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Image: - Dr. Rüdiger Szengel, Director Gasoline Engine Development

By winning the overall International Engine of the Year Award for the second consecutive year, VW’s innovative TSI Twincharger has proved it’s no one-hit wonder. In fact, only two other engines throughout the 12-year history of the International Engine of the Year Awards have won the overall award back-to-back: first BMW’s 5-litre V10 heart in 2005 and 2006, and then the Bavarian car maker’s 3-litre twin turbo unit, which was victorious in 2007 and 2008.

So, Wolfsburg’s TSI Twincharger joins an exclusive club, but it had to work hard to gain membership, beating the 2007 and 2008 champion by only 19 points in this year’s race.

Like last year, VW’s 1.4-litre unit managed to gather points from markets outside Europe, with judges in North America, Asia and South America all awarding top marks. “Last year’s IEOTY is still the most accurate, efficient pointer to the future of petrol power. It was an easy choice,” said Australian-based motoring journalist Bill McKinnon. Canadian Jim Kenzie was equally impressed: “The VW Twincharger engine remains the best combination of various technologies to produce high power with low emissions and fuel consumption.”

The four-cylinder combines a turbocharger and supercharger in one compact unit. The result is power of up to 178bhp, but what’s most impressive is the engine’s specific power that attains 127.1bhp per litre of displacement. And with 240Nm of torque coming good at 1,500rpm, it’s easy to see why the jurors that look for performance and sporty characteristics were impressed.

But power is just part of the story for this year’s International Engine of the Year. The TSI derivative mated to VW’s DSG system emits 144g CO2/ km, and in a Golf application, while fuel consumption is rated at 6.2 l/100km (45.5mpg). With those figures, it’s little wonder that TSI twincharger yet won.