5 Underrated Engines That Powered Some Of Toyota’s Coolest Vehicles

Hopefully, by now, we’ve brought you into the world of Toyota engine names enough that you don’t get this engine, the 1G-GZE, and the 1GZ-FE V12 engine above confused. Instead, though, the 1G-GZE is a member of the inline-six “G family” of Toyota engines and brings a new letter to the naming structure we’ve yet to touch on: “Z.” That Z signifies that the engine uses a supercharger.

The 1G-GZE wasn’t a particularly powerful engine. The highest power output it achieved was around 170 horsepower. However, it is fascinating that Toyota landed on a supercharged inline six-cylinder for a powerplant. What is even more interesting, though, is that the Toyota Mark II that was offered with this engine also had trim options that included a turbocharged or naturally aspirated variant. 

The supercharged version was the middle-of-the-road option as the turbo variant made 210 horsepower. Not often will you see a manufacturer offer both a supercharger and turbocharger in the same model, let alone the same model year. The 1G-GZE engine was also used in the Toyota Crown lineup throughout its eighth generation. The 1G-GZE was short-lived, though, as both the Crown and Mark II generations it came in were rather short.

[Featured image by TTTNIS via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | Public domain]