These Are The Best Engines Our Readers Have Ever Driven

After spending a weekend with a Lamborghini Temerario, which has a fantastic V8 that revs all the way to 10,000 rpm, I started thinking about the best engines I’ve ever experienced from behind the wheel. Not the best cars overall, but the best engines specifically, as sadly, fantastic engines aren’t always attached to fantastic cars. Last week I posed to question to all of you, asking for the stories of the best engines you’ve ever driven, and you really delivered.

There were so many good answers with a ton of variety, including lots of great cars that you personally own, from the normal to the exotic. A lot of you said various BMW engines, which isn’t surprising. I focused in on my personal favorite answers here, but it’s worth going back to the original post to read through them all. There’s really something for everybody, from muscle cars and pickup trucks to supercars and hot hatchbacks. 

I’ve been lucky enough to drive some exotics and I absolutely loved the V8 in the F430 and the V10 in the Gallardo.

But the car I enjoy driving the most is my dad’s ’69 Camaro with a 430 hp built 350. Throttle response is hard to describe to people who have only driven fuel injected cars and think they are responsive. The sound is amazing with the high lift cam. The best part is the mechanical secondaries. If you are rolling onto the throttle you get to feel the extra resistance and are rewarded with more throttle by more intake volume and more lift of the front end. And if you are going all out through the gears, the way the tires chirp with each shift is absolutely addicting.

Modern cars have phenomenal engines, but the visceral nature of a very powerful classic car engine really is a different level.

Submitted by: cintocrunch1

There is something special about a good muscle car V8.

Hard to really describe, but Its the only engine Ive ever driven that truly felt alive in its own way. Pure and responsive to every form of different touch of the throttle, and felt like itself had a direct connection to you with its own emotions in its feedback

I drove the Ferrari 458 on the track once, and I still remember how it sounded. uh, such a symphony of elegance, the high notes, the bass, it’s like being shouted at by a thousand voices all at once at full throttle. Then apologizes with each downshift, like the whimper of a puppy that doesn’t want to leave the dog park!…I don’t care how fast cars get, no other car has given me that “one who got away” like that Ferrari 458.

Motorcycles own this category because they’re just so much better, but for a car it’s probably the Ferrari 458s 4.5L V8. It’s not the best car I have ever driven, but that engine feels perfect. High revs, great mid range torque, and all natural. Contrarily the good old LS7 in the in the C6 Z06 is a close second and yet entirely different. It really is peak front-engine Corvette. The chassis, suspension, and interior leave a lot to be desired, but I still think that engine (once the heads are fixed) is probably the most satisfying engine ever to be put in an American made car.

Submitted by: Crashed Lambo, Agon Targeryan, Dan Putnam

Definitely will go down in history as one of the best.

The M30B30 straight six in the BMW 3.0CSi sticks in my mind.

In 1973, Interstate 44 through Missouri had recently opened. A salesman at the local BMW/Mazda dealer took me on a lunchtime trip from St. Louis to Rolla, MO in the car. We lumbered up to 130 mph and cruised, the salesman driving with one hand and the two of us carrying on a conversation. We had lunch and then he tossed me the keys, whereupon I did much the same on the return trip.

For a kid who was racing late model stock cars and brought up on thundering Detroit V8s, it was a revelation. Gave me a taste of German iron that lasted for decades. It was also the first time I realized that in wide-open territory, a genuine GT could be a legit substitute for a small aircraft. Back then, anyway.

Submitted by: jrhmobile

Such a fabulous car.

This one’s easy: The Oldsmobile 455 Rocket.

My 1971 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Regency was a lumbering boat I got for $10, but that 455 was incredible. The car just had a peg-leg rear axle, and that 455 would spin that one rear wheel for an entire city block. Especially if I had just pulled out from a side street.

I once did just that – right in front of a police officer. It was just after the crest of a hill at dusk – I was honestly just trying to get moving because I didn’t willingly pull out in front of him, he crested the hill just as I was entering the road – so I just floored it. Anyway, he wrote me two tickets:

One for disorderly conduct with a motor vehicle, which I couldn’t really dispute even though my intentions were good.

The second ticket was for speeding. But as soon as I saw him hit the lights, I pulled over in the next block, and I argued this in court. I agreed that one of my rear tires might have been spinning over the speed limit, but that since I pulled over right away, that the rest of the car probably didn’t have enough traction to get up over the speed limit.

The judge asked the officer if I did pull over right away, and when the officer agreed that I did, he threw out the speeding fine. Which was what I wanted, since the speeding ticket would have added points to my (probationary) license, while the disorderly conduct was just a misdemeanor with no points on my record. I was also still a minor, so that misdemeanor went away a few months later when I turned 18.

Seconded. I had a 68 Toronado with the Olds 455 HO, and that thing rumbled beautifully. I’d rev it at lights, and the whole front passenger side would dip with the torque!

3rd’d. Had a 1972 442 with a 455 I bought out of a shed. Body was shot, frame was good, transmission was a 4 speed in great shape and it initially ran on roughly 5 cylinders. At 19 I basically raided the summit catalog and did a cheap rebuilt and hop up with camshaft, intake, cheap headers and rebuilt holley 4150 carb I got handed for free from my uncle. It would burn through first, second and bark 3rd.

Submitted by: Anonymous Person, Dr.Xyster, Drg84

There’s a lot of videos out there of these doing burnouts. Good.

1990 Jaguar XJS V12. Just starting it was so weird like a WW1 biplane that I used to whisper CONTACT when I turned the key. Revving sounded like an ocean wave. It wasn’t blazing fast or anything but that Grand Tourer grunt was just really nice. It didn’t bother to downshift when passing on the highway, I’d punch it and that rickety-assed basketcase would just say “OK let’s go. I’ve got a lot more.”

Yup! I owned a 1994 XJ12 – the much improved 4-speed transmission (downshifts whenever called for + more reasonable gearing) really gave the engine the opportunity to prove itself.

Submitted by: epochellipse, semica altoid

V12s rule.

I have driven exotic engines, and have had excellent ones in my stable too.

My favourite by far has to be the Alfa Romeo Busso V6. I had a 2.5L in my 155, and it was magical to rev out. It was eager, felt stronger than the numbers suggested, and the intake noise it made was astounding. Made a regular sport sedan sound like a mini Lambo. I loved that engine so much I imported another Alfa, my Bertone GT 3.2 V6, and that sounds even better! Best sounding mass produced engine of all time.

Submitted by: ChaosphereVIII

Just perfection.

Best doesn’t mean fastest, so I’d say it was the 1.8L engine in my ’91 Integra. It spun up like a sewing machine, and I took it to redline on EVERY single drive for the 181,000 miles that I owned it. It’s easy to hit the redline when a car only has 130 hp, and you are an enthusiastic young driver. I skipped each major service after 60K (just changed the oil every 3-5K). I saw it on the road a few years later. What a great little engine.

100% on this. Mine was the 1.8L in my 2000 Celica GT-S. Made 180 HP right at the 7800 RPM redline, which it saw daily over 20 years and 384,000 miles. Like a sewing machine is an apt description, and it had so much personality. Oil every 3,000 miles, it was bulletproof. Turns out not DEER-proof though :-(.

My absolute favorite motor was the modest little PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) 2.5-liter 125-hp 90-degree V-6 in a 1978 Volvo 264GL I purchased second hand in 1984. It was very smooth and had the most awesome exhaust burble. But the thing that differentiated it from the motors in every other car I owned over the last 49 years–21 in total–was its absolute lack of rotating inertia. If you stabbed and immediately released the throttle at idle it would rev to redline–about 5500 rpm–and then return back to idle FAR more quickly than any other car I’ve ever owned. Try that in whatever you’re driving now and see what happens (your tachometer will barely budge). I loved that engine and regret that it’s no longer in production. And even when it was, the selection of cars in which I could buy it (in the US) was limited to a small number of Volvo and Peugeot models. And of course the DeLorean DMC-12.

Submitted by: 17Seconds, BirdLaw9000, Bob

Absolutely.

The best fuel efficient engine I have ever had is our Fiat 500 Abarth engine. It’s a little 1.4L pocket rocket. They have 18psi of boost stock but at 23psi they are stone reliable and make nearly 200hp. All while getting 40mpg around town, in a platform that has 2/3 of the weight over the drive wheels up front.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have it in the 124 Spyder. A Miata with that engine would be rather entertaining.

Submitted by: Daniel

One of my absolute favorites as well! And honestly, that engine is better in the 500 than the 124.

Thinking of cars I’ve driven, the most impressive engine was the 472 cu. in Caddy engine in my dad’s 71 Coupe DeVille.

It was a silent killer. It just pulled. 45-120+ was just a couple of seconds away, with absolutely no drama and no sense that the engine was even working. Just “I want to pass someone” and a gentle push on the throttle to a “what’s that ticking sound from the dash” as the speedo hit the peg. This sort of pull was so insanely easy that you didn’t even realize you were doing it.

The transmission taking half a week to shift and the suspension being about 1000 times softer than it should have been and the skinny rear tires and open differential pressure masked how insanely good that engine was.

The figures aren’t that impressive, but Caddy wasn’t in a horsepower and torque race and I think the numbers (325 hp/ 525 ft-lb) are understated (particularly torque). I wouldn’t be shocked if the factory torque was over 600 perhaps pushing 700, since it takes hardly any changes to one to get to 800 ft-lbs for a mild street tuned version.

Submitted by: hoser68

Awesome dad car.

My W12 Bentley GTC.

I’ve driven Porsches and Ferraris and a Bugatti, and while they are more hair-raising at times, the W12 speaks deeply to the euphoria region of the amygdala.

Submitted by: CBinNYC

That engine really is special.