France, Paris – Infiniti Motor Company gave a tech briefing on a new remarkable engine at the Paris Motor Show 2016. The VC-T Engine is the world’s first production-ready compression ratio machine. It will be available from 2018.
Variable compression engines can alter the volume of the combustion chamber when a piston is at the bottom of the stroke compared to when it reaches the top, whereas the ratio in conventional engines is fixed. Infiniti spent almost two years developing the unit.
The goal of this new Variable Compression-Turbo technology is to merge the high-performance of a 2.0 turbocharged gasoline engine along the torque and fuel efficiency of a top-end diesel motor. At the same time, the unit will be cheaper to produce than current options in the market.
VC-T Engine changes compression ratio from low 8:1 to high 14:1
The gasoline engine can alternate between power and fuel economy as it needs. Most engines are better in one area or the other, while pieces that combine both advantages are scarce.
The engine closest to the VC-T is Honda’s VTEC system. VTEC stands for Variable Valve Timing and Lift Electronic Control. It attempts to combine fuel efficiency with high RPM performance by allowing users to change between two different camshaft profiles.
How does the VT-C work?
It offers the best of both worlds automatically at any moment. When the compression ratio drops, the turbocharger makes use of more boost, but when the driver is cruising, the compression ratio rises. The engine will run on the Atkinson cycle for maximum fuel economy.
The company assures the engine will have 27 percent greater fuel efficiency than a similar V6 engine, despite having two cylinders less.
The piece uses an advanced multi-link system to detect the car’s driving condition and driver input. The gear will instantly select the most suitable compression ratio in each situation, and lower or raise the pistons as it sees fit.
The development target output is 268 horsepower and 287 lb-ft of torque. According to the company, it makes the piece similar to six-cylinder petrol powerhouses regarding performance while still keeping the fuel consumption low.
“The pioneering new VC-Turbo powertrain represents a leap forward for engine development,” said Roland Krueger, president of Infiniti.
He pointed that mastering the internal combustion technology is an engineering breakthrough and that they were the first to do it. Furthermore, the new engine produces lower levels of noise and vibration compared to diesel units and is lighter and more compact than V6 engines.
Source: Infiniti Motor Authority
