Cylinders vs. Displacement

[the_wildthing]

The old beetles have flat 4s hehehe.

[theveed]

Dont forget the great 4 Cylinder Esprit with 280hp :D

[niky]

But new beetles don't. And the Elise, Lotus's bread-and-butter car, uses an I4 also. Only Porsche and Subaru are using the flat-4's now, because they're experienced at developing and packaging them. Most small sportscar manufacturers are using I4s now because they're easy to buy off the shelf, and dry-sumping them gives you the same low-center of gravity benefits flat-4s have, without the difficult maintenance and spacing problem.

[Automahn]

generally, more cylinders will mean more hp & more importantly - torque (if the displacement is the same).

of course - this would also equate to higher cost of production.

Greater fuel consumption?

[niky]

No, not really. Fuel consumption goes hand-in-hand with displacement and engine speed. It's not based on the number of cylinders, otherwise, we'd be driving around 3-cylinder or 2-cylinder 1.6 liter cars.