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5 Of The Largest 4-Cylinder Engines Ever Made (Ranked By Displacement)
Paul Stadden
Sat, November 29, 2025 at 10:25 PM UTC
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"Here comes the Porsche 3.0-liter inline-four," you might be saying to yourself. Sure, it'll be on this list, but Porsche's uber-four is a weed-whacker engine compared to the ultimate displacement-endowed fours. Spoiler alert: one of the engines here has more displacement than a Dodge Viper, Bugatti Chiron, Bentley Continental GT W12 , and Mustang GT combined.
Why are large fours so rare? Let's think like engineers and ponder the pros and cons of four-cylinder engines. Manufacturers find fours attractive because they can be built with fewer parts and get better efficiency than, say, a V12 or V8. They're also lighter and take up less space. The problem is that inline-fours tend to vibrate like washing machines laundering a cinder block on spin cycle. To keep fours smooth, you need balance shafts and/or crankshaft counterweights -- or, like Subaru, you could use two banks of two pistons at 180 degrees to cancel out some of the vibration. But, of course, everything grows along with displacement, and once a four-cylinder gets big enough, it loses its size advantage. As a result, manufacturers would rather turbocharge small and manageable four-bangers to produce the needed power. To heck with turbos, though, this list's engines decided there's no replacement for displacement. Just warning you upfront, we're sticking with fours that power cars or car-like things. Sorry, fans of the 172-liter Fairbanks Morse 32D, but those engines spent their lives powering mills and rock crushing plants rather than roasting tires with sick burnouts.
Read more: Why Formula One Engines Went From V12s To V6s
The littlest giant: 3.0-liter Porsche M44/41 and M44/43
This 182 cubic inch four-cylinder is essentially half of a Porsche 928 V8. Rather than being some economy four-pot, the M44/41 3‐liter as installed in Porsche 944 S2s uses aluminum-silicon alloy blocks, forged crankshafts, double overhead cams, and Mitsubishi's balancer shaft tech. The M44/43 in Porsche 968s jumped up to 236 hp thanks to VarioCam (variable valve timing) and a gentle increase in compression from 10.9:1 to 11:1. Sure, Porsche 968 parts availability and short service intervals are frustrating, but it's a four-cylinder with twice the displacement of a BRM 1.5-liter V16!
The 0-60 times for 944 S2s were just under 7 seconds, and 968s improved the same run to only 6.1 seconds. As so often happens with cool, higher-performance versions of cars, the turbocharged 968s weren't sold new in the US. Porsche built 14 examples of the 305 hp 968 Turbo S (or 13 or 15, or some other number depending on how much you like arguing). It retained the same displacement but added forced induction and replaced the 16-valve head with an 8-valve from the old 944 Turbo. This car was good for a 4.9-second 0-60, which was smoking in 1994. The final boss of 968s, though, is the 350 hp 968 Turbo RS, which was birthed for Germany's ADAC GT racing series. Porsche only managed to sell four of them, and they could scorch to 60 in just 4.4 seconds.
Not even on the podium yet: 3.2-liter Pontiac Trophy 4
Like Porsche's M44, Pontiac's Trophy 4 is basically half of an existing engine. Pontiac engineer Malcolm McKellar ran a 389 V8 on four pistons and found decent power remained while providing good fuel economy, proving the concept was viable. After the physical removal of a cylinder bank, the Trophy 4 was born. With 10.25:1 compression and a four-barrel carb, it put out 166 hp. To isolate their shakes, Trophy 4s are held up in the rear by the driveshaft and transaxle and in the front by marshmallowy rubber mounts. Nowadays, you can find 1962 Pontiac Tempests under 7 grand with a four-cylinder that vibrates like a massage chair and weighs as much as a small block Chevy V8.
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If you've ever read NASCAR legend Smokey Yunick's memoir, "Best Damn Garage In Town: The World According to Smokey," you've probably have been waiting for me to mention that Smokey claims he designed the Trophy 4 as a favor to Pontiac assistant chief engineer, John Z. DeLorean. This must have occurred in between racing in the Indy 500 and gold prospecting in Ecuador (no, that's not a joke). He was certainly mechanically brilliant, and his "hot-vapor" version of the Iron Duke four-cylinder apparently managed 250 hp and up to 51 mpg, so he had the ability. But how much of the Trophy 4 was Smokey's and how much was McKellar's is likely a "he said/he said" argument.
Almost three liters per cylinder: 11.1-liter Simplex Model 90
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You have to be careful when looking up Simplex cars. A 1903 Mercedes-Simplex sold for $12 million, but that's not the Simplex we're looking for. There's also American Simplex from Mishwaka, Indiana, but that's not the Simplex we want, either. In fact, American Simplex renamed itself Amplex because there was already a Simplex based in New York, which is the Simplex we're talking about. More specifically, we're focusing on the engine powering the Simplex 90 in the above photo from the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup.
A.D. Proctor Smith and Carleton R. Mabley debuted the Smith and Mabley Simplex in 1904, offering either 18 hp or 30 hp versions. The pair had been importing Mercedes, Renaults, Fiats, and Panhards, so they knew what made for a quality car. Indeed, it seems Smith and Mabley based their car on the 18/22 hp Mercedes Simplex, and even slyly used Mercedes' suppliers.
In 1907, the 9.8-liter 50 hp Model 50 arrived, followed by the 75 hp Model 75, which featured the same displacement, but larger valves. Then there was the 1909-1913 Model 90, which, according to the pattern set up, should put out 90 hp, right? Well, Hemmings talked with an owner of a Simplex 90 by the name of Joel Finn, who threw his Speed Car powered by Simplex's 677.7 cubic inch/11.1-liter four-cylinder on a dyno and got 172 hp. "I don't know of any early car with more horsepower," he enthused, "It takes off like a rocket."
Paint buckets for pistons: 21.5-liter Blitzen-Benz
To be clear, the Blitzen-Benz was not the fastest car in the world when it debuted. It was simply the fastest thing in the world. In 1909, it managed 202.6 kph or 124 mph, making it faster than trains — and even planes! This was not just the land speed record, but the absolute record, and was probably the fastest speed anyone had ever experienced and lived through at the time. Human terminal velocity, the fastest we can fall before air resistance cancels out gravity, is about 120 mph, though you can go headfirst and possibly reach 200 mph, which would be necessary to outrun the Blitzen-Benz. Then, in 1911, it reached 228.1 kph (137 mph), which was twice the speed of the fastest airplane. It lives up to its name, with the German word "blitzen" translating to "flash."
At 1,312 cubic inches, the Blitzen-Benz's 21.5-liter four is larger than many studio apartments, and it makes 200 hp and around 1,000 pound-feet of torque. The block isn't even a single casting, but two! Each holds a pair of pistons with reinforcement under the cooling jackets, gripping the crankcase with 12 massive studs. Five main bearings hold the crankshaft, which is about the size and shape of San Francisco's Lombard Street. This horizontal skyscraper could outrun any vehicle on the planet, and it's the precursor to all fast Mercedes-Benzes, from super sedans like the 300SEL 6.3 or 450SEL 6.9 to later cars like the pre-merger 6-liter Mercedes AMG Hammer coupes.
The number of the beast: 28.4-liter Fiat S76 Beast of Turin
Known better as the "Beast of Turin" or "Mephistopheles," the Fiat S76 produces 300 hp and 2,000 pound-feet of torque from a 28.4-liter four-cylinder. It's not a car as much as an engine with a body Saran-wrapped on. The poor clutch tasked with transmitting the engine's power has 90 plates. No, not nine, but 90. Each cylinder displaces 7.1 liters, which is more than a 426 Hemi V8. At 300 rpm, Mephistopheles is at highway speed. Just 1,000 rpm is enough for almost 130 mph. This is one rare antique engine, too — and by that I mean there's one. The only other S76 engine built no longer exists.
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Belgian driver Arthur Duray attempted a speed record in 1913, but mechanical issues prevented the required two-way average return trip. As shared by Fiat Club America, he said, "I was using all my years of experience to drive the Fiat flat-out in third gear. I would have needed the courage of a thousand men to drive it flat-out in fourth gear." Then, in July 1924, British driver Ernest Eldridge — the man who actually conceived of this beast — took Mephistopheles to 146 mph and set a new land speed record. Somehow, this was accomplished on public roads, and everyone involved survived. God bless Duncan Pittway, who spearheaded the Beast of Turin's restoration and drove in the rain at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Seriously, God, watch out for him, that thing's terrifying.
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