Five Favourite Engines

There is an completely human quality to the beauty possessed by engines. It’s obvious when you think about it. No matter how much Computer Aided Design and Digital Production techniques built into their realisation, they were conceived of in the imaginations of a man or a woman – they were penned by human hands and delivered according to industrial processes that represent the pinnacle of man’s resource-munching ingenuity.

The Honda McLaren V12: defined the art of Formula One during the early 1990s

Ferrari’s 4.3 litre V8: The pinnacle of the form?

Audi’s V10: took successful application in F1 racing and applied it to the street in the Gallardo and the R8

BMW Straight Six: Reliability and grunt from a Germanic classic

The Boxer: the Benz-patented push-pull configuration is a perennial, symmetrical beauty