Our Fabias both have the weediest 1.2 HTP engines but are nippy enough for our purposes, and very economical. I have read in a few places the engine described as "free revving" and I would agree with that statement.

Being totally biased Skoda-wise, I thought that only they (or VAG I suppose) could come up with a free revving engine with these qualities, and with a funny sewing machine noise aswell.

But the other day I was looking in the latest Vauxhall magazine (I'm not tempted I assure you) and they referred to one of their engines as "free revving".

So: I think I know what a free revving engine is like in the flesh, but how would you all define this? Is it just that it has very little inertia to overcome when speeding up, or lightweight components? Surely in these days of accelerate-by-wire the ECU could easily be programmed to overcome excessive weight by rapid reaction to a bit of right foot?

I've had a week of the new 1.4TSI and not sure yet if its free revving like the HTPs are......but it's a darn sight quieter.

SR

It simply refers to an engine that's happy to spin up the rev range... pretty much any Honda engine is 'free revving'.

It's a combination of many things. Power delivery & where peak power is delivered, peak torque delivery, flywheel weight, mapping, how much an engine has been run in.

I loves a good free revvin' engine, me.

Yes it is how keen an engine is to spin and not necessarily how high the engine revs. Basically if the throttle response is instant and the rev counter needle slices around the dial quickly and easily throughout the rev range then it is free revving. I don't find modern engines that free revving as a rule to be honest. Blame heavy flywheels and electric emissions biased fueling for that.

As Matt says modern engines are encumbered with ECU's and heavy flywheels so they don't seem to rev freely like the old engines. Probably the most famous free revver was the Ford Anglia 997cc engine and that become developed in the shape of the Cosworth DFV used in F1. Sales and Media Guys come up with all sorts of carp these days.

Everything I've driven with proper throttle cables has revved quite freely

I find my vrs alot happier to rev since doing g60 flywheel conversion and getting rid of the horrid heavy duel mass flywheel

Probably the most free revving car engine ever produced must be the little 800cc twin cam 4 carb gem that was fitted to the Honda S800 Sports car of the 60s. That engine was like a mini race engine with a roller bearing crank and was apparently safe up to 12 grand. Only trouble was the car was Steel and so quite heavy so that killed the performance a bit. It is an absolutely amazing engine though and I'd love one of these cars. Fixing them and spares are a nightmare though and they are not cheap. There is a roadsteradvertised online for £14k.

Here's a cool video:

Probably the most free revving car engine ever produced must be the little 800cc twin cam 4 carb gem that was fitted to the Honda S800 Sports car of the 60s. That engine was like a mini race engine with a roller bearing crank and was apparently safe up to 12 grand. Only trouble was the car was Steel and so quite heavy so that killed the performance a bit. It is an absolutely amazing engine though and I'd love one of these cars. Fixing them and spares are a nightmare though and they are not cheap. There is a roadsteradvertised online for £14k.

Here's a cool video:

That is an object lesson in how to turn a good video into a crap one by the totally unnecessary application of loud music .

@deecee

You might like this: Jay Leno's earlier Honda s600 car. You can appreciate the Honda scream without music

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/1964-honda-sm600/204774