Isotta Fraschini presents 16V170 G-engine live
By Roberta Prandi25 September 2021
New 16-cylinder engine for power generation to be presented during home country’s roadshow to gen-set manufacturers
Isotta Fraschini Motori launched into a new venture with a road show around Italy - the company’s home country – to introduce its new 16V170 G-drive engine to a selected audience of national companies.
The two-weeks road show will stop in several towns in Southern, Central and Northern Italy with stops planned at the premises of the most important Italian generator set manufacturers.
The event is a tribute to the long history of the Italian company and its deep roots in the automotive industry: the road show is in fact accompanied by a Isotta Fraschini ‘vintage’ truck produced in 1952.

The 16V170 G-drive is a 16-cylinder vee-configuration engine with a power output of 2520 kVA in the 50Hz version and 2755 kVA in the 60 Hz version. The engine is meant for the market of emergency gen-sets as well as for uninterruptable power supply for industrial applications and data centers and, in future, also for commercial marine applications.
One of the aims in this new product’s development was to exploit Italian manufacturing excellence and 60% of the engine’s components are Made in Italy, including all castings. Some key technical components though are produced by well-known international manufacturers, as for example the PBS twin turbochargers (one per cylinder bank); Motorpal high-pressure mechanical fuel injection system; Heinzmann electronic speed governor; Geislinger oil-lubricated damper; and Alfa Laval plate oil cooler.
The road show is part of Isotta Fraschini’s IFuture initiative, a research and development project of Isotta Fraschini Motori supported by parent company Fincantieri, aimed at creating an engine for industrial use, as well as its marinization for the market of commercial marine engines (ferries, fishing boats, and others) focusing on technologies supporting the energy transition. One further step will be the development of a new software for the remote monitoring of the engines.
IFuture includes the creation of an Innovation and Development center at the Isotta Fraschini’s headquarters in Bari, Italy, which is currently under construction. The plan for the new center includes the recruitment of 32 employees with different qualifications, 16 of which have already joined the company.