On the market roughly four years, Fiat's Small Gasoline Engine (SGE) the punchy 875cc two-cylinder turbo powered engine, the TwinAir, has won over the hearts of many. With its characterful high end torque along with impressive consumption figures this little engine makes city driving more exciting than is imaginable with such a small engine and has deservedly won International Engine of the Year in 2011. The original TwinAir featured a 85bhp power engine but that has been usurped by a more powerful 105bhp model for those wanting to push the two cylinder to its upper-most limits.
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| Fiat 500 TwinAir |
Consequently, this engine has been used in many other vehicles beyond the Fiat 500 including sister brand Alfa Romeo's MiTo and fellow family member Lancia's Ypsilon, known in the United Kingdom as the Chrysler Ypsilon. If you weren't aware Chrysler is part of the Fiat group, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), which also encompasses Jeep and Ferrari. The lesser known Ypsilon offers a happy compromise of the 500 and MiTo offering the cabin space of the MiTo but the heightened driving position of the 500. However one significant difference is that the Ypsilon comes as a 5-door hatch unlike the 3-door 500 and MiTo, which maybe more practical for some consumers.
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| Alfa Romeo MiTo |
Regarding drive, the MiTo's low centre point of gravity combined with has positive steering means that it is more favourable to drive and this combination compliments the TwinAir engine greatly. The more popular 500 is still a fun car to drive however it suffers from very light steering, a result of the cars tall posture and impacts the overall handling of the car. The Ypsilon also suffers from this misfortune however not to the same extent as the 500 due to the Ypsilon's added length, which helps to balance out the car and improve handling.
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| Lancia/ Chrysler Ypsilon |
The increasing success of the TwinAir engine is evident as many other car manufacturers are now downsizing their engines from four cylinder to three cylinder and some others have also went down to the two-pot turbo-powered engine arrangement which is an option on the Dacia Sandero and if so desired also in the Fiat Panda. Engine development continues to focus on downsizing as Renault have also developed a two stroke, turbo-charged diesel engine (which is not earmarked for any particular model as yet) and Volkswagen have recently announced that they have produced the quickest two cylinder engine yet in the form of the XL Sport concept which is based on the Ducati Superlegga engine. Hats off to Fiat for their early development and usage of such technology, if you want to get a flavour of combustion engines in the future all you have to do is drive one of these cars with the fantastic TwinAir engine.
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