Since the 1970s the automotive industry has been working to produce more efficient engines using fewer cylinders and forced induction to produce more power and fewer emissions these engines were light and focused more on fuel efficiency than performance however things are changing and with upsizing no longer option automakers are doing their best with fewer cylinders and lower displacements thanks to stricter emission regulations companies pair them with electric motors and batteries to generate all possible energy believe it or not a handful of high performance three cylinder engines can blow larger engines out of the water three-cylinder cars have several benefits that can be incredibly useful when you need a car it costs less to purchase and maintain than bigger engines saving you lots of money in the long run however if we talked about problems with owning a three-cylinder car for some people the noise and vibrations will be too much to handle and they also have less power and torque than larger ones the modern addition of three-cylinder cars is equipped with premium turbocharging to deliver superior horsepower and fuel economy they might have small capacities and sure they're more similar to bike engines but there have been some genuinely epic three-cylinder production powertrains over the years that deserve recognition three-cylinder engines is available with different types inline three v3 and w3 the inline three engine also called an inline triple or straight three engine is a three cylinder piston engine with cylinders arranged in a line along a common crankshaft the v3 engine is a v engine with two cylinders in one bank and one cylinder in the other bank it is a rare configuration that has been mostly used in two-stroke engines for motorcycles a w engine is a type of piston engine where three banks use the same crankshaft resembling the letter w when viewed from the front due to their shape these are also known as broad arrow engines now let's take a look at these three cylinder engines in details starting with an inline three engine the most common designs have a two-stroke firing every 120 degrees of crankshaft rotation with a four-stroke firing every 240 degrees of crank rotation the early laverta hoda motorcycle fired irregularly like a flat plane for cylinder engine missing a cylinder which is to say firing every 180 degrees of crankshaft rotation for one and a half rotations followed by a half rotation without firing in these engines the outer pistons rise and fall together like a 360 degree straight twin engine the inner cylinder is offset 180 degrees from the outer cylinders in these engines cylinder number one fires then 180 degrees later cylinder number three fires and then 180 degrees later cylinder number two fires there is no power stroke on the final 180 degrees of rotation this unusual crank angle came to be due to a lack of proper tooling at the factory which also made vertical twin engines that utilized a 180 degrees crankshaft the conventional three cylinder has the crank pins at 120 degrees firing evenly as the engine spins this results in vibration usually cured with a balanced shaft triumph's 2020 tiger 900 has been developed with a so-called t-plane engine where the crankshaft throws are at 90 intervals such that the throws for cylinders 1 and 3 are separated by 180 degrees therefore the three throws together form a t-shape when viewed from the end advantages of three-cylinder engines compact size having one cylinder less to accommodate gives manufacturers more space in the engine bay better fuel efficiency the fewer cylinders make lesser area for metal to metal contact and such contact increases the fuel efficiency of the car less raw material usage the fewer the number of cylinders the lesser the total material required to manufacture the engine this gives a significant advantage to the manufacturer in terms of cost savings that they can transfer towards lowering the price of the car and lighter weight disadvantages of three-cylinder engines less responsive engine the lower amount of cylinders makes the engine respond in a bit delayed manner however the difference seems negligible and can be felt by someone driving a four-cylinder vehicle not refined a three-cylinder engine requires more work than a four-cylinder engine due to the lower number of cylinders the three cylinders perform most of the work against the four cylinders making them a tad bit noisier than their four-cylinder counterparts several companies like aprilia leverta triumph yamaha bmw benelli petronas mv augusta and bsa have used four-stroke straight-3 engines in road and racing bikes from 1985 to 1995 the bmw k-75 was produced with a straight 3 engine the british company triumph has produced several models with transversely mounted straight 3 engines such as the 1994 triumph speed triple and the 2004 triumph rocket 3. [Applause] current production motorcycles with triple engines are mv augusta f3 675 triumph daytona 675 yamaha xsr 900 and benelli tnt tnt-899 the two-stroke kawasaki triple engine was produced in 1968 and used in various road and racing bikes similarly the two-stroke suzuki gt series engines were used in bikes and were available in both air-cooled and water-cooled versions the first car to use the straight three engine is the dkwf-91 powered by a 900 cc two-stroke engine the saab 93 introduced saab 750 cc two-stroke engine which was also used in the saab 95 sub 96 and saab sonnet until 1968 after which the ford townis v4 engine replaced it most inline three engines fall below 1.2 liters the straight 3 versions of the ford ecoboost engine a turbocharged 1.0 liter petrol engine were introduced in the 2012 ford focus the volkswagen group uses 3-cylinder petrol and diesel engines in the audi a2 volkswagen polo volkswagen fox volkswagen lupo seat ibiza seed cordoba seat me skoda citigo and skoda fabia these engines range from 1.2 liter petrol with four valves per cylinder has a turbocharger with variable vane geometry subaru used a straight three engine in the subaru dusty and the export version of the subaru somber called the subaru sumo which had their subaru ef engine mitsubishi has extensively used three cylinder engines which have been used in the smart for two since 2004 mitsubishi cult and from 2012 mitsubishi mirage the first generation honda insight used a 1.0 liter inline 3 engine in conjunction with an electric motor in its hybrid system nissan has developed a 1.2 liter 3-cylinder version of their hr series of petrol engines which has been used since 2010 for the nissan micra the nissan almera and the nissan note in september 2012 renewing produced a new turbocharged 0.9 liter tce engine used in the fourth generation of the renault clio the renault captor and the second generation of the dacia sandero and de chia logan the bmwb38 is a dohc 1.5 liter three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine this is the first use of bmw's modular engine strategy for gasoline and diesel engines v3 engine as we discuss the v3 engine is a v engine with two cylinders in one bank and one cylinder in the other bank it is a rare configuration that has been mostly used in two-stroke engines the first example was the 1955 dkw 350. the suzuki rp 68 was intended to compete in the 1968 season however a rule change mandating single cylinder engines meant that the 50cc rp68 never raced honda later revived the layout for the honda ns 5000 or nsr 500 grand pre-racing motorcycles the honda mvx250f and honda ns400 are sports bikes also used v3 engines ah w3 engine in w3 engine all three cylinders placed in the same plane none were in the same bank and it was used for the four-stroke engines which was used in motorcycle and aircraft applications one of the first w engines was the anzani 3-cylinder built in 1906 to be used in anzani motorcycles it is this w3 engine that also powered the 1909 bleriot 11 the first airplane to fly across the english channel the fueling w3 is a 2.5 liter motorcycle engine that was built by an aftermarket parts company in the united states in the early 2000s like radial aircraft engines it has a master connecting rod and two slave rods connected to the pistons balancing of a three-cylinder engine an in-line three-cylinder engine is essentially a straight-six engine locked in half generally in a straight-six the two outer cylinders reach the top dead center simultaneously with the other four cylinders reaching specific angles of rotation to balance the primary forces secondary forces and rotational torque of the engine nicely in a three pot piston one reaches tdc while the other two are 120 degrees away from either tdc or bottom dead center bdc this means the primary and secondary forces are balanced vertically but the torque over the reciprocating pistons is not matched like in an inline six instead the engine is trying to rotate and flip over on itself naturally so to avoid this a balancing shaft is needed to counteract the twisting force the torque imbalance shared with inline five engines makes for a rattling powertrain as the engine tries to rock from end to end even when balanced as much as physically possible this is due to the weight of the balancing shaft that the crankshaft has to work against making these engines less free revving than their more balanced counterparts counterweights can also be machined into the crankshaft itself but they also add weight decreasing its ability to rotate freely top cars that are using three-cylinder engines ford fiesta st powered by a three-cylinder variant of ford's ecoboost engine the sd boasts a turbocharged 1.5 liter unit rated at 197 hp and has a top speed of 140c miles per hour koenigsegg gem era the koenigsegg gemera is a limited production four-seat plug-in hybrid grand tourer koenigsegg fitted a twin-turbocharged three-cylinder 2-liter engine under its body which is why it can deliver up to 600 horsepower it is the most powerful triple cylinder unit fitted to a production car koenigsegg's gemera is the fastest four-seater family car in the world with a top speed of 248 miles per hour courtesy of a 1700 hp hybrid powertrain bmw i8 the bmw i8 is a plug-in hybrid sports car developed by bmw the i8 was part of bmw's electrified fleet and was marketed under the bmw i sub brand the i8 relies heavily on a three-cylinder 1.5 liter combustion engine to produce most of the power contributing 231 hp to the overall output volvo xc40 t3 it is fitted with a robust 1.5 liter 3-cylinder engine which offers up to ten percent better economic fuel it comes with four valves per cylinder which delivers 156 horsepower at 5000 rpm and 265 newton meters of torque this car has a top-notch speed of 143 miles per hour with 60 miles acceleration per hour in a total of 6.5 seconds toyota gr yaris the toyota gr yaris is a performance variant of the xp-210 series yari subcompact hatchback in a hot hatch segment under the hood toyota equipped the gr with a turbocharged 1.6 liter 3-cylinder engine tuned to deliver hp as a result the hottest yaris can scorch to 60 miles per hour in 5.5 seconds and pull firmly to a maximum speed of 143 miles per hour mini hardtop it is equipped with a 1.5 liter three cylinder twin power turbo engine which sends up to 134 horsepower it can run from 0 to 60 miles in just an hour and takes not more than 7.5 seconds with a maximum speed of 90 miles in one hour nissan ziad rc nissan's zero emissions on demand zod racer is the only one of its kind developed to explore the possibilities of dual powertrains in the luman series nissan started the event running its 400 horsepower 1.5 liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine and later succeeded in its goal of topping 300 kilometers per hour on electric power why three cylinder engines have a bad reputation three-cylinder engines have had issues but modern examples are far more powerful and reliable in short the engine's reputation hasn't caught up to its reinvention some critics of the straight 3 offer the valid argument that getting enough power out of a 3-cylinder engine requires over-engineering the introduction of more moving parts certainly provides more opportunities for a breakdown advances in engineering have overcome many of the three cylinders past pain points they just haven't gotten to know the new straight three however that's about to change automotive engineering has come a long way since the first three cylinder cars hit the road in the 1970s precision engineering and computer controlled manufacturing mean that unbalanced vibrations aren't the menace they once were the modern straight 3 is reliable and efficient the answer is neither if it's fuel efficiency you want then the 3-cylinder engine is the best bet for you but if you are looking for engine refinement and punchy performance then a four-cylinder engine is the one for you however with some car makers adding turbochargers to their engines some three-cylinder engines too are delivering somewhat punchy performance have you ever owned a three cylinder car does a smaller displacement three pot appeal to you over a more generic inline four we'd like to know your opinion below do you know there are different types of inline engines are available for various applications watch this video and find out