As big V8-powered cars like the Dodge Charger and Challenger approach the end of their lives as production cars, an altogether different sort of gasoline engine has become increasingly common on American roads: the three-cylinder.
To many Americans — except ardent car geeks — the number of cylinders in an engine may be of little concern. But three is an odd number in more ways than one.
Ten years ago, only one model widely sold in America had a three-cylinder engine and that was the Smart ForTwo, precisely that sort of tiny European car that looks like it wouldn't require much power at all to get going. Now, for the 2023 model year, there are ten different models available in the United States with three-cylinder engines, according to Edmunds.com.
Improvements in engine technology have made them both more powerful and smoother-running — or at least smoother-feeling — than they would once have been. Gasoline engines work by moving air in and out very rapidly, and having bigger cylinders means the engine can have larger intake and exhaust valves, easing the movement of air and increasing power.
That results in strong low-frequency vibrations that can be harder to mask in a vehicle. The engines themselves have extra moving parts just to cancel out some of these vibrations, but it's helpful, he said, if the entire vehicle is also designed to dampen them.
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