A sampled-data control redesign for a combustion engine test bench is studied. The design applies a model reference approach, based on a continuous-time controller that has been designed using a robust optimal control design. The goal of the redesign is to make the discrete-time controller less sensitive to sampling and to keep the sampled-data closed loop performance as close as possible to the continuous-time close-loop performance. Some simulations are performed, comparing the performance of the discrete-time redesigned controller with a discrete-time emulation controller obtained by sampling and zero order hold of the continuous-time controller. Copyright © 2007 IFAC.