The Nissan car engine you can carry under your arm

A new petrol engine from Nissan is so small it could be carried on board a passenger plane as hand luggage and yet weighs only 40 kg.

At 1.5 litres, the capacity of the DIG-T R is no larger than the engine in a Nissan Micra, but whereas the little city car produces around 65hp, the new power plant produces up to 400hp – as much as a Ferrari Modena can muster with its larger, heavier and more thirsty 3.6 litre V8.

The new engine will be the primary power source aboard the Nissan ZEOD RC hybrid racing car at Le Mans this year, and more than likely help new standards of performance and efficiency in the company’s road going cars.

The DIG-T R 1.5 litre three-cylinder turbo engine will not appear in the Nissan Micra anytime soon, but it demonstrates that in the face of dwindling resources and concern for the environment, engineers continue to coax greater efficiency from the internal combustion engine.

Racing cars are downsizing

Motorsport and environmental technology are not natural bedfellows, but there has been increasing pressure for greater efficiency – after all, a Formula 1 racing car achieves needs more than a gallon of fuel to travel four miles.

In an area of sport where eight, ten and twelve cylinder engines are commonplace, Nissan is to become the first major manufacturer to use a three-cylinder engine. The incredibly small Nissan engine weighs only 40 kg, but produces 400 hp - a better power-to-weight ratio than the new engines to be used in Formula 1 this year.