A couple of brilliant pieces of engineering have come out of the BMW M headquarters over the years, as any Bimmer fan will tell you. It’s not just fanatic BMW enthusiasts that find certain engines brilliant but independent journalists too and random gear heads. Among those you’ll find the people over at Autocar. The British magazine recently put together a list of the world’s greatest engines and BMW is up there among the best with not one but two mills.
Out of the entire list, only two manufacturers have managed to slip two engines in there: BMW and Volkswagen. The Volkswagen cars chosen are truly special. One of them is the W8 engine on the B5 Passat, a marvel of ingenuity and truly an experience to drive. The other is the 3.2-liter V6 used on the Golf V R32, yet another unicorn that shouldn’t have existed in the first place. From the Bavarian side of things you’ll find the S54 and the S85 engines.
According to Autocar, the S54 was “one of the sweetest and freest revving straight-sixes of all time” and I can’t help but agree. As for the S85 V10 they praise the construction of the thing, with 10 electronically-actuated individual throttle bodies, high-spec Mahle pistons and the quasi-dry sump lubrication that made headlines back in the day. To complete the package, the block and heads were made at the same foundry as BMW’s Formula 1 engines, as the Germans were still involved in the motorsport back then.
If it was up to me, I’d add another engine on this list and that would be the M88/1. This was the iconic straight six mill that made its debut under the sheet metal of the BMW M1. It’s not just this particular fact that makes it worthy of belonging on this list but also the fact that it was used as a basis for countless other iconic mills over the years and it was put together by the one and only Paul Rosche.
[Source: Autocar]
S50 should be here instead of the S54. Much more reliable, sounded better and the stock exhaust didn’t sound like a farting robot.
S54 wasn’t that much more powerful and don’t forget S50 actually shared some parts with the McLaren F1 engine, the S70/2, which is definetly the greatest BMW engine and the greatest German engine ever made.
S85 is my 2nd favorite BMW engine. If it was more reliable it would share the 1st place with the S70/2. Absolutely magnificent noise, loads of power, instant throttle response(cuz it’s NA obvs), but the reliability was it’s weak spot. And the SMG was utter garbage. E60 M5 should’ve been manual only, like E39 M5.
Perhaps you should stop listening to people on the internet.
Why?
BMW needs to create more engines like this again, but more reliable. We need some magnificent-sounding, high-revving beasts again. Also produce more agile chassis with proper EPAS form factory.
S70/2 by its omission.
Burying the lead, BMW engines have been used by @ least a dozen manufacturers over the years, Toyota Supra most recently.
S38 thin in E34 M5 is the best ever engine from BMW M Power. Everything in it is outstanding. BMW bloggers how old are you if you don’t know that engine ?
The S38 was derived from the M88/1 I mentioned in the article ;)
S65 – the sweet sound of 8 high revving cylinders in an M3 is music to my ears and other drivers as blow by them on the track!