FRANKFURT, Germany — While it's unlikely we'll ever get the exciting Opel Signum concept car launched here, the concept V8 that powers it will play a role in future GM cars in North America.
Dubbed the XV8, the new 4.3-litre engine involves several cutting-edge technologies that allowed GM to attain its stated goal of providing "the power and smoothness of a premium V8 and the fuel efficiency of a V6" in a package "fits into an engine bay sized for the width of a V6 and the length of a four-cylinder."
Only days after supervising the debut of a V12 with a similar small-volume, high-performance theme at the Pebble Beach concours d'elegance, GM Powertrain's executive director of advanced engineering, Fritz Indra, got to reveal his firm's new V8 at the auto show here.
"It was our goal to create a compact, fuel efficient V8 that would showcase many advanced technologies all working together," Indra said of the XV8, adding that it's one of the "most technologically advanced V8s in the world."
At the moment, Indra said, GM has no plans for a production version of the all-aluminum XV8 in its present form, but many of the technologies it uses will show up in future production products.
Indra explained that the XV8 uses a three-valves-per-cylinder combustion chamber configuration, which he says supports the optimization of an air-assisted direct fuel injection system. "The configuration features an industry first," Indra pointed out, "two camshafts in the block."
The XV8 produces 300 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque.