The Volkswagen Group is today the only car manufacturer that still supplies a W-configuration engine, currently only at Bentley and Bugatti. However, the design of the engine has a special history and some equally striking applications. In this edition of De Vluchtstrook, we shine our light on the brainchild of the late Ferdinand Piëch.
The automotive industry usually uses two different engine configurations: an inline engine, where the cylinders are in a straight row in one cylinder bank, or a V engine, where the cylinders in two cylinder banks are ‘opposite’ each other in a V- form. However, a W engine consists of three or four cylinder banks on the same crankshaft, so that the power source is a lot more compact in length. Volkswagen was certainly not the first manufacturer to take the idea. The Italian Allessandro Anzani built a W3 engine in 1906, which was used in motorcycles of the same name and in the plane with which the French pilot Louis Blériot first flew the canal to England in 1909. In the following years, the W engine found include applications in aviation as W12 and W18, but also as W30 (Chrysler A57 Multibank) in the Sherman tanks from the Second World War.
Not crazy enough
Volkswagen was the first manufacturer to produce the W engine on a larger scale for passenger cars. In 1991, the powertrain already appeared as an imaginary version of wood in the Audi Avus, but Ferdinand Piëch did not play with the more concrete idea of bringing two VR6 engines together on one crankshaft in 1997. He reportedly drew the first sketches for the engine concept on the back of an envelope on the Japanese high-speed train Shinkansen. The W12 was born. As in the early 20th century, the major advantage here was that the engine, thanks to its four longitudinal cylinder banks, is a lot more compact than a V12, which automatically requires a longer nose.
The Bugatti EB 118 with W18 engine.
However, Piëch’s engineering brain was running wild at that point, as he even planned to merge three VR6 engines to create a W18. That engine debuted in the Bugatti EB 118 at the Paris Motor Show in 1998, but ultimately failed to reach the production stage.
For the consumer
The engines that did reach the production stage were the W8, W12 and W16. The W12 was premiered in the D2 generation of the Audi A8. The 420 hp A8 W12 entered the market in 2001, relatively late in the lifecycle of that generation A8. In 2002, the D2 was relieved by the D3, which in January 2004 got access to the 6.0 W12, now with 450 hp. In the meantime (2003) Bentley, which had been incorporated by Volkswagen, used the W12 in the then all-new Continental GT and later in the Continental Flying Spur. Where the twelve-cylinder in the A8 was naturally aspirated, Bentley screwed two turbos on it. This increased the power to 560 hp.
The blown W12 in the Bentley Continental GT.
Audi then supplied the power source in the A8 D4, but the W12 is no longer available in the current generation of the A8. Bentley carries the W12 to this day, although the days of the W12 also seem to be numbered in the foreseeable future. In terms of power, the Continental Supersports with 710 hp was the pinnacle of the W12. In addition to Bentley and Audi, the W12 could also be found in the Volkswagen Phaeton and the Touareg. Piëch wanted Volkswagen to participate in the top segment, but in the end it turned out to be a futile attempt.
The Phaeton W12, recognizable by the exhaust tips.
While the W12 was used on a wider scale within the Volkswagen Group, this was not the case for the W8 and the W16. The W8 is in fact the most unique, because that engine only ended up under the hood of the Passat B5. Incidentally, the engine compartment almost burst at the seams proverbially, there was so little space around the engine. The 275 hp W8 dragged the Passat to 100 km / h in 7.8 seconds, while the top speed was set at 250 km / h. The Passat W8, which was available as both station and sedan, turned out to be unsuccessful. Volkswagen only built around 11,000 copies, after which the brand pulled the plug from the exotic Passat in 2004. The W8 never returned after that.
The four exhausts reveal what lies under the hood of this Passat.
Crazy projects
While the W8 and W12 were still somewhat accessible for a larger group of car buyers, this was not the case for the W16. The W16 made its first appearance in the Bugatti Veyron in 2005 after a long development process and immediately set the beacons in the hypercar world with its four turbos and 1,001 hp. Later that power increased to 1,200 hp for the Veyron Super Sport. In the Bugatti Chiron is a further developed version of the W16 that transfers 1,500 hp to the wheels as standard and in the Chiron Super Sport even 1,600 hp. To this day, the W16 is the only engine that Bugatti supplies, but that could turn out completely different in the near future.
The first production version of the Veyron.
Another bizarre project that never reached the production stage is the Golf W12-650 from 2007. Volkswagen built the car especially for the GTI meeting in Wörthersee. Perhaps the Golf is the car in which the biggest advantage of the W12, namely the relatively short construction, comes out best. The engine is located à la Renault Clio V6 behind the front seats and, thanks to two turbochargers, delivers 650 hp on all four wheels. With that, the Golf blasts to 100 km / h in 3.7 seconds on steroids and the top speed is 274 km / h. Thanks to its flared wheel arches, it is also no less than 16 centimeters wider than a regular Golf.
Completely insane: the Golf W12-650.
In the meantime, the days of the W engine seem to be slowly but surely numbered, with the focus of car manufacturers on the development of electric models. Bentley and Bugatti still deliver the W12 and W16 respectively, but change is also lurking among those brands. In terms of power, the large combustion engine does not beat an electric powertrain, but it is a fine example of technology.