Infiniti Has Built A Variable Displacement Engine And It's Spectacularly Clever
The idea of a variable displacement engine is something that’s been around for years. Through cylinder shutdown technology, engines like Bentley’s W12 and Aston Martin’s new 5.2-litre V12 can turn off a whole cylinder bank under certain situations, temporarily giving a smaller, more efficient engine. However, the sort of variable displacement tech Infiniti has come up is way, way more clever.
What the company’s new ‘VC-T’ engine can do is change the stroke of the pistons automatically depending on the driving situation, in the process varying the displacement and compression ratio. The con rods are made of two parts, with an actuator connected to the lower ‘multi-link’ part. An electric motor moves the actuator, raising and lowering the piston height where required.
Using this jolly clever tech, the VC-T can have a compression ratio anywhere from 8:1 for the best performance, to 14:1 for the highest efficiency.
Power-wise we can expect around 270bhp, all while giving what Infiniti claims is diesel-rivalling efficiency. Oh, and apparently it’ll be as smooth as a V6. Those are some lofty claims, so we’re fascinated to see how this thing works in reality.
Expect the engine to replace the company’s 3.5-litre V6, making an appearance in multiple Infiniti vehicles. It’ll make its public debut at the Paris motor show.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Thanks infinity for making an un-nessisary and overly complicated motor.
ECU is like :
ahaahahah gold!! 😂
Grant this man more upvotes !
Just loled louder than I should’ve at work lol
ECU in private because (mr regular voice) this engine gets erect!
Yeah, because I can’t see electric actuators inside your engine going out ever… Nissan can’t even make actuators for their HVAC’s that last, and I know because I test them. Just a gimmick.
Infiniti electric motor + Infiniti Variable Displacement motor = best fuel efficiency ever. Will be way more cheap to run a 300hp car , this is good !
But wait… Infinitif belongs to Nissan who shares its mechanics with Renault who provides engines for Mercedes. Does that mean this engine will also power Renault, Nissan and Mercs ?
I wonder how they are going to tax this engine in places where you pay taxes for your car based on engine displacement.
Excellent point. In some countries, the insurance cost is also primarily dependent on engine displacement. I would assume that Infiniti will still have to specify a certain mean average displacement, perhaps.
Bentley’s W12?? You mean VW’s W12.
Actually, the French designed it before any car company ;) lol
I can’t see how making the engine so much larger, heavier, and complex for a bit more MPG is worth it. In 20 years, this era will be similar to that of American cars in the 80s. Ridiculous technologies for pseudo mpg gains and astronomical repair costs when parts fail.