The impact assessment of downsizing on the development of internal combustion engines referring to the competition “engine of the year”

Downsizing internal combustion engine is recognized as one of the development trends of the construction of thermal machines. Based on the design and operational factors of engines that winners are in different categories of the international competition “Engine of the Year” attempted to assess the real impact of the engine miniatu-rization. The paper discusses the idea of the competition and characterizes engines downsizing. Completing the goal of the research carried out various studies linking parameters such as torque and engine power, fuel consumption, carbon dioxide concentration and the downsizing factor. It has been demonstrated fulfilment of the downsizing idea in engineering practice and its impact on the development of the automotive industry. The study indicates that modern internal combustion engines should have a specific power with a value of more than 68 kW/dm3, specific torque factor of 127 Nm/dm3 and the volumetric emission of carbon dioxide form exhaust into the atmosphere should not exceed 83 (g/km)/dm3