It's been 18 months since our last BMW Engine Of The Day, so we're definitely overdue. Here's the SOHC four-cylinder that powered more than 3.5 million Bavarian machines during its 27-year production run: the M10.
Best of all, the name of this engine's designer is so perfect that we're forced to assume that the guy chose it for himself upon getting hired as a BMW engineer: Baron Alex von Falkenhausen. Yeah, an American engine designer would have to take on a name like Gutpunch McRodbender to be even half as cool as BAvF. Really, we don't make this stuff up! The Baron's design proved to have plenty of room for added displacement, growing from 1.5 liters to 2 liters during its reign. Variations of the M10 were used in the New Class BMWs, the E21 and E30 3-series cars, and four-cylinder-equipped E12 and E28 5 Series cars (North American E12s and E28s all got the six-cylinder).
[Wikipedia, US Auto Parts]