Automobile Forum

Does anyone else enjoy finding out about weird and wonderful motors from around the world?

I just thought I'd share some weird ones I've learned about, in hopes of sparking a discussion. I hope someone can top these.

So let's talk about some weird motors:

The Commer "Knocker," a British post-war diesel engine used in trucks (lorries?), had three cylinders and six pistons. Two pistons per cylinder! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commer_TS3

That leads nicely into the Napier Deltic, which is a larger diesel engine (used in trains and ships) that had a weird triangular setup. Banks of six cylinders, arranged in a triangle (I guess you could call each side of the triangle a "cylinder"); three crankshafts, two pistons per crankshafts, and two pistons working in opposition (like the Commer Knocker) within each cylinder. Here's a short video of it (30 sec) from youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yftg5Ip0YlA

One of the really fun ones is the Chrysler Multibank, a World War II tank engine. It was a 30 cylinder engine built from five Chrysler inline sixes. Wikipedia explains it better than I can, with a picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_A57_multibank. Speaking of tank engines, maybe less weird and more wonderful is the modern M1A1 Abrams' turbine, which is said to make 1500 hp and can run on virtually any liquid that burns. My mind was blown when I first learned that our army tanks are jet powered! Strictly speaking I suppose it's not a jet, but still. Turbine cars are fascinating (some of the US automakers built prototypes in the 1950s-60s but it apparently never progressed very far) and it seems one of the only perfected, working, real-life models is in our very own tanks.

I'm sure some of the Soviet tanks have interesting engine setups--some kind of mammoth air-cooled diesel four-cylinder, I suppose--but I don't know much about those.

Lots of airplanes have radial engines, of course.

Then there's the Cizeta Moroder V16 engine. I'm not sure I fully understand what's so strange or interesting about this, but it pops up on all kinds of "weird engines" lists. Maybe it's just unusual. Apparently with the engine mounted transversely and the output shaft in the middle of the engine, this was essentially two V8 engines stuck together.

In the 1920s-30s, Bugatti made some "U" engines that were essentially two inline engines, upright and side by side, connected by gearing at the bottom to share a single drive shaft.

People have done all kinds of wonderful things with Mazda rotary engines. I was looking earlier for a YouTube video I once saw of a Miata with multiple rotary engines grafted together, but I couldn't find it. Oh well. It's still pretty cool.

Racing diesels fascinate me, but I don't know much about them.

And finally you have the wonderful Triumph 1500cc four cylinder, which produces a mighty 63 hp and is "rather agricultural" as the old British announcer on NBC Sports racing coverage might say. It sounds like half a Mustang and it really doesn't matter because the car is either making me happy in cornering or making me sad by sitting there not running and neither way really has much to do with the engine power.

That's all I've got. Someone tell me about some weird and wonderful motors. I need a breath of automotive fresh air after this Trump shit.

That is pretty darn cool. There were some rotary powered Russian tanks too. They borrowed the design from Mazda and scaled up!

VAG's weird engines have always intrigued me.

The VR6 (literally a super narrow V6) was weird enough, but then they made a W12 for the Phaeton (and later for the Bentley) basically by fusing two VR6s together.

So happy to see this topic get some love!!

Arthur - Got a link or anything? That sounds interesting but I couldn't find anything on it with a brief search.

Edge/ROD - You dick, didn't you give me a ton of shit about my VR6 engine when I was younger? They are cool though. It's been a while, but as I understand it the VR6 was even a little weirder than just a very narrow-angle V6. The cylinders were staggered and the two banks were close enough together to share a cylinder head. VAG made a W12 and also a W16, which they put in the Bugatti Veyron. The W12 was basically two VR6s, as you say, and the W16 was a "stretched" version, so basically two "VR8" motors, if such a thing existed. (Damn, I'd have liked to have a VR8!) I guess Lil Wayne's description of "two V8s, ain't no such thing as driving calm in this Bugatti" wasn't quite accurate, but surprisingly close. (I always love to hear rappers get it right when it comes to cars. 50 Cent: "Hit the clutch, hit the gear, hit the gas and I'm gone." So sad is the state of American motoring that it's rare to hear pop music even reference a stick shift!)

Did you know VAG also made a 5-cylinder? Forums are rife with reports of drivers bringing in their 5-cylinders to a dealership for service, only to be laughed at and condescended to when they say it's a 5-cylinder. At least until they angrily open the hood and make the guy count the spark plugs.

The Triumph GT6 came with a 1998 cc inline 6, which must be one of the smaller displacement production 6-cylinders out there...

The Audi 2.8 V6 was a 5-valve engine too. 30-valve twin cam V6. I inherited my Dad's 2001 Audi A4 as a graduation present and drove it from about 2010 through 2014 or so. Great engine but the car's overall reliability just wasn't quite there...

Didnt the early 2000 jetta come with the 5cyl? I think etard had one... Horrible engine

The audis had 5cyls back in the 80s though...

Didn't ford and Volvo use 5cyls more recently too?


I had a 2.6 4cyl, which was pretty huge for a 4....

Etard had a mazdarossa!!! lmao

I miss the guy sometimes. And smelly, especially smelly

Check out this 22-liter 1917 Fiat from Jay Leno's Garage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0HXxGjlIag

Powered by a 22-liter airplane engine. Even though it's 22 liters, it's just a straight six! They said each cylinder has the displacement of a small block V8. The valve springs are exposed and you have to manually oil each valve (all 24 of them--lots of valves for 1917) before starting!

On straight fives, Wikipedia has some interesting stuff. From the intro: Henry Ford had an inline-five engine developed in the late 1930s to early 1940s for a compact economy car design, which never saw production due to lack of demand for small cars in the United States.[1] Lancia of Italy developed a 5-cylinder diesel engine in the late 1930s for use in their RO truck series to replace the earlier 2-cylinder diesel and 3-cylinder petrol engines used.

I'm glad we don't have to choose between 5 cylinder diesels and 2 or 3 cylinder gas engines anymore...

I guess the cylinders were still bigger than the Ferrari 3.0l V12s'

Not really a strange engine, but a strange engine use


How about a backwards longitudinal turbo 4cyl with chains and gears to drive the front wheels

Like a Saab 900