
“As far as the Offenhauser engine, it’s figured that perhaps Fred Offenhauser built 150 racing engines. These precursors to modern day 3D computer drawings played a crucial role in the Offenhauser engine design. Goosen laid out Miller and Offenhauser’s concepts into drawings that can only be described as works of art.

Goosen would work for Miller and Miller’s successors until his death in 1974,” adds Justice. Here are 20 of these cars that surprisingly ran on, or run on two-cylinder engines.“It was at Miller where Offenhauser became friends with Leo Goosen, who was a young draftsman that went to work for Miller in 1919. Despite being prone to vibration because of either irregular firing intervals or large reciprocating mass, they still follow the tried and tested engineering maxims that dominate the industry for more than five decades. The good thing about the two-cylinder engine is the advantage of being more compact, and cheaper to make, besides being relatively simple compared to other twin engines. In power sports, you'll find them on all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, personal watercraft, and outboard motors among others. The most recent examples you'll hear right off the bat include the Tata Nano and Fiat cars, which use the TwinAir engine. Cars with straight-twin engines tend to be small and can be either city or kei cars. The difference is you get more vibration during operation. If you compare it to the V-twins or flat-twins, the two-cylinder is more compact, easier, and sometimes cheaper to make. That's why we've updated this list with some more cool and unique 2-cylinder cars that surprisingly had plenty of power and pull to navigate city streets and highways. Updated March 2022: Apart from electric and hybrid power plants, small and efficient gas engines are all the rage now. The two-cylinder, also known as inline-twin or vertical or parallel-twin engine, is a two-cylinder piston engine with its cylinders arranged side by side and pistons connected to a common crankshaft. The best engines available today offer a winning combo of both performance and personality, spanning a variety of configurations from three to even twelve cylinders.


Any gear head you find will always ask the all-important question about a car: "What's it got?" However, the response you give them if it's a two-cylinder may not be the one they were waiting for, at least not immediately. While most modern cars come equipped with three- or four-cylinder turbocharged engines, some cars have, and still make use of the two-cylinder engine setup which has been found mostly in motorcycles and power sports applications.
