Fiat India Sales Revive

Its going to be a big year for Fiat’s Powertrain Technologies unit of Fiat SpA. The company is all set to release a host of new powertrain technologies in both diesel and petrol forms and will also launch Fiat’s first dual clutch gearbox.

The first among the new family of powertrain is the ‘Family B SuperFire’  engine which features a displacement of 1.8 Litres. The 4-Cylinder, 16 Valve engine is the third in the modular engine family from Fiat and features the bore  (83mm) from the 2.0 Litre Multijet and stroke from the 1.6 Litre Multijet (80.5mm)  for a displacement of 1742 cc’s. The engine will feature standard direct injection and continuously  variable phasing for both inlet and exhaust cams.

The 1.8 Litre engine will make its first appearance in Alfa Romeo 159 replacing the current 1.9 and 2.2 JTS as well as the Lancia Delta, making 200 bhp between 4750 and 5500 rpm and a healthy 320 nm of torque between 1400 and 3750 rpm. The figures will enable the car to sprint from 0-100 kph in 7.8-8.0 seconds with a top speed of 230 kmph and a fuel consumption figure of 7.5-8.0 litres/100 kms.

The engine will come with an option of either  M32 Six Speed Manual or the Aisin supplied 6-Speed Q-Tronic Automatic transmission for the Alfa while the Lancia Delta will come only with the automatic for the time being.

The 1.8 engine in its highest tune will be available for Brera and Spider developing 230 bhp @ a heady 5750 rpm and 350 nm of torque from almost idle 1750 rpm! The figures will enable the Brera and Spider to achieve a top speed of 235-240 kmph and with the ton coming up from rest in 7.2-7.5 seconds adressing the concerns of poor performance.

The new engine output figures compare favourably with Volkswagen Audi’s 2.0 Litre TFSi unit which comes in two states of tune, a 180 bhp 320 Nm and 210 bhp with 350 nm

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The 230 bhp version will also find its way into the MiTo GTA mated to Fiat’s brand new dual dry clutch transmission dubbed the DDCT which comes under Fiat’s new C635 family of gearboxes. The work on C635 family started in 2006 and will be offered in both automatic and manual variants. The gearbox can handle 350 nm of torque and will be available in various B, C and D segment cars from Fiat starting from june this year for the manual, september for the DDCT and the robotised variant in 2010.

The new 1.8 Litre engine will debut at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show in about a month’s time which will also see the commencement of pre-production runs for two crucial engine developments - the next generation common-rail technology for diesel engine, Multijet 2 and Multiair electro-hydraulic valve actuation.

These new innovation will find their way into all passenger cars under the Fiat Group over the next few years. Fiat has also stated its aim to become the carmaker to have lowest CO2 emissions among the European car makers by 2012.

Multiair is a refinement of the original ‘camless’ Uniair concept, which itself had been under ongoing development by Fiat’s engineers for over a decade. The Italian carmaker is alone in pursuing this technology, which offers the potential for continual valve adjustment and thus optimised efficiency – a key requirement under increasingly stringent future emissions regulations. FPT estimates that engines equipped with Multiair offer up to 20 per cent more torque, at lower revs, compared with a conventional mechanical system. Power output also increases on average by between 10 and 15 per cent, with fuel consumption dropping by around 8 to 10 per cent, an improvement due mostly to the elimination of the conventional butterfly throttle valve, a component which severely interferes with the ability to optimise airflow in conventional engines.

Fitted with Multiair, the current 120 and 150bhp 1.4 T-Jet engines will be uprated to 135 and 165bhp, with corresponding improvements also in fuel consumption and emissions. The first production iteration of Multiair will be seen on these 1.4 T-Jet units, currently found in the Alfa Romeo MiTo, Lancia Delta, and Fiat’s Bravo and Grande Punto. The latter is expected to be the launch vehicle for this technology, due to be rolled out as part of a package of improvements for the top-selling supermini at the Frankfurt IAA in September.
The facelift for the Grande Punto, which comes four years after the car’s debut at the 2005 Frankfurt IAA, is also due to incorporate the initial application of Multijet 2. Fiat Group has long been at the forefront of diesel engine development, and pioneered both direct injection (1986 Fiat Croma TD i.d.) and ‘Unijet’ common-rail technology (1997 Alfa Romeo 156 JTD). Five years later, in 2002, the group debuted Multijet technology with the 140bhp 1.9 JTD 16V, before rolling it out across all of its diesel models, including the revolutionary 1.3 16V Multijet, or SDE (Small Diesel Engine). Multijet represented an advance over Unijet common-rail through its use of sophisticated electronic injector control to make more finely-divided injections than Unijet’s two, allowing better control of combustion noise, reduced emissions, and increased performance.
Multijet 2 now represents the next leap forward in refinement of the fuel delivery process. It consists of a brand-new system of injection pump and solenoid injectors, which will be supplemented in time with a further twin-piston pump development. The main improvement over existing Multijet injectors is in the system’s further improvement in the ability to finely control the fuel flow, to the notable benefit of emissions and low-mid-range torque.
Originally scheduled to reach production in late 2008, a slight delay in starting production means that the first SDE-engined cars with Multijet 2 should start appearing in production cars from September. With tighter Euro 5 emissions regulations being enforced from the beginning of that month, Multijet 2 will make a significant contribution to cutting NOx emissions without consumption and noise penalties, thanks to its ability to manage multiple injections with greater flexibility than the earlier Multijet system.
According to Alfredo Altavilla, CEO of Fiat Powertrain Technologies, Multijet 2 “will provide the same calibre of advantages as the original common-rail systems did 10 years ago”. Speaking to Engine Technology International magazine last year, he added that the results provided by the technology have been better than anticipated. “We have the (3-litre) V6 Multijet 2 diesels in test mules and the results for performance and CO2 are beyond our expectations,” he said. “We’re aiming for a base CO2 rating on the 3-litre Multijet 2 of 150g per kilometre.”

Source: ITALSPEED