russellw

Just a question - or more a muse really.

After reading a recent road test of the VW owned Bentley and its' W8 engine I decided to do a bit more research on that engine configuration to see what advantages / disadvantages it might have.

After a lot of reading I can only come to the conclusion that this engine is simply an answer to a question no had bothered asking.
As a format it was played around with in aircraft and some road going engines in the pre and post war years but has largely been ignored since.

Apart from some small cost benefits the major benefit of this configuration seems to be that it offers a certain amount of packaging efficiency - but then they go and mount it in a car that is the size of a small suburb so that hardly seems like a valid reason.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone actually has a valid reason for the existence of this engine.

Cheers
Russ

nitephyre

about the real reason, i dont have a clue, BUT on a lighter note, i think it's just like the V5... a big WHY NOT?

we all know the germans are engineering nutters, and that they like to push the proverbial envelope..

i might read up on a w engine.. it sounds strange in an intriging way :)

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FalKeen

funny you should ask
i was just reading up on the new Bugatti W16 736kw "supercar"
its running four turbos aswell

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Night_Lurker

In a motor mag (can't remeber i think sometime last year) they had a write up on the W engines. This was when VW ran that car for 24hrs aroun that track. I'll see if I can find it tomorrow!!

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ricecooker

1. Thermal efficiency

2. Mechanical efficiency, from its efficient use of cams, which thereby help keep the weight/friction down and retain the benefits of effectively having a twin cam setup for a v engine with less than two camshafts per bank of cylinders.


Also, the space efficiency of a w design might not have much advantage in a large car, but it does allow VW to use the same engine in other smaller cars if it wishes, eg the w8 Passat , or if brabus etc get hold of it, a w8 Polo probably..

YOOT

I dug that issue out last night, its the same one with the EB GT in "Blast From the Past".

Issue Febuary 2002 - It has the Bug Eyed STi on the front.

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YOOT

Its actually a W12 engine in this article:

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

They are about 100K each the images, or 534K in total.

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RAPTOR

To demonstrate to a sceptical motoring world VW's technical engineering competency and ability to inovate and think 'outside the square'.

As others have said more a marketing excercise than anything else.

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Beefchief

If Ford developed an eight cylinder engine the size of a six, then maybe it could finally open up a noticable performance gap between the XR8 and its smaller brother...

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