Before downsizing, there was upsizing
11/02/2014
Nowadays, there is a lot of talk about "downsizing", by which we mean reducing the size of engines. Six-cylinder engines are replacing eight-cylinder engines, four-cylinder engines are replacing six-cylinder engines and soon three-cylinder engines will be replacing four-cylinder engines. A great deal of technology is used to prevent horsepower from falling by the wayside, as the cars themselves have not yet become smaller, at least not yet.
What people tend to forget in this context is the fact that engines and cars were constantly getting bigger in previous decades. Do you remember the first VW Golf? It was available with a 1.1-liter and a 1.5-liter engine, which produced just 50 or 70 hp (according to the DIN standard). And that was enough.
Today, in the seventh generation, 85 hp is the minimum. In between, for example in the third generation, the displacement of the V6 engine grew to 2.9 liters. Definitely upsizing.
Want other examples? From the BMW 1502/1602/2002 , which still got by with four-cylinder engines up to 2000 cm3, it went up to eight cylinders and 4.4 liters displacement in the three-cylinder series (see picture at the top). In the meantime, the eight-cylinder in the three is history and the straight-six is only available for a few models. And people are already talking about the three-cylinder three.
And the list could go on and on. Was everything better in the past? Maybe so, the only question is when ....
