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You wouldn’t use a sledgehammer to crack a walnut, or a pair of scissors to cut the grass, but these crazy car/engine combos are the automotive equivalent.
Usually, car makers spend vast amounts of time and money methodically picking the most logical powerplant for their latest models – whether that’s a humdrum Fiesta or a fiery new Ferrari. Sometimes, though, they go a little off-piste.
From V12 diesel SUVs to turbine-powered Chryslers, join us as we count down history’s most weird and wonderful car/engine combinations. Spoiler: some weren’t a great success…
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While dropping a big engine in a small car often produces interesting results, the same is rarely true for the opposite configuration.
As engines go, Ford’s tiny 1.0 EcoBoost is far from a shocker — from a driving perspective at least. In fact, it won International Engine of the Year for six consecutive years and was generally well regarded for its punchy power delivery and fuel economy when fitted to the Fiesta.
However, slotting the same 3-cylinder 124-bhp engine into a 1.5-tonne Mondeo was arguably a little too ambitious. A hefty weight penalty over the supermini — up to 400kg in some cases — blunted both the performance and the real-world fuel economy.
Then, adding insult to injury, the plucky three pot developed a reputation for unreliability thanks to a ‘wet belt’ issue that caused engines with as few as 50,000 miles to fail catastrophically. Less EcoBoost, more EcoBoom…
At the opposite end of the spectrum, meet Mercedes’ 6.2-litre V8-powered MPV. No, that’s not a typo, hailing from the peculiar sporty people carrier era — which saw the likes of a spicy Ford S-Max and a high-performance Vauxhall Zafira — the R63 took things a step further.
Featuring no less than eight cylinders and 503 bhp, this six-seat minivan could hurtle from 0-60 mph in five seconds and on to an electronically limited 155 mph. Oh, and it mustered just 17.6 mpg on the combined cycle.
Who was it designed for? We have no idea, and it seems Mercedes didn’t either. With just 322 units built worldwide — only 12 of which made it to the UK — the R63 is now considerably rarer than the gullwing-doored SLS supercar which shared an evolution of the same V8.
Dating back to when the Clio was still a genuinely small, light car, Renault’s idea to install a throaty 3-litre V6 seemed just a little unhinged. And it was. Mounted mid-ship (goodbye rear seats), and hooked up to power the rear wheels exclusively, the V6 made the Clio a true pocket rocket – at the expense of practicality, economy, and affordability.
At 255-bhp and 5.8 seconds to 60 mph, the performance might not have the ultimate wow factor these days, but the notoriously snappy handling and V6 growl should make this Clio feel more exotic than any modern hot hatch.
Built to showcase Ingolstadt’s diesel prowess alongside a similarly powered Le Mans racer, the world hadn’t (and still hasn’t) seen anything like Audi’s Q7 V12 TDI before.
Displacing six litres and boasting two turbochargers, the top-rung Q7’s engine was not only the world’s most powerful production diesel, but also the only car to boast a twelve-cylinder TDI — a title it still holds to this day.
Did the world really need an SUV with 500 bhp and 738 lb ft of torque? No. And that’s exactly what makes it so endearing; it’s a ‘because we could’ moment of epic proportions. However, with a £96,000 (£156,000 adjusted for inflation) starting price and an official combined MPG of just 24 mpg, it’s no surprise it never caught on.
Whirring into first place and making Audi’s V12 diesel look like a sensible daily driver: Chrysler’s remarkable Turbine Car. As the name suggests, yes, that really is an airplane-style turbine nestled in the back of a 1960s slice of Americana. Believe it or not, though, this wasn’t some outlandish one-off built by a man in his shed. No, this was a legitimate commercial effort by one of America’s largest automakers to test jet-powered cars for mass production.
After dipping their toes in the world of turbines for aircraft during the second world war, Chrysler’s engineers began to ponder if the same tech could be used in a car. In 1963 they got an answer: yes, it could. But, if you pardon the pun, the turbine car failed to take off.
That’s not to say the endeavour was a total flop. In an effort to prove the technology’s everyday usability, the US giant produced 50 examples and gave them to members of the public to test free of charge. And, while the project was ultimately canned due the powerplant’s extraordinary thirst, noise, and comparatively underwhelming performance, testers did report exceptional reliability and smoothness.
Do you think turbine-powered cars should make a comeback? Or perhaps you want to see more V8-engined MPVs. Tell us you favourite car/engine mismatches.
Hero image credit: Audi
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