Engine Technologies

A fresh and extremely powerful take on the rotary engine. Connecticut company LiquidPiston is developing a portable generator for the US Army using its X-Engine, which promises as much power as the Army's current gen-set at one-fifth the size.

DARPA has awarded a US$14-million contract to the Gryphon Technologies engineering firm to support the development and demonstration of a nuclear rocket engine for the agency's Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program.

It’s been a long road of research, development and, more recently, testing but the team at GE Aviation has now earned official US certification for the world’s largest commercial aircraft engine, the GE Aviation GE9X.

It's one of the toughest engine assignments Cosworth has ever been given. For example, the T.50's 654-horsepower, 3.9-liter, naturally aspirated V12 has to rev from idle to its record-breaking 12,100 rpm redline in just three tenths of a second.

Maserati has stepped into a phone booth, and in September it'll debut its first proper, red-blooded supercar, as well as its first in-house engine, in decades. The MC20 and its 620-horsepower, twin-turbo V6 signal the Tridente's return to racing.

In partnership with the famed turbo snail-smiths at Garrett, Mercedes-Benz has announced it's developing electrically-assisted, 170,000 rpm turbochargers to eliminate turbo lag and boost the efficiency of its combustion engines.

A South Australian company is ready to go into full production with an innovative aftermarket kit that impressively cuts fuel consumption, particulates and carbon monoxide emissions from big diesel engines, asking only for a little water in return.

Camcon's Intelligent Valve Technology (IVT) replaces the camshaft with electric actuators for precise digital control over the air charge of any engine. Now, the company's focus is shifting from cars to heavy diesels and artificial intelligence.

It's only been a week, but we've already had to update our list of the world's most powerful cars, after Hennessey Performance surprised itself with an extreme dyno reading.

The gasoline age is giving way to electric, but there's still plenty of room for last-gasp improvements to the combustion engine.

Set to debut in a new 1.6-liter 4-cylinder Smartstream turbo engine, Hyundai's new valve tech is able to continuously change the duration of valve openings to suit driving conditions, which results in a 4 percent performance boost, 5 percent better fuel economy and 12 percent lower emissions.

British company Camcon Automotive has built a fully digital engine valve system, uncoupled from the crank, that offers unprecedented control over the combustion cycle. It enables some weird and wonderful ideas we've never seen before, such as giving 4-stroke engines brief 2-stroke power boosts​.