Three cylinder car engine

[henniek]

After reading this , I wonder .. are they cpoying the old Auto Union / DKW engine , just with new technology eg Double turbos etc.
Those years , the 3 cyl DKW packed more horses on the wheels from its 1000cc engine than cars much lager . The thing that bothered people about this car was its PW sound from its small engine . HK

But now in the news : - The car companies are encouraged by how quickly Americans have downsized from larger engines to four-cylinder power plants. Almost half, or 47%, of the cars sold last year had four cylinders, according to auto information company Edmunds.com. That's up from 34% in 2007.

Downsizing engines is part of an auto industry strategy to meet federal fuel economy standards that require the combined industrywide fleet to average 34.1 mpg by the 2016 model year,
The new 1.0-liter EcoBoost three-cylinder — the smallest engine Ford has ever built — is turbocharged and patterned on the same technology used in much bigger vehicles . The engine will pack 100 HP

Its horsepower and torque outputs are equivalent to or better than many 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engines now on the market.

[SandyB]

I recall those old 'deutche kak wagens"  as some  folk reffered to them  had a brisk acceleration  but lost steam  on the long haul or  extra load ,, not enough torque ,, but yes nippy engines considering the early two stroke technology ...  the auto union forunner of  Audi had the same  , if  I'm not mistaken  SAAB in earlier days   also employed  similar ,,,