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Nissan redefines power with its 3 kg, 40 hp 400-cylinder turbo engine. Compact like a suitcase, ideal for competitions. Know more!
Proud and smiling, Shoichi Miyatani, CEO and President of NISMO – Nissan – posed holding his hands an internal combustion engine that, with just three cylinders, delivers more than 400 HP of power
In a world where the automotive innovation moving forward at a rapid pace, Nissan has stood out once again with its revolutionary engine. This isn't just any engine; we are talking about a true engineering jewel: a three-cylinder engine that, despite its light weight of 40 kilograms — equivalent to a carry-on suitcase — is capable of delivering a surprising power of more than 400 horsepower.
Designed to challenge the known limits of efficiency and performance, this compact yet powerful engine was created with a focus on high-level competitions such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Its power-to-weight ratio surpasses even that of Formula 1 vehicles of its era, highlighting Nissan's commitment to innovation and exceptional performance.
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The size of a handbag
I wouldn't put my hand in the fire ensuring that the photo doesn't have a trick. What we know is that this engine, due to its dimensions, we could carry it like a suitcase, like our carry-on luggage on a plane. If it weren't because its 40 kilograms exceed the restrictions imposed by most airlines for luggage on board. In any case, 40 kilograms is a spectacular number for an engine that not only delivered enormous power, but was designed for a competition experience, nothing more and nothing less than to be present at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Nissan created an engine that with just three cylinders, weighing 40 kilograms, could deliver more than 400 hp of power. A relationship between power delivered and engine mass greater than that of Formula 1 cars at the time.
This engine weighed 40 kilograms and delivered over 400 hp of power.
A 3-cylinder engine, 40 kg, and 400 HP of power
What we see is a 1,5 liter in-line three-cylinder engine of displacement, with four valves per cylinder, and a huge snail as a turbo, which works at 2 bars, being capable of rotating at around 100.000 rpm. But the most impressive thing is that this engine, 50 centimeters high, 40 centimeters long and 20 wide, the size of a handbag, and 40 kilograms in mass, delivered more than 400 HP of power at 7.500 rpm and a torque maximum 380 Nm.
Nissan designed this engine from scratch. Although three-cylinder engines are common today, this engine did not share any components with any other engine in the group. And it is designed for your application in a hybrid configuration. Configuration in which this engine would be directly coupled to a transmission, to which two electric motors of 110 kW each were also coupled.
So that this car could move in completely electric mode, without the intervention of the present three-cylinder engine, or in combustion mode, using the engine in question.
Nissan designed this engine for a special project that would be tested at the 24 2014 Hours of Le Mans
A three-cylinder at Le Mans
This engine would be one of the elements that Nissan would be most proud of, when it presented its project for the 24 2014 Hours of Le Mans. For a while, Nissan was immersed in the most exotic and wild “competition” projects, which it did not have, In no way, the objective is to compete and therefore win races, but rather to investigate new solutions, taking advantage of the Garagem 56 Le Mans stage.
First it was the Deltawing. Then it would be ZEOD RC that equips this 1,5 liter engine and 400 HP of power. Nissan had estimated that every eleven or twelve laps in combustion mode, regeneration would allow for a complete lap in electric mode of the La Sarthé circuit, which is by no means trivial.
Finally, Nissan would achieve a feat. That of doing a fast lap in fully electric mode in 4 minutes and 22 seconds, a respectable time, although far from that achieved by the prototypes. And reach a top speed in electric mode of 300 km/h.
The complexities of making an engine of this type viable but, above all, making it reliable and durable, or meeting a minimum of consumption and emissions, made it difficult to see something like this in a street car.
Remembering the 40 kg and 400 HP Nissan engine
In those moments, many of us dreamed about the possibilities of this engine, outside the circuits. And we dreamed of some signature NISMO eccentricity that we could enjoy on the street. But evidently the possibilities of this engine beyond the Le Mans experience and the ZEOD RC were minimal. And ten years after the three-cylinder, 40-kilogram ZEOD RC with 400 hp would just be a beautiful story to remember.
We could talk at length about the difficulties that a project like this would encounter in reaching the streets, starting due to the cost of its industrialization and the difficulties in making it viable. But we shouldn't forget how complicated it can be to make an engine like this durable and reliable enough for a street car, or to achieve acceptable efficiency and emissions.
In fact, Nissan has always highlighted its collaboration with Total and how important it was to correctly lubricate the engine to ensure the management of internal friction and the stress that the components must suffer.
