‘ Volkswagen wanted to expand upmarket. To do so, it needed a suitable engine. The answer was more cylinders.’
Iconic engine
Not an inline six-cylinder and not a conventional V6, Volkswagen’ s VR6 is as lovable as it is strange
You rarely find anyone who is just a casual fan of Volkswagens. Instead, they’ re usually obsessive. Dedicated … no, committed to all things Wolfsburg. For decades, Volkswagen itself was committed to rear-mounted air-cooled engines. No matter what. Everything from its core car – the Beetle – to its coupés, vans and estate cars followed the same basic layout. It battled the entire car industry, which pivoted to transverse front-engined front-wheel drive economy cars because they were more efficient to package and more refined. Then VW launched its own transverse front-engined frontwheel drive car, the Golf. In typical VW style, it applied that formula to all of its vehicles. Everything from its core hatchbacks to its coupés, saloons, estates and vans became transverse front-engined and front-wheel drive.
Such dedication caused a problem. Again. This time, a packaging problem. For the upcoming Nineties, Volkswagen wanted to expand upmarket. Take on more prestigious sporty brands like BMW and Audi, even though VW owned Audi … To do so, it needed a suitable engine. The supercharged four-cylinder motor in its G60 models didn’ t fit the bill. It wasn’ t really powerful enough, but worse, it wasn’ t nearly refined enough. The answer was more cylinders, but VW’ s engine bays weren’ t wide enough for a straight-six, or capacious enough for a V6. Something radical was needed.
‘ Volkswagen wanted to expand upmarket. To do so, it needed a suitable engine. The answer was more cylinders.’
18 The Engine Rebuilder Issue 05