--- title: "Nissan’s 1.5L, 400-HP 3-Cylinder Engine Deserved to Live on Beyond Racing" description: "Nissan and RML's tiny, innovative engine was unceremoniously retired after its racing career was done. It should've wound up in a sports car." date: "2024-10-22" modified: "2024-10-22" authors: - name: "Ronan Glon" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/ronan-glon" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/what-happened-to-nissan-deltawing-engine" categories: - "Culture" - "History" - "News" - "News by Brand" - "Nissan News" tags: - "24 Hours of Le Mans" - "Nissan" --- # Nissan’s 1.5L, 400-HP 3-Cylinder Engine Deserved to Live on Beyond Racing ![]() *\Nissan\* The [DeltaWing]() raised more than a few eyebrows when it showed up at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans. Racing under the Garage 56 banner, the experimental single-seater was shaped like a land-bound fighter jet and powered by a [Nissan]()-branded four-cylinder. That powertrain was optimized over the next few years, culminating in a 400-horsepower, three-cylinder mill that weighed merely 88 pounds. The project eventually fizzled out, and the little engine's whereabouts were unknown to the public until *Drivetribe* tracked it down in a British workshop. In hindsight, the engine and the car it powered didn't go very far; they were stored in a facility owned by the RML Group, which developed both. The engine is a marvel of engineering: Nicknamed Diglett [after a Pokémon](), it weighs about as much as a modern, 125cc Vespa engine, yet boasts more than 10 times the displacement and develops 400 hp and 279 lb-ft of torque. These figures give it a better power-to-weight ratio than the engines that powered [Formula 1]() cars in that era. It's tiny, too. In January 2014, Nissan [bragged]() that the 19.68-inch tall, 15.74-inch long, and 7.78-inch wide triple was compact enough to take as carry-on luggage on a plane. Sounds like a challenge to us. ![]() *The 2014 Nissan ZEOD RC, the experimental race car inspired by the original DeltaWing that used the three-cylinder engine. *Nissan** RML managed to build such a power-dense engine by leveraging weight-saving solutions, according to *[Drivetribe]()*. The valve cover is notably made using carbon fiber, and components like the pulleys are much smaller than those you find on regular production engines. Keep in mind that this was developed as a racing engine, too, so engineers had fewer restrictions than if they were developing a motor for, say, a mass-produced crossover. For example, the cylinder head and the block are cast as a single unit, which eliminates the need for a head gasket. Although promising and extremely innovative, the engine remained at the prototype stage instead of ending up modified for street use. Nissan's current three-cylinders are a lot less exciting. In Europe, you can get the Juke with a 1.0-liter turbocharged triple rated at 114 horsepower. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d9y9ULXcxc Thankfully, these days you're not entirely out of luck if you want a power-dense three-cylinder engine. Toyota's 1.6-liter turbocharged triple develops 300 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque in [the GR Corolla](). It also powers [the GR Yaris]() and, against a great many odds, [the Lexus LBX Morizo RR crossover](). *Got tips? Send ’em to tips@thedrive.com* ## Author Ronan is a contributing writer for The Drive. He draws on over 15 years of experience to cover breaking industry news, cool one-off builds, and anything in between. He began writing for The Drive in 2021 and stepped into his current role in 2024. His obsession with cars started when a relative gave him a Majorette die-cast shortly after his first birthday. It hasn't flickered since. Ronan lives in France; He swapped Utah's Rocky Mountains, where he grew up, for the Alps. He's an avid hiker, mountain biker, and musician. He also restores classic European cars and mopeds, including a 1978 Citroen 2CV that he's rebuilding from the ground up. ### Author social links [Twitter]()