atleast a decade and now it wins an award? It's like the Chevy Smallblock winning engine of the year in 1970.

 

[DougK62]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Man, that engine's probably been around for atleast a decade and now it wins an award? It's like the Chevy Smallblock winning engine of the year in 1970.

With all the fancy electronics and stuff associated with drivetrains it's easy to make an engine a lot better/worse than a previous version that may use the same or similar block, heads, etc. Heck, the small block Chevy is STILL winning awards...

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: DougK62

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Man, that engine's probably been around for atleast a decade and now it wins an award? It's like the Chevy Smallblock winning engine of the year in 1970.

With all the fancy electronics and stuff associated with drivetrains it's easy to make an engine a lot better/worse than a previous version that may use the same or similar block, heads, etc. Heck, the small block Chevy is STILL winning awards...

Exactly. The 2.5L H-4 has been around the block though. I think its first iteration was in my car, 95-99 Legacy GT's as the EJ25. I thnk they're on revision II or III for the N/A cars now; the original had serious issues with head gaskets blowing before 100K miles.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

I'm not saying that the 2.5L Boxer engine is bad. It's a really awesome engine, and I won't dispute the outcome.

just that, I want to dispute the judging process.

why do they use journalists instead of reputable scholarly engineers to hand out these awards? These engineering judges should have access to all the dev process/docs/materials&spec sheets/CAD/etc documents at their disposal to research, and test at the very extremes of temperatures and conditions.

This way we can tell which engine is truly the best engineered engine, no?

Journalists w/ probably no more than an expertise as a seasoned mechanic are doing the judging? bah.

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
I'm not saying that the 2.5L Boxer engine is bad. It's a really awesome engine, and I won't dispute the outcome.

just that, I want to dispute the judging process.

why do they use journalists instead of reputable scholarly engineers to hand out these awards? These engineering judges should have access to all the dev process/docs/materials&spec sheets/CAD/etc documents at their disposal to research, and test at the very extremes of temperatures and conditions.

This way we can tell which engine is truly the best engineered engine, no?

Journalists w/ probably no more than an expertise as a seasoned mechanic are doing the judging? bah.

Kinda depends on what you intend to judge. Do you want to judge simply by engineering or results?

Journalists are appropriate for judging the results of the engine and how well they fit in a particular drivetrain, which I think is the main criteria for that engine award.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: EarthwormJim

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
I'm not saying that the 2.5L Boxer engine is bad. It's a really awesome engine, and I won't dispute the outcome.

just that, I want to dispute the judging process.

why do they use journalists instead of reputable scholarly engineers to hand out these awards? These engineering judges should have access to all the dev process/docs/materials&spec sheets/CAD/etc documents at their disposal to research, and test at the very extremes of temperatures and conditions.

This way we can tell which engine is truly the best engineered engine, no?

Journalists w/ probably no more than an expertise as a seasoned mechanic are doing the judging? bah.

Kinda depends on what you intend to judge. Do you want to judge simply by engineering or results?

Journalists are appropriate for judging the results of the engine and how well they fit in a particular drivetrain, which I think is the main criteria for that engine award.

Both good points. I think this award was indeed based on the results of the engine, not necessarily its engineering. If it was the engineering alone, I'm sure it would be an interest list of candidates.