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Motor medallist

The McLaren 650S Spider's 3.8-litre V8 wins the Engine of the Year award again.

Published Fri, Sep 4, 2015 · 09:50 PM

    HOW does one create the recipe for an International Engine of the Year award? For McLaren, it's easy - just mix two turbos with eight cylinders, throw in a flat-pane crankshaft, then add lots of power and an unusual amount of fuel efficiency.

    The result is the M838T engine, a 3.8-litre twin turbo V8 petrol engine designed and developed together with the Ricardo engineering company. It won the 2015 Engine of the Year award in the "3-litre to 4-litre" category for the third straight year this year.

    The M838T powers the McLaren 650S and, as the name of the mid-engined sports model suggests, it produces 650 hp. A massive 678 Newton-metres of torque is available to power the 1,370kg carbon fibre/aluminium two-seater from zero to 100 kmh in just 3.0 seconds. From a standing start to 200kmh, it takes 8.6 seconds, or faster than most cars on the road can go from zero to 100.

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