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We all know of cars which were fitted with an outstanding engine right from the start.

If you can’t immediately bring one to mind, the Bugatti Chiron is a good example. There are also many cars which were more or less ordinary in their original forms but became more desirable in one way or another because a new engine was added to the range, or because an existing engine became available in a significantly altered form.

Here are 28 models which we believe are part of the second category, listed in alphabetical order.

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AC Ace

The AC Ace roadster was introduced in 1953 and was fitted with several engines during its production run, the most powerful being a 2.6-litre Ford straight-six. Its handling made it an effective road-legal competition car, but over in Texas Carroll Shelby (1923-2012) reckoned it would be better if it had a lot more power.

Rather than dismissing this thought and moving on to something else, he created the Cobra, a reworked Ace with a Ford Windsor V8 engine initially measuring 4.3 litres and later 4.7. The Cobra proved to be a mighty car in racing, even more so when it went into a new generation with a 7.0-litre Ford FE V8 under the bonnet.

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Alpine A110

The original A110 (not the current model launched in 2017) was initially powered by Renault’s little Cléon-Fonte engine. This was later replaced by the larger Cléon-Alu, which had made its debut in the Renault 16.

It’s difficult to imagine the 16 being an effective competition car, but its engine turned the A110 into a world-beater. In 1973, Alpine thrashed the opposition in the inaugural World Rally Championship, winning six rounds and finishing the season with 147 points to Fiat’s 84 and Ford’s 76.

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Audi A4

Audi has a lot of history in this area. Most of its models have high-performance S and –  more excitingly – RS derivatives whose engines are far more powerful than those in the regular versions.

The A4 is a case in point. Its RS 4 equivalents have always had splendid engines. Perhaps the finest, and certainly the best-sounding, was the screaming 4.2-litre V8 also used in the Audi R8. It produced over 400bhp, well in advance of what could be expected from any other A4.

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Audi Q7

Every Q7 is an imposing beast no matter what powers it, but Audi went to new and unexpected levels when it fitted the large SUV with a 5.9-litre diesel V12. This engine, which has never been used in any other production car, produced 493bhp, which was enough to push the 2635kg Q7 from 0-62mph in an astonishing 5.5 seconds.

Fortunately, the brakes and suspension were up to the task, but acceleration like this was still exhilarating or – depending on your mood – alarming. And it didn’t come cheap. Priced just short of £100,000 in the UK, the 6.0 V12 TDI, as it was branded, cost around £40,000 more than the next most expensive Q7. Data suggests that 21 reside on British roads today.

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BMW M3

Almost by definition, every M3 has had an engine which transforms it into something quite different from the regular BMW 3 Series. This was particularly true of the generation sold between 2007 and 2013, which was powered by the 4.0-litre (and, for the GTS variant, 4.4-litre) S65 V8.

A multiple award winner, the S65 made this M3 the first to produce over 400bhp in standard form. It wasn’t the only V8 used in an M3, because a tiny number of earlier cars were fitted with one too, but it was the only engine of this type used for every example in any generation.

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Cadillac CT6

In most forms, the CT6 was a full-size luxury saloon. The CT6-V was that too, but it was also a very impressive performer thanks to its 550bhp 4.2-litre V8 engine, commonly known as the Blackwing. It was also available in the CT6 Platinum, producing 500bhp.

These cars were sold only in the 2019 model year. The entire CT6 range was discontinued shortly afterwards, partly due to poor sales and partly because the Detroit-Hamtramck plant where every version was built was retooled to produce electric vehicles instead. The Blackwing name has been used again for the most powerful versions of the CT4 and CT5, but neither of these is fitted with the Blackwing engine.

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Chevrolet Corvette

Since the Corvette is one of the most popular sports cars in history, it seems strange now that the first-generation version did not sell at all well when it was introduced in 1953 with a straight-six engine. Two years later, it became available with the new Chevy Small Block V8, originally in 4.3-litre form but later extended first to 4.6 and later to 5.4 litres.

It was almost as if this was what the American public had been waiting for. Corvette sales rose dramatically, and a car which might have been abandoned at an early stage remained in production until 1962. Six decades later, its latest descendant is still doing well, and still powered by a V8 engine.

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Dodge Challenger

The current Challenger (the third distinct model to bear that name in over half a century) has been sold in several quite startling forms, with enormous power outputs. Even in that context, the SRT Demon variant, sold only in the 2018 model year, is outstanding.

Its 6.2-litre supercharged V8 engine is the most powerful ever fitted to any road-legal Dodge, or indeed any Chrysler. On regular 91-octane petrol it produced 808bhp, but with the optional Demon Crate package and running 100-octane race fuel its output reached 840bhp. The lower figure has more or less been equalled by the current Challenger SRT Super Stock, but that car has slightly less torque.

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Fiat 500

The 500 was originally available with a variety of four-cylinder petrol engines. Three years after its launch in 2007, Fiat added the two-cylinder TwinAir, the first engine designed from the start to use the remarkable MultiAir technology which had previously been added to existing units.

Getting anywhere near the official fuel consumption figures was quite a challenge, and there was a lot of vibration until Fiat decided to add a dual-mass flywheel. But the popularity of the 500 has always been due to its cuteness more than anything else, and with the TwinAir purring away it sounded as cute as it looked.

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Ford Cortina

Most first-generation Cortinas were powered by either 1.2- or 1.5-litre versions of the pre-crossflow Ford Kent engine. In 1963, a year after production began, the car was transformed by a new power source, resulting in the epoch-making Lotus Cortina.

In its nether regions, this engine was basically the same as a Kent, but it had a completely different cylinder head. Known as the Lotus Twin Cam, it had made its debut the previous year in the Elan sports car. For the first time, here was a Cortina with a power output of over 100bhp. Further modifications brought great success in racing and rallying, in addition to the standard car’s appeal as the 1960s equivalent of a hot hatch.

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Ford Escort

As with the Cortina, the Lotus Twin Cam engine turned the mainstream first-generation Escort into something altogether more special, but the bar was raised much higher when Ford launched the Cosworth BDA-powered RS1600 in 1970.

Like the Twin Cam, it was based on the Kent engine, and in standard form it wasn’t much more powerful. However, with four valves per cylinder it was far more responsive to tuning, with the result that the Mk1 Escort became one of the great rally cars of the early to mid 70s. Even today, hearing a fully tuned RS1600 screaming through a forest stage is a memorable experience.

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Ford Sierra

The mid-sized European Ford between the Cortina and the Mondeo was available in its earlier days with a variety of engines, none of them particularly dramatic with the possible exception of a large V6. The game-changer was the 2.0-litre four-cylinder unit which powered the Sierra RS Cosworth from 1986 onwards.

At its heart, it was quite humble, being based on the well-established Pinto engine. A turbocharger and a 16-valve cylinder head made quite a difference, though. Even in its least potent form it produced over 200bhp, which no other Sierra engine could even approach. Further modified for competition use, it could reach outputs on the far side of 600bhp.

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Honda Civic Type R

Honda has been producing Type R variants of its Civic since 1997, and since 2001 they have all been powered by a 2.0-litre engine. For 15 years, these were known for their remarkable power, their ability to rev well beyond 8000rpm and a certain lack of oomph before the VTEC variable valve timing switched from tea-with-the-vicar to the-zombies-are-coming mode.

Honda changed the game entirely in 2015 when it added a turbocharger. The engine was now limited to a relatively modest 7000rpm, but suddenly there was plenty of mid-range power, and the peak figure shot up to 306bhp. After some mild tweaking, it was raised further to 316bhp.

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Lancia Thema

The Thema was a luxury saloon based on the same platform also used for the Alfa Romeo 164, Fiat Croma and Saab 9000. Two years after it was launched, Lancia added an outstanding version called the 8.32, named after the number of cylinders and valves in its engine.

At 2.9 litres, this wasn’t quite the largest unit fitted to the Thema, but it was by far the most powerful. Derived from the Ferrari Dino V8, it produced 215bhp, a full 40bhp more than the 3.0-litre Alfa Romeo V6 which it demoted to second place in the range.

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Lotus Europa

Launched in 1965, the Europa was a very early example – though by no means the first – of a mid-engined road-going sports car. To begin with, it was powered by the Cléon-Alu engine from the Renault 16, and also used that car’s transaxle which, unlike any transmission available from usual supplier Ford, could easily be adapted to suit the mid-engined layout.

Lotus continued using the transaxle through the Europa’s production life, but it eventually swapped the engine for its own Ford-based Twin Cam. Power outputs accordingly shot up, initially to 105bhp and later to 126bhp, giving the Europa far more straightline performance than it had started out with.

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Mazda CX-7

Replacing a powerful petrol engine with a much less powerful diesel may seem like a backward step, but in this case it was the right thing to do. The CX-7 SUV was initially available only in the UK with the 256bhp 2.3-litre petrol engine also found in the high-performance Mazda3 MPS and Mazda6 MPS. Everyone knew this was a bad idea – including, they would quietly admit, Mazda’s British representatives.

Two years later, in 2009, that engine was dropped in favour of a 2.5-litre diesel. The price went up, and the power output dropped by a startling 85bhp, but the CX-7 was now subject to £190 less Vehicle Excise Duty each year and was, according to the official fuel economy figures, 10mpg less thirsty. A previously almost unsellable vehicle had now been transformed into something that suited its target customers.

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Mercedes A-Class

The third-generation A-Class was mostly available with a variety of engines with power outputs in the 100-210bhp range. One year after launch, though, Mercedes introduced the four-wheel drive A 45 AMG variant (subsequently renamed Mercedes-AMG A 45).

The difference this made to the car’s straightline performance was phenomenal. The highest power output in the range had now shot up by 70% to 355bhp, and that was only the start. Following a revision, it rose still further to 376bhp. Today’s fastest A-Class has a different but conceptually similar engine which produces 416bhp.

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Mercedes R-Class

In a spectacular example of what we called “Mercedes’ every-engine-in-everything product planning,” the R-Class became available with a 503bhp 6.2-litre V8 engine a year after its launch.

As a large luxury MPV, it was well suited to powerful engines, but this was a whole new ball game. The big V8 produced 503bhp, which was far more than anyone needed – or, apparently, wanted. Sales were minimal, and the R 63 AMG, as it was called, disappeared from the price lists very quickly.

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MGB

The MGB roadster was launched in 1962, and a coupe version called the MGB GT came along three years later. In an attempt to create a high-performance variant, MG first fitted a 2.9-litre straight-six engine and called the result MGC, but this was unsatisfactory and was abandoned after just two years.

A second attempt followed in 1973. This time, MG created the MGB GT V8 by fitting the 3.5-litre Buick-derived Rover engine into the coupe. It didn’t last much longer than the MGC had, but by general consent it was a far superior car.

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Renault 6

This was a very mild but still valid example of the principle we’re discussing. The 6 was designed as an upmarket alternative to the Renault 4 which was fitted at its launch in 1968 with the same immediate post-War Billancourt engine, even though the larger and more powerful Cléon-Fonte had been available for six years.

In 1970, Renault did the right thing and added the Cléon-Fonte to the range. With this engine, the 6 still wasn’t especially quick – and didn’t really need to be – but it was at least acceptably so. As we said in a 1974 road test, there was “no doubt that Renault’s engineers got their sums exactly right” at the second attempt.

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Renault Clio Renaultsport

The first few versions of Renault’s hottest Clio were all powered by a high-revving, naturally-aspirated 2.0-litre engine. This policy changed dramatically in 2013, when Renault switched to a 1.6-litre turbo co-developed with Alliance partner Nissan and producing similar power (197bhp).

There was no doubt that the Clio’s character had been transformed. The question was whether this was a positive or a negative move. There were those who felt the superior mid-range performance was a major improvement, but we reckoned that “all the previous car’s impish zip has been sucked mercilessly from the bone”.

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Saab 96

Saab fitted nothing but two-stroke engines to its cars all the way from the launch of the 92 in 1949 until nearly halfway through the production life of the 96 (the 92’s second successor) 18 years later. At this point, it switched to a four-stoke V4 developed by Ford of Germany.

It wasn’t one of the world’s great engines, but it was more powerful than anything Saab had used in the past. Crucially, it also didn’t sound like a wasp trapped in a tin can or emit clouds of smelly blue smoke. The 96 lasted until 1980, which it certainly wouldn’t have done if Saab had persevered with the two-stroke.

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Sunbeam Alpine

The story of the Sunbeam Tiger almost exactly mirrors that of the slightly earlier AC Cobra. Both cars were suggested by Carroll Shelby, who (in the case of the Tiger) thought there was nothing wrong with Sunbeam’s Alpine sports car that couldn’t be fixed by giving it more power.

As with the Cobra, the Alpine was converted to accept the Ford Windsor engine (4.3 litres at first, later 4.7) and given a suitably aggressive name. This time, though, there would be no progression to a larger Ford V8.

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Vanden Plas Princess

Of the several cars known as Vanden Plas Princess, the one we’re interested in here was the large, Farina-designed saloon which was almost identical to models produced by Austin and Wolseley. All were powered by a 2.9-litre straight-six engine, but only the Princess was taken a stage further.

 

In 1964, it was given a new name – Princess R – following several revisions, the most dramatic being the fitment of a 3.9-litre engine developed by Rolls-Royce. The power output jumped from around 120bhp to 175bhp, which made the Princess far quicker than before, though given the nature of the car it’s likely that more effortless high-speed cruising was considered more important than sharper acceleration.

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Vauxhall Carlton

The Carlton GSi was a fine car with excellent handling and a strong 3.0-litre 24-valve engine. It was also the basis of that Wagner opera on wheels, the Lotus Carlton. Despite claims to the contrary elsewhere on the internet, every example of this model came off the Opel production line in Rüsselsheim as a standard GSi before being shipped to Lotus in Hethel for a conversion which lasted 150 hours.

The alterations included raising the capacity of the six-cylinder engine from 3.0 litres to 3.6 and fitting two Garrett turbochargers. Power output accordingly shot up from the original 204bhp to 377bhp (if the engines was fed with sufficiently high-octane petrol), and the straightline performance improved to such an extent that there were calls for the car to be banned.

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Volkswagen Golf R

The first two generations of Golf R were known as R32, a reference to their 3.2-litre V6 engines. They were quick and sounded fabulous, but that engine was very heavy and mounted almost entirely ahead of the front axle, which created major handling problems in the original version. The next one was better, but still occasionally troublesome, especially over a series of closely-spaced crests.

For the generation after that, Volkswagen ditched the 32 part of the name and fitted a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder. This was more powerful, but crucially it was also lighter. The handling issues disappeared completely, and the R became the splendid hot hatch it should have been in the first place.

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Volkswagen Passat

The Passat introduced in 1997 was (a former owner writes) a worthy but not particularly exciting car available with engines which could mostly be described as straightforward – except one. This was a 4.0-litre W8, essentially two 2.0-litre V4s mounted on a common crankcase, the only engine of that type ever fitted to a production car.

Available from 2001, it produced 271bhp, making it the most powerful engine used in a Passat of that generation by over 80bhp. Despite its outstanding features, it sold very badly, and the project was soon abandoned, which may have been what VW expected to happen.

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Volkswagen Touareg

In another piece of extravagant engine policy, Volkswagen added a 6.0-litre W12 to the Touareg two years after the big SUV was launched. This engine was nearly as rare as the W8 fitted to the Passat, but was also used in the Audi A8, the Bentley Continental and the VW Phaeton.

Once again, this engine blitzed all the others in the range in terms of performance, with a maximum output of 444bhp. VW initially planned to build only 500 examples of this particular Touareg, but continued production when it proved to be surprisingly popular.

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Morris Minor

At the time of its launch in 1948, the Minor was fitted with a 918cc engine based on a Wolseley design which was already 20 years old. It was extremely unlikely that this unit would last, as the car did, until as late as 1971. In fact, the change happened very early in the Minor’s career. In 1952, Morris was brought together with its former arch-rival Austin in the British Motor Corporation.

This gave Morris access to the new BMC A-Series engine, which had just been introduced in the Austin A30. Despite being smaller, at 803cc, the A-Series had similar power to the engine it replaced, and far more scope for development. By the end of Minor production, it was being used in 1098cc form, and still had nearly three decades more life left in it.

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Talbot Sunbeam

Most Sunbeams were fitted with either 1.3- or 1.6-litre versions of the engine used in the Hillman Avenger or a 928cc unit derived from that of the Hillman Imp. The outlier was a 2.2-litre 16-valve Lotus motor, part of a range which was used both in the Jensen-Healey sports car and several models produced by Lotus itself.

With a power output of 150bhp, the Sunbeam Lotus was a formidable road car, but that wasn’t its main purpose. The idea had been to attract publicity for the brand through motorsport, and it worked. Just before four-wheel drive turned the whole scene upside-down, the Sunbeam Lotus was competitive enough to earn Talbot the Manufacturers’ title in the 1981 World Rally Championship.

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Vauxhall Chevette

The Chevette was initially a small hatchback (though saloons and an estate followed) based on the Opel Kadett. Nearly every version was fitted with a 1256cc engine, but Vauxhall, like Talbot with the Sunbeam, decided that a more powerful version intended for rallying would be good for publicity.

There was no way that the original engine would be suitable for this, so Vauxhall took its 2.3-litre Slant-4 engine, added a 16-valve cylinder head and put it under the bonnet to create the Chevette HS (pictured). (Early rally cars were fitted with a similar head developed by Lotus, but this was soon banned.) The same mechanical arrangement was used for the later HSR, which had several fibreglass panels, including wide front and rear wings which gave the car a very dramatic appearance.

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Why go to the trouble and expense of creating two or more cars when you can simply create one and sell it with different names?

That process is called badge engineering, and it has been used many times over the years, usually for brands owned by the same manufacturer but occasionally by collaborating manufacturers. Such as this Fiat Fullback, sister to the Mitsubishi Triton/L200, and built in Thailand.

From hundreds of possible examples, we’ve picked a representative 41 to describe here, listed in alphabetical order. Cars which differed from the originals in specification, styling details and in some cases drivetrain are considered are acceptable, but we’re going no further than that.

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Acadian Beaumont

Acadian was a General Motors brand which, from 1962 to 1971, marketed very slightly adjusted Chevrolets on the Canadian market and sold by Pontiac-Buick dealers. The first Beaumont was a version of the Chevy II, while the second (pictured) was a rebadged and otherwise mildly altered Chevelle.

During the lifetime of the later car, Beaumont became a brand in its own right (GM always did like another brand), and only the Chevy II-based model remained known as an Acadian.

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Alpheon

Alpheon was a single-model General Motors brand which operated briefly in South Korea. The single model in question was a locally-built second-generation Buick LaCrosse (itself a close sibling to the Opel Insignia), but Buick had no presence in the country, and there were no plans to create one. Renaming it as a Chevrolet seemed inappropriate, and the Daewoo brand was about to be discontinued.

Alpheon was created in 2010 simply as a name under which to sell this specific car. Both were discontinued five years later when GM Korea began importing the Detroit-built tenth-generation Chevrolet Impala.

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Aston Martin Cygnet

For almost the first century of its existence, the suggestion that Aston Martin might put a badge-engineered Japanese city car on the market would have inspired hard stares and rude retorts. Nevertheless, it actually happened in 2011.

The Cygnet was a Toyota iQ with a higher level of equipment, some cosmetic restyling and a startlingly higher price tag. It sold very poorly, and Aston has never attempted anything similar since. Only 300 were made however, and that rarity has meant they retain their value very well; they are a surprisingly common sight in posh parts of London.

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Asüna Sunrunner

Like Acadian, Asüna was a General Motors brand dedicated to the Canadian market. During its very brief period of operation in the early 1990s, it sold three models which GM had very little to do with, other than importing them from Japan and South Korea.

They were the Sunrunner, the Sunfire and a sedan known either as the SE or the GT. The first of these was one of the most badge-engineered vehicles on the planet, being sold around the world as the Suzuki Escudo, Suzuki Vitara and Chevrolet Tracker, among many other names.

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Audi 50

Still to this day the smallest car Audi has ever put on sale, the 50 was almost exactly the same thing as the first-generation Volkswagen Polo. Since Audi got there first in 1974, and had built what the company reports (with devastating precision) to have been 43,002 50s by the time Polo production began on 31 March 1975, it would be correct to say that the Polo was a badge-engineered 50.

However, Audi persevered with the 50 until 1978, while the Polo, now in its sixth generation, is still with us, so it’s easier, if less accurate, to think of them as being the other way round.

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BMW 3/15

BMW entered the motor industry in 1928 through its purchase of Fahreugfabrik Eisenach. That now largely forgotten company was at the time producing a car called the Dixi, which was an Austin Seven built under licence in Germany.

The car, known as the 3/15 was steadily updated by its new owner, but it was only when this was replaced in 1932 by the 3/20 that BMW could no longer truly be said to be building badge-engineered Austins.

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Citroën C-Crosser

When you speak of the C-Crosser, you also speak of the Peugeot 4007, which was exactly the same thing. Both were badge-engineered versions of the Mitsubishi Outlander SUV, the first of the three to be launched in 2005.

It would be wrong to describe the Mitsubishi as a badge-engineered Citroën or Peugeot, since it was almost entirely the Japanese company’s work, though the French did supply engines (as did Volkswagen). The co-operation wasn’t a great success, and did not survive into the next generation of the Outlander.

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Daewoo G2X

The General Motors Kappa platform was used for several concepts and four production sports cars. Of the latter, the Pontiac Solstice had its own distinctive styling, but the Saturn Sky and Opel GT were virtually identical apart from their badging.

Less familiar to western motorists was the Daewoo G2X, essentially the same car as the Sky and GT but, like the Opel, only ever available with a turbocharged engine as fitted to the Red Line version of the Saturn. It wasn’t a big hit, with only 179 examples reported as having been sold from 2007 to 2009.

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Daewoo Royale

During the very complicated early history of GM’s presence in South Korea, the Daewoo Royale was introduced in 1978 as the replacement for a car called the Saehan Rekord.

Other than its name and a few styling changes, the Royale was essentially an Opel Rekord E, and therefore also more or less the same thing as the contemporary Vauxhall Carlton and Holden Commodore.

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Dodge Brisa

Quite unlike anything else marketed by the brand, the Brisa was sold as a Dodge only because of an arrangement between companies which otherwise rarely worked together. It was in fact a first-generation Hyundai Accent (pictured) manufactured in Venezuela from 2002 to 2006.

The Brisa name was also used for a completely unrelated Kia of the 1970s, which was a variant of the second-generation Mazda Familia.

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Fiat Fullback

Usually, if you think you’re looking at a fifth-generation Mitsubishi L200 truck (also known as the Triton or Strada), you’re quite correct, but sometimes you’re not. If it was built between 2015 and 2019, it could actually be a Fiat Fullback, unless you’re in the Middle East, in which case it’s far more likely to be a Ram 1200. Badging and very minor details apart, they are all the same.

Since 2020, a similar situation has pertained to the Fullback’s successor, the Fiat Titano, which is actually a Peugeot Landtrek.

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Fiat Sedici

The Sedici, a compact SUV available with front- or four-wheel drive, was a rebadged Suzuki SX4, and built in the Suzuki factory in Hungary. We were reasonably impressed by it, saying, “Certainly there is no notable reason to avoid it.”

It was revised in 2009 (as pictured here), but there was no Fiat equivalent of the Suzuki’s successor, the SX4 S-Cross, which arrived in 2013. Fiat’s current model of this type is the 500X, related to, but not a badge-engineered version of, the Jeep Renegade.

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Fiat Viaggio

Fiat’s investment in Chrysler’s after Chrysler went bankrupt during the global financial crisis led, among other things, to the creation of the most recent model known as Dodge Dart, which was itself based on a larger version of the platform used for the Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

Fiat then converted the Dart (though the changes were minimal) into the Viaggio, which was sold in China. It then went a step further and created the Ottimo – basically the same car, except that it was a five-door hatchback rather than a four-door sedan.

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Hindustan Ambassador

The big-selling Ambassador was developed considerably over its very long production life from 1957 to 2014, but it was at first – and at heart remained – a rebadged Series III Morris Oxford.

There has been talk of Hindustan Motors introducing a new Ambassador in the near future, but if this happens it’s unlikely to have much relationship to the old one.

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Holden Jackaroo

Both the first and the second (pictured) generation of the Isuzu Trooper were sold by GM’s Australian division with the model name Jackaroo. The earlier model was the first four-wheel drive vehicle in Holden’s history.

Used since the 19th century, the word jackaroo refers to a young man working on a sheep or cattle station.

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Honda Crossroad

Honda has marketed two SUVs called Crossroad. The second was all in its own work. The first, dating from the 1990s, was a rebadged Land Rover Discovery, a situation made possible by the fact that Honda had a business arrangement with Rover at the time.

Its 3.9-litre engine is still to this day the largest ever fitted to a road-going Honda production vehicle, and Honda’s only production car V8.

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Isuzu Hombre

Isuzu is famous for, among other things, its pickup trucks. Who has never heard of the Rodeo, the D-MAX or the Hombre? Well, perhaps the Hombre might not have registered with you.

It was a mildly restyled version of the Chevrolet S-10 sold briefly in the late 1990s. Its successor, the i-series, bore a similar relationship to the S-10’s successor, the Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon.

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Lancia Flavia

The Flavia we’re looking at here had nothing to do with the one sold throughout the 1960s and later renamed 2000. This one was hardly a Lancia at all, but a very slightly altered Chrysler 200 convertible (itself a reworked Chrysler Sebring) sold in left-hand drive European markets.

It was introduced in 2012 and abandoned two years later due to the introduction of the new 200, which had no Lancia equivalent.

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Mazda 121

Mazda used the 121 name for several of its models from the mid 1970s until the early 21st century. The one of interest here was, except on the closest inspection, almost indistinguishable from the fourth-generation Ford Fiesta – the one which resembled a fish until it was facelifted in 1999.

Both cars were produced until 2002. There has been no Mazda 121 of any kind since then.

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Nissan NMC

NMC stood for New Mobility Concept. That name was used – or at least its initials were – for a rebadged Renault Twizy, which Nissan said had been “developed in response to rising numbers of senior citizens and single-member households, along with increasing use of automobiles for short-distance trips by up to two people”.

It sold in very small numbers in Japan, and was also known as the Scoot Quad for the purposes of a car-sharing scheme in San Francisco. Contemporary reports revealed that both Renault and Nissan badges were visible.

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Oldsmobile Firenza

The Firenza is today perhaps the least remembered of the many General Motors J platform cars. Sold in the 1982 to 1988 model years, it was made of largely the same stuff as the Buick Skyhawk, Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunbird of the same period, and as the much more expensive and much less successful Cadillac Cimarron.

Each brand applied its own styling to some extent, but at first glance it was difficult for a non-expert to tell which was which.

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Opel Ampera-e

The recently discontinued Chevrolet Bolt EV was not sold under its own name in Europe, but in some countries it was available as the Opel Ampera-e. Both were built in the GM Orion Assembly Plant in Michigan, though Ampera-e production was not enough even to satisfy the small number of orders Opel dealers received.

The Ampera-e was already off the market by the time the Bolt EV was discontinued at the end of the 2023 model year. A replacement is due in 2026, but the chances of there being an Opel version are infinitesimal, since the German brand is now owned by GM rival Stellantis.

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Opel Karl

Before General Motors sold Opel and Vauxhall to the PSA Group in 2017, it was quite reasonable that they would both sell a slightly altered version of a Chevrolet. The Chevrolet in question was the Spark, which was designed and built by GM Korea.

Within our definition, the Karl was a badge-engineered Spark, since the styling changes were fairly minor. The Vauxhall Viva (pictured), sold only in the UK, was more precisely a badge-engineered Karl.

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Peugeot Pars

Iran Khodro, or IKCO, has both developed its own cars and manufactured ones designed by other companies. One of the most famous examples of the latter is the Peugeot Pars, which still looks very much the Peugeot 405 it really is, even though it has had several updates.

IKCO also builds produces its own versions of the Peugeot 207 and the much more recent Peugeot 2008.

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Plymouth Cricket

During the short existence of Chrysler Europe, the car normally known as the Hillman Avenger was rebadged as the Plymouth Cricket for North America, where the Hillman nameplate meant nothing. Despite winning the 1971 Press On Regardless rally, it proved to be very unpopular, and was discontinued in 1973, eight years before Avenger production came to an end.

It was followed almost immediately by a new Plymouth Cricket which was once again a badge-engineered car, this time based on the second-generation Dodge Colt.

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Pontiac Torrent

Although both ends were slightly restyled, only a few seconds’ study would make it evident that the Torrent, a mid-size crossover SUV launched in 2006, was neither more nor less than the first-generation Chevrolet Equinox introduced the previous year.

While the Equinox is heading into its fourth generation, there was only ever one Torrent. Any chance that there might have been more evaporated when General Motors closed Pontiac in 2010, 74 years after its creation.

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Proton Pert

Some generations of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution were rebranded as Protons and given the name Pert, an acronym of Petronas EON Racing Team (EON being Edaran Otomobil Nasional, a company established in 1984 as a Proton distributor).

The Pert is most famous internationally for having won the 2002 Production World Rally Championship in the hands of Malaysian driver Karamjit Singh (born 1962), who beat Lancer Evo VIIs into second and third place over the course of the season.

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Proton Tiara

Protons built and sold in the 20th century were usually based on Mitsubishis in one way or another, but the Tiara was a unique case of one which was in fact a Citroën.

Specifically, it was a Citroën AX, that very light small car which was coming to the end of its production life when the Tiara arrived in the late 1990s. The Proton lasted slightly longer, but not beyond 2000.

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Renault Alaskan

Like the discontinued Mercedes X-Class, the Alaskan is, barring some minor alterations to the design, a third-generation Nissan Navara.

Introduced in 2016, it became the longest-ever Renault (or at least Renault-badged) toad-going production vehicle, taking over from the 40CV luxury car which had been discontinued 88 years before.

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Roewe 750

The 750 was the first model produced by Chinese manufacturer SAIC Motor after it bought  the rights to the Rover 25 hatchback and the much larger Rover 75, but not to their names; the Rover name was owned by BMW, then sold to Ford, and then sold on to Tata Motors when it bought Jaguar Land Rover.

The 75 is the more important of the two in this context, since that’s basically what the 750 was, though there are just enough styling differences to make it clear that it was not precisely the same. Introduced in 2006, it remained in production for a full decade, until November 2016.

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Rover CityRover

Except in the tiniest details, the CityRover introduced in 2003 was a Tata Indica designed and built by Tata Motors, which subsequently became – and is still – the owner of Jaguar Land Rover.

Motorists in different countries have different requirements. While the Indica was a success in India, it was robustly criticised in the UK as a poor attempt to keep MG Rover in business. As we wrote after it had gone, “A low price wasn’t enough to save the company.”

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Saab-Lancia 600

Once described as “the black, unexplored terrain of Saab history”, the 600 was unusual in that it wasn’t a Saab at all but an almost entirely unmodified Lancia Delta, even retaining a Lancia badge on the front grille.

Launched in Sweden, Finland and Norway in 1980, it quickly developed a reputation for being adversely affected by the salt spread liberally on the roads of those countries when they became icy, and was withdrawn after just two years.

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Saturn Relay

Towards the end of Saturn’s 25-year history, GM’s ‘different kind of car company’ brand produced a minivan called the Relay. It made its debut in the 2005 model year, the same time as the Buick Terraza, the Chevrolet Uplander and the second-generation Pontiac Montana, all of which were the same vehicle, though with very slightly different front-end treatments.

Like the Buick, the Saturn did not survive beyond 2007, though the Chevrolet and the Pontiac lasted slightly longer. Saturn itself was closed down in 2010.

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Subaru Justy

The second-generation Justy was almost identical to the second-generation Suzuki Swift. Oddly, for two cars marketed by Japanese companies, they were both built in Suzuki’s factory in Hungary.

The major difference between the two lay under the skin. By the 1990s, Subaru was globally famous for its four-wheel drive cars. The Justy accordingly came with 4WD as standard.

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Subaru Pleo

Subaru began making kei cars in 1958, and continued doing so until 2009, when its first-generation Pleo was discontinued. By now Toyota, a majority shareholder in Daihatsu, had a significant investment in Subaru too, and decided that there was no point in two brands it partly owned developing kei cars separately.

The second Pleo, therefore, was simply a Daihatsu Mira with Subaru branding. Both versions remained on the market until 2018.

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Subaru Solterra

The partnership between Subaru and Toyota has led, among other things, to the creation of the Solterra, an all-electric crossover which amounts to a rebadged and very mildly redesigned Toyota bZ4X.

While the derivation of the name bZ4X isn’t immediately obvious, ‘Solterra’ comes from the Latin words for ‘sun’ and ‘earth’, emphasising Subaru’s ambitious claim that this is its “first global EV that aims to co-exist with nature”.

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Suzuki Cara

The Autozam AZ-1 was a kei sports car with gullwing doors, developed by Mazda. The Cara was the same thing, but with Suzuki badging.

However, there’s more to it than that. The history of the AZ-1 in fact begins with a Suzuki prototype which was dropped in favour of the less radical Cappuccino and picked up by Mazda. The production version was also powered by the same turbocharged 657cc three-cylinder engine used in the Cappuccino.

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Toyota Glanza

The Suzuki Baleno went on sale in India in 2015, and four years later gained a rival in the form of the Toyota Glanza, which was actually the same car. Both models moved into their second generation (pictured) in 2022.

Glanza is derived from the German word Glanz, which can be translated into English as ‘brightness’, ‘radiance’, ‘sparkle’ and various synonyms thereof. Toyota previously used it in Japan for a sporty version of the fifth-generation Starlet.

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Vanden Plas Princess

The British Motor Corporation car codenamed ADO16, always powered by a 1.1- or 1.3-litre A-Series engine, was one of the most popular models in the UK during the 1960s. It was also an extreme example of badge engineering, being marketed by the Austin, Innocenti, MG, Morris, Riley, Vanden Plas and Wolseley brands.

Today, Vanden Plas is perhaps the least well remembered of these. Its version of the car was notable, though not unique, for having an extravagant chrome front grille, but was structurally and mechanically the same as all the others. It had a delightful interior full of polished wood, with picnic tables on the back of the front seats.

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Vauxhall VXR8

VXR8 was the name used for two generations of Vauxhall which weren’t really Vauxhalls at all. In fact, they were Holdens powered by Chevrolet V8 engines and imported from half a world away in Australia.

General Motors cancelled all Holden production in 2017, and that spelled the end for the VXR8.

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Wolseley 6/99

The Austin A99 Westminster introduced in 1959 was quickly joined by Wolseley’s badge-engineered equivalent. The mechanicals (including a 2.9-litre straight six engine) and Pininfarina-designed bodies were identical, but since Wolseley was a far more upmarket brand than Austin the 6/99 was made to look much grander.

A similar tactic was employed in 1961, when the cars were lengthened and became the Austin A110 Westminster and Wolseley 6/110 respectively.

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Germany has been producing engines from the dawn of motoring until the present day.

In nearly 140 years, the country's portfolio of engines has developed into something quite remarkable. It includes simple but effective motors for everyday transport, as well as gigantic units of awesome power, and almost everything in between.

Restricting this list to just 20 engines inevitably means that many worthy contenders have had to be left out, so our apologies in advance:

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Audi R10 TDI

Audi developed a twin-turbocharged, 5.5-litre V12 diesel engine which made its debut in the R10 TDI sports racing car in 2006. The R10 was wildly successful, winning the Le Mans 24 Hours, the Sebring 12 Hours and the LMP1 class in the American Le Mans Series that year. No diesel-powered car had ever done any of these things before.

Audi repeated its Le Mans and ALMS victories in 2007 and 2008 before the R10 was replaced by another diesel racer, the 5.5-litre V10 R15 TDI. This engine did much to demonstrate the prowess of the Volkswagen Group in producing diesel engines, but it proved to be a somewhat problematic legacy… It’s fair to say you’re unlikely to see the letters TDI emblazoned on any race cars ever again.

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Audi R5

R5 was a family of five-cylinder engines used in many Audis and some Volkswagens. The most famous member was the 2.1-litre turbocharged unit fitted to the Audi Quattro from 1980 onwards, first with two valves per cylinder and later with four.

The engine helped Audi to dominate international rallying in the early 1980s, partly because it was very powerful. This did not cause traction problems on gravel roads because Audi was also the first manufacturer in the sport to take the idea of four-wheel drive seriously.

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Auto Union V16

All of the frighteningly fast Grand Prix and record cars built by Mercedes and Auto Union from 1934 to 1939 had formidable engines, but the Auto Union V16 was perhaps the most glorious of them all. Designed by Porsche, it was not a high revver (no version was ever taken as far as 6000rpm), but it produced thundering torque and correspondingly enormous power.

The ultimate version, built only for record-breaking, measured 6.3 litres and had a peak output of 545bhp. In 1938, a rule change obliged Auto Union to develop a 3.0-litre V12 for Grand Prix racing.

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Benz Patent Motorwagen

On paper, the single-cylinder engine built by Karl Benz (1844-1929) in 1885 does not seem impressive from a 21st-century standpoint. Although it had a capacity of 954cc, similar to that of many small units found today, it was unable to produce as much as 1bhp.

However, it is one of the most significant engines ever made in Germany, or anywhere else, because it was fitted to Benz's Patent Motorwagen, widely regarded as the world's first car. For later versions, Benz designed and built stronger engines with power outputs of up to 2bhp – the power of two horses, with a heck of a lot less ‘maintenance’.

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Blitzen Benz

The Benz cars which finished second and third in the 1908 French Grand Prix were both fitted with four-cylinder engines of at least 12 litres. Free from the restrictions of Grand Prix rules, Benz then developed a monstrous 21.5-litre version for a car nicknamed the Blitzen ('thunder') Benz, of which six examples were built.

The 200km/h (124mph) target speed was beaten during a successful Land Speed Record attempt in 1909. A later 142mph run did not take place under LSR regulations, but driver Bob Burman (1884-1916) had unofficially reached the highest speed achieved to date by any vehicle, including aeroplanes.

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BMW M20

BMW is renowned for its smooth-running straight-six engines. A classic example of the type is the M20, introduced to the 3 Series and 5 Series ranges in 1977 as a 2.0-litre. It subsequently appeared with capacities of up to 2.7 litres before being discontinued in the early 1990s.The M20 was mostly fitted to saloon cars, but also powered the radical BMW M1 roadster in 2.5-litre form. In 2.0-litre form, it was noticeably smoother than four-cylinder rivals, as this famous advert from the ‘80s emphasises.

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BMW S14

The S14 was a high-revving four-cylinder engine used in the first-generation BMW M3. For road cars, it appeared first in 2.3-litre form and was later expanded to 2.5 litres. For motorsport, it was often reduced to 2.0 litres to meet championship regulations.

The scream of a tuned S14 made the M3 a very dramatic rally car, but it was even more successful in circuit racing, winning the Australian, British, German, Italian, European and World Touring Car Championships.

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BMW N74

The N74 is a twin-turbo V12 which has been available in various capacities from 6.0 to 6.75 litres. Power outputs have ranged from nearly 540bhp to over 620bhp, but the engine is not intended for use in sporting cars.

The only BMWs fitted with it have been upscale members of the 7 Series family like the M760Li xDrive pictured. Since 2010, it has also been used in models produced by Rolls-Royce, which BMW currently owns.

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Bugatti W16

Although Bugatti is a French brand, it is owned by Volkswagen, and uses a great deal of German technology. This includes a formidable quad-turbo 8.0-litre W16 engine, whose unique layout was created (more or less) by mounting two narrow-angle 4.0-litre V8s on a shared crankcase.

The engine had already appeared in the Audi Rosemeyer and Bentley Hunaudieres concept cars before reaching production in the 2005 Bugatti Veyron (pictured). In most Veyrons, the W16 produced 987bhp, but its output was raised to 1479bhp for the Bugatti Chiron, which replaced the Veyron in 2016.

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Daimler DB603

The DB603 was one of the most remarkable engines developed in Germany or anywhere else for use in a car. The car in question was the Mercedes T80, which was designed for an attempt on the Land Speed Record. The 44.5-litre V12 produced around 3000bhp, which seemed like enough when the project began in the mid 1930s.

The Second World War diverted everyone's attention from record breaking. By the time Mercedes was in a position to think about it again, the record had been raised to 394mph. Since that was 21mph above the target speed for the T80, the project was abandoned.

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DKW two-stroke

By acquiring a patent for a system called loop scavenging, using it well and setting the lawyers on anyone who came close to it, DKW became the world's leading manufacturer of two-stroke cars and motorcycles. It was so successful that it could afford to buy Audi in 1928.

DKW finally developed the four-stroke F103 in the 1960s. Its then owner, Volkswagen, resurrected the by now long-dormant Audi name rather then persevere with one associated with noisy, smelly engines. Audi would therefore now be almost forgotten if it hadn’t been for the two-strokes which killed the brand that made them.

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MAN B&W 11G95ME-C9.5

Although this article is mostly about cars, we can't write about German engines without mentioning the incredible marine unit produced by MAN (part of Volkswagen) and used in the gigantic 400-metre long, 19,000 container-carrying MSC Jade.

The 11-cylinder two-stroke produces around 103,000bhp at a positively relaxed 80rpm. Its 26,977-litre capacity is approximately 1677 litres greater than that of the Finnish Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C, which is often (but wrongly) described as the world's largest internal combustion engine.

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Mercedes M139

The M139 is a two-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine fitted to the Mercedes-AMG A 45 hatchback, the CLA 45 fastback and the GLA 45 crossover. It's available with outputs of either 382bhp or 416bhp. In the latter form, it’s said to be the most powerful four-cylinder engine fitted to a production car.

In fact, Mitsubishi developed a 440bhp engine of similar size and layout for a version of the Evo X sold in the UK, but only 40 examples were ever built. Depending on your definition of a production car, the Evo might therefore not qualify, whereas the Mercedes models unquestionably do.

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Mercedes M156

The M156 is historically significant because it was the first engine designed from scratch by Mercedes subsidiary AMG, rather than by Mercedes itself. Although the V8 unit measures almost exactly 6.2 litres, the various models fitted with it all had 63 in their titles, including the E 63 AMG (pictured) and, rather improbably, the high-performance version of the R-Class MPV.

The M156 was produced from 2006 to 2011, with outputs of up to 518bhp. The even more powerful M159 derivative was used in the Mercedes SLS AMG sports car.

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Mercedes M196

Mercedes created the 2.5-litre straight-eight M196 engine for its W196 Grand Prix car, and enlarged it to 2.9 litres for the 300 SLR sports racer. Technical highlights included direct fuel injection and desmodromic valves, which were pushed shut rather than allowed to return to their closed position by the release of a spring.

In the two years before Mercedes made one of its periodic withdrawals from motorsport, Juan Manuel Fangio (1911-1995) became F1 World Champion in both 1954 and 1955 driving the W196, while Stirling Moss (1929-2020, pictured at the wheel) famously won the 1955 Mille Miglia in the 300 SLR.

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Opel CIH

The Opel Cam In Head engine's name is derived from the fact that its camshaft was mounted in the cylinder head rather than the block, but between the valves rather than above them as in a conventional overhead-camshaft layout.

Remarkable for its longevity, the CIH was first used exclusively in Opel models, and later in equivalent vehicles sold by Vauxhall. It made its debut in the Opel Rekord of 1965, and was still being used three decades later in the Isuzu off-roader sold in Europe as the Frontera.

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Porsche flat-six

Porsche designed air-cooled flat-four engines for the original Volkswagen, and for its own 356 and 912 models. For the 911, the company added two more cylinders to the design, and thereby created what is widely regarded as one of the world's greatest engines.

Although there were many detail changes - including turbocharging - over the years, the most significant development was the introduction of water cooling in 1997, 30 years after the 911 first went on sale.

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Volkswagen EA827

Although the EA827 is now regarded as a Volkswagen Group engine, it actually made its debut in the 1972 Audi 80. It was available for several decades in sizes ranging from 1.3 to 2.0 litres, and used in a great many VWs and Audis, and later SEATs and Skodas.

Most significantly, it powered the first-generation VW Golf GTI (pictured), regarded by some (probably wrongly) as the first hot hatch. Later developments included supercharging (for models wearing the G60 badge) and the fitment of a 16-valve cylinder head.

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Volkswagen Type 1

The Type 1 was used for the entire life of the original Volkswagen (nicknamed, but never officially called, the Beetle) from 1938 to 2003, and is one of the world's longest-lived production engines. As well as the Beetle, it was fitted to the Type 2 commercial vehicles (including the Transporter), the Type 3 saloon, the Karmann Ghia sports car and a great many light aircraft.

In those models, its capacity ranged from 985cc to 1.6 litres. A larger derivative, ranging in size from 1.7 to 2.0 litres, was used in the Volkswagen 411 and 412 and the Porsche 914.

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Volkswagen W8

The W16 engine used by Bugatti is not the only example of a layout attempted by Volkswagen and no other company. The same applies to the 4.0-litre W8, which amounts to two narrow-angle 2.0-litre V4 engine sharing a single crankshaft.

Producing up to 271bhp, it was the only W8 engine ever to be fitted in a vehicle sold to the public. It made its debut in the Volkswagen Passat in 2001 and was discontinued three years later. There is still no sign of a successor.

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