Gadgetory

ah the poor old maligne four-banger in America at least it's the automotive equivalent of government cheese just getting by but we're in the golden age of turbocharged direct-injected fours that are now freakishly powerful I'm Brian Cooley here to rank these guys the way engine designers would by their specific output that means the amount of horsepower the engine generates per liter of engine size or displacement let's go number five is the Audi TTS at 133 horse per liter now DS better known for engines with a V shape and the TT is often maligned as a kind of poser sports car but the TTS need make no apologies under the hood it's 2-liter turbo 4 knocks out 265 horses nearly as much as a number of v6 cars that are 3 liters number four is the Hyundai Genesis Coupe 2.0 T pull up to someone in a Hyundai any Hyundai and they're not expecting much from yet but the Genesis Coupe will change that with a turbo 2 liter 4 that delivers 274 horsepower and in the r-spec model it has one of the most dreaded six-speed manual out there so their go-to MP stereotypes at once number three the Alfa Romeo 4c 139 horse for a leader the rarest car in our list and the only one that is built largely of carbon fiber this is basically a pocket supercar it also has the smallest engine in our set up 1.7 liters that's it but still cranks out 237 horsepower and they say it's going to grow an output to closer to 300 down the road number two mitsubishi lancer evo 146 horse per litre the lancer evo has been showing what a well-engineered 4 can do for years it's 2 liter turbo engine puts out 291 horsepower and it's also our number 2 car based on torque 300 pound feet of the stuff a very impressive set of numbers from a car that's kind of been languishing in the shadows of late before I get you to number one a couple of cars I know you're going to ask about the VW Golf R for example now once it gets to the US it'll be a real contender for this list but the u.s. spec isn't locked in yet not due till q1 2015 if we did take the euro-spec car today though it'd be buying for second against the lancer evo and the new 2015 Mustang is on the way it's going to have a turbo for for the first time in ages in that car but its numbers are also still in flux ford promises at least 305 horsepower but even at that level it would miss the cut on specific output because it also has the largest engine on our list ok our number one amazing 4 is in the Mercedes cla45 the AMG car at a hundred and seventy eight horsepower per mere little leader this isn't even close guys the CLA 45 has a 2-liter engine that puts out 355 horsepower to put that in perspective that's 32 horsepower more than Chevy gets out of the Camaro v6 which is roughly twice as large I think we've made the case for for high tech cars and modern driving that's what we do over at C net on cars.com i'm brian coulis thanks for watching