(Fri 19 Jun 09)

The Volkswagen Group's 1.4-litre TSI super/turbocharged petrol engine has been named International Engine of the Year in the tenth running of the award.

The 1.4 TSI Twincharger has won the one- to 1.4-litre category four years on the trot, but each time it has been beaten to the overall prize by a BMW engine of one sort or another. This time, however, the judges reckoned that no BMW unit could surpass it, and it also took the Green award which had previously been dominated by Toyota.

The Twincharger is available in the Volkswagen Golf, Jetta (pictured), Eos, Scirocco, Tiguan and Touran ranges, as well as in the SEAT Ibiza. Dean Slavnich, editor of Engine Technology International magazine and co-Chairman of the International Engine of the Year Awards, described it as "a masterstroke of downsizing technology and a real engineering showcase. I have no doubt that this engine will become the template for a whole new generation of high-efficiency, small-capacity engines in the years to come."

Porsche's latest 3.8-litre engine for the 911 was voted Best New Engine of 2009, while the Mercedes-AMG 6.2 V8 was named Performance Engine of the Year.

Other categories were divided according to engine size. The winners, other than those already mentioned, were the Toyota 1.0 petrol (used in the Aygo, Yaris, Citroen C1, Peugeot 107 and Subaru Justy), the PSA Peugeot Citroen/BMW Group 1.6 Turbo (MINI Cooper S, MINI Clubman, Peugeot 207 and Peugeot 308), the Audi 2.0 TFSI, the 2.1-litre Mercedes-Benz BlueEfficiency diesel, the BMW 3.0 twin-turbo diesel and the BMW 4.0 V8 fitted to the M3.

Previous: Security Awards                                            Next: Honda Civic Price Drop