Stuttgart, Germany - It's been 10 years since a V engine, or indeed anything with more than six cylinders, has won the outright International Engine of the Year Award.
And the major feature of engine design during that decade has been downsizing - using turbocharging, supercharging, on-demand electric oil and coolants pumps, and all manner of sophisticated electronics to do more with less.
Outright winners of the award, chosen by a panel of 62 motoring journalists from 31 countries (including South African Nicol Louw of Car Magazine) have included BMW's three-litre turbosix, the 1.5-litre triple from the BMW i8 supercar, the 1.4-litre Volkswagen TSI four, Fiat's 875cc TwinAir and, for three consecutive years, Ford's 'mighty mouse' one-litre Ecoboost triple.
And the winner is...
So it's even more of an achievement that the 2016 International Engine of the Year is Ferrari's 3902cc twin-turbo V8. It's the third-biggest outright winner in the 18 years of the awards, only the second V8 - after BMW's 4.4-litre Valvetronic - and, at 492kW, by far the most powerful.
It also took the 3-4 litre class, best new engine and best performance engine, while Maranello's naturally-aspirated 6.3-litre F12tdf V12 was adjudged best engine over four litres.
The engine that powers the 488 and (with slightly different displacement) the California T won praise for its IHI turbochargers, which have specially designed compressor wheels and sealing between the wheel and the housing, almost eliminating turbo lag, and its ion-sensing system, which measures ionising currents to control ignition timing and adaptively predict misfires, with a multispark function for optimum spark advance at all revs.
Here are the 12 categories and their winners:
International Engine of the Year:
Ferrari 3.9-litre biturbo V8
Find it in: Ferrari 488 GTB
Performance Engine:
Ferrari 3.9-litre biturbo V8
New engine:
Ferrari 3.9-litre biturbo V8
Above 4-litre:
Ferrari 6.3-litre V12
Find it in: Ferrari F12tdf
3-litre to 4-litre:
Ferrari 3.9-litre biturbo V8
2.5-litre to 3-litre:
Porsche 3-litre six-cylinder turbo
Find it in: Porsche 911 Carrera
2-litre to 2.5-litre: Audi 2.5-litre five-cylinder TSI
Find it in: Audi RS3, RSQ3, TT RS (new)
1.8-litre to 2-litre: Mercedes-AMG 2-litre turbo
Find it in: Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG, CLA45 AMG, GLA45 AMG
1.4-litre to 1.8-litre: BMW 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol-electric hybrid
Find it in: BMW i8
1-litre to 1.4-litre: Peugeot Citroen 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo
Find it in: Peugeot 208, 308, 2008, 3008, Citroen C4 Cactus, DS3
Sub 1-litre: Ford Ecoboost 998cc three-cylinder turbo
Find it in: Ford Fiesta, B-Max, Focus, EcoSport, Transit / Tourneo Connect
Green Engine: Tesla full-electric powertrain
Find it in: Tesla Model S, Model X