BMW unveils biturbo 3.0-litre six with the same power and more torque than the 4.0-litre eight cylinder engine

Developing this new straight-six with biturbo technology, BMW is opening up a new chapter in the long history of the turbocharged engine, which dates back to 1905 and the work of Swiss engineer Alfred Büchi.

Initially turbo-charged engines were restricted to marine and aircraft engines. It was only much later that the technology migrated to cars.

BMW began its association with turbocharged road cars with the now famous 1973 BMW 2002 Turbo road car.

During the late 1960s, BMW was the first manufacturer to use turbocharged engines in touring car racing.

And in 1983 a BMW Brabham driven by Brazilian racing driver Nelson Piquet became the first turbocharged F1 car to win the Formula 1 World Championship.

Even back then, BMW’s engine specialists were able to extract far more than 1,000 horsepower from an engine displacing just 1.5 litres.

Now BMW is ready to open a new chapter in turbo-charged petrol-engined road cars and reset the bench-mark for dynamic driving with forced-induction.

Over and above the drivetrain conceived and built for supreme dynamics, this technology provides the starting point for a lean-burn direct injection concept and thus serves to successfully optimise fuel consumption also in other performance classes.

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