Eight regular cars with supercar engines

Daimler Double 6 – Jaguar XJR15

For 1972 Jaguar decided the straight-six XJ range needed a little shake-up, so it took the 5.3-litre V12 that first found a home in the E-type in 1971 and resettled it. Alongside the XJ12, new Jaguar chairman Frank Raymond Wilton "Lofty" England doubled the cylinder count in the Daimler version, too, and having himself competed in the first RAC Rally in 1932 aboard an original Daimler Double Six, he decided this new car would also be christened ‘Double Six’. And in what supercar did this engine later find itself? The XJR15. It might have been stroked out to 6.0-litres, but it is largely the same engine.

Mercedes S600 – Pagani Zonda C12

If you know anything about the Pagani Zonda C12 you would have predicted this entry. Yes, the new Italian supercar company, based in Ferrari’s hometown of Modena, went to Mercedes for its engine. It wasn’t a custom-built item, however, but a unit pulled directly from the W140 Mercedes S600.

The M120 engine was introduced in 1991, developed as a direct result of BMW’s introduction of the V12-powered E32 7 Series in 1986. BMW’s big block took Mercedes by surprise, and so the company’s engineering boffins got to work on something that would upset their rivals. Their creation was the 6.0-litre monster that made its way to Horacio Pagani’s new mid-engined showstopper, developed thereafter to 7.0- and 7.3-litres. It was dropped in 1998, replaced with the ever-so-slightly cleaner M137 V12, which is why W140 S600s are so sought after – where else can you find a spare Zonda engine?

Lancia Thema 8.32 – Ferrari 308

The Lancia Thema was one of four cars developed on the Type Four platform, the others being the Alfa Romeo 164, Fiat Croma and the Saab 9000. Announced in May 1984, the Thema came with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, a 2.0-litre turbo-four and a silky-smooth 2.8-litre V6. Madness ensued in 1986, however, when Lancia revealed the Thema 8.32, which was graced with a 3.0-litre Ferrari V8, the F105L. 

It was ever so slightly different, using a cross-plane crank rather than a flat-plane crank, and was badged ‘Lancia by Ferrari’, but it was still very much a Ferrari engine. It had a five-speed manual gearbox, 205PS (151kW), could hit 62mph in 6.8 seconds and was three times more expensive than a standard 2.0-litre car. One more fun fact: the 8.32 was the car in which Enzo Ferrari chose to be chauffeured.

Audi RS4 – Audi R8

If this list were in order of how closely the engines were related, the entry would be at number one. The RS4 launched in June 2006 with a 4.2-litre FSI (Fuel Stratified Injection) engine, developed with know-how from Audi’s R8 Le Mans-winning prototype (not to be confused with the road-going R8 that follows), and it rapidly pulled in praise as the most entertaining fast Audi to date. 

In September 2006 Audi launched the R8, the company’s first road-going supercar, and lowered into the middle of that was the same 4.2-litre V8. The R8 was dry-sumped and used a double-entry dual-element single air filter with two-hot film air mass flow meters, while the RS4 was wet-sumped and used a triple-entry single air filter with a single hot-film air mass meter. But that’s more or less where the differences stop, and they’re hardly huge.

Ford F150 – Ford GT

What could be more regular than a pick-up truck? Yes, it’s time for the Ford F-150 and the first Ford GT. Ford’s first F-Series truck was launched in 1948, available with a straight-six or V8 of various capacities. Fast forward to 1997 and we arrive at the tenth-generation F-150, available with a 4.2-litre V6, 4.6-litre V8 and 5.4-litre V8. Wind the clocks forward two more years and a new model joined the tenth-gen F-150 line-up: the Lightning. This had a supercharged 5.4-litre V8, and over the course of five years Ford sold more than 28,000 of the things. 

Someone at Ford then had the brilliant idea of taking that engine, albeit with four valves per cylinder rather than two, and dropping it into its new mid-engined supercar, its follow-up in name and design to the original Le Mans winning GT40: the Ford GT. In contrast to the Lightning pick-up, it’s estimated only 4,038 GTs were built from 2005 to 2006. They might have been sub-£100,000 new in the UK back then, but to get hold of one today you’ll need at least triple that to get behind the wheel.

Volvo XC90 – Noble M600

In the early 2000s, one manufacturer stood head and shoulders above the rest when it came to safety: Volvo. They were safe not just in a literal sense but, although largely very handsome, they were safe in every other respect, too. You’d imagine then that a seven-seater, the XC90, would be an odd car to share its powerplant with a supercar? Funnily enough, no, because although the XC90 sold with five-cylinder petrols and diesels, and a straight-six twin-turbo petrol, the peak of the range had a Yamaha-constructed 4.4-litre V8, the B8444S, going on sale in 2005 with an all-wheel-drive system to distribute its 315PS (232kW) safely to the road.

In 2010 Noble came knocking at Volvo’s door, looking for an engine to slot neatly into its all-new M600. Three-hundred and fifteen horsepower wasn’t enough for Noble, however, which is why the V8 in M600 wasn’t built by Yamaha but by a company named Motorkraft in the USA, and it went from being naturally-aspirated to Garrett twin-turbocharged. The result was a delightful 659PS (485kW), all now going to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox. 

Lincoln Mk8 – Koenigsegg CC8S

Koenigsegg today is working in a different universe when it comes to internal combustion engines – mouth-watering car prices and engineering and technology business opportunities have given Koenigsegg the freedom to do what it could not do in the early days and design its own engines. Back when Christian von Koenigsegg created the CC8S, there was only one manufacturer who could help: Ford.

Koenigsegg bought in that good ‘ol modular V8, in 4.6-litre form, the same engine you’d find in a Lincoln Mk8 or second-gen Ford Crown Victoria (yes, a police interceptor), and, well, comprehensively updated it. It was dry-sumped and given forged pistons and connecting rods, larger injectors, a ram air intake, and a centrifugal supercharger with a massive intercooler. On top of that, the cylinder heads were reworked and fitted with new camshafts and injectors, while capacity went up from 4.6- to 4.7-litres. The result? A whopping 655PS (482kW), more than twice that of the Lincoln.

BMW M5 – BMW M1

OK, the BMW M5 isn’t a regular car in the same way a Kia Rio is, but it isn’t a supercar. What was a supercar was the BMW M1.

It was 1978 when BMW launched the M1, a mid-engined rarity, with just 453 built over the course of three years. It was powered by the M88 3.5-litre straight-six, with 277PS (204kW). The very first BMW M5 was revealed seven years later in February 1985 at the Amsterdam Motor Show, based on the already quick 535i but with a number of mechanical changes to make it sharper to drive. It too had a 2.5-litre straight-six, but rather than the M88 it featured the M88/3, essentially the M1 engine’s great-grandchild. Power hopped up from 277PS to 286PS (210kW) and, wanting to make the most of a good engine, BMW fitted it to the M635 CSi and the South Africa-only 745i. How we’d love to see a modern mid-engined BMW with the motor from an M8.