‘ The Verkürzt Reihenmotor concept was adapted into something exceptional, and the W engines were made’
Volkswagen AG’ s chairman, Dr Ferdinand Piëch, championed the VR6 idea and encouraged its spinoffs
‘ The Verkürzt Reihenmotor concept was adapted into something exceptional, and the W engines were made’
‘ If I were building one for myself, I wouldn’ t be doing 1200hp. I would be building it between 650 and 800hp and I’ d be running it on a DSG‘ box in a Mk5 Golf.’ Even so, and even with such a passion for turbocharging these engines, Tom is a fan of the standard VR6’ s noise.‘ Absolutely unbeatable soundtrack, the R32 is probably the best one out there. I think the next closest is the naturally aspirated five cylinder and the turbocharged Ur-Quattros for distinctive noise.’ Does turbocharging erode any of that characterful VR6 voice?‘ They call it the Wookiee sound, don’ t they? It loses some of that, but turbocharging it, you still know it’ s an R32.’
If it doesn’ t already seem like an incredible engine, the VR6’ s legacy will cement its status as truly iconic. Its narrow-angle single-head no-bigger-than-a-four-cylinder attributes were not simply taken for granted by VAG. No, the engineers at Wolfsburg took advantage of them, encouraged by the man in charge, Piëch. The first, not so ambitious derivative was a five-cylinder, a VR5, but in the 2000s the Verkürzt Reihenmotor concept was adapted into something exceptional. By pairing two VR engines together at a 72 ° angle, essentially creating four banks of cylinders but with only two heads and exhaust exits just on either side of the engine and inlets in the middle, like a conventional V engine, the W engines were made. Firstly, a W8 for the B6 Passat in 2001 – two VR4s sharing the same crank – then a 6-litre W12 for VW’ s new luxury flagship and one of Piëch’ s special projects, the Phaeton. Two turbos were added to the 12-cylinder engine for the 2003 Bentley Continental GT. Then, the ultimate W motor, the 8-litre quad turbo 1001hp W16 in another of Piëch’ s ambitious, very personal projects, the Bugatti Veyron. Its successor, the Chiron, uses a similar engine but with four equal-sized turbos and makes 1500hp. Both of these modern Bugattis, thanks to their VR6-derived engines, have set production car top speed records.
After 33 years in production and nearly 1.87 million engines powering a whole variety of cars, plus record-breaking spin-offs, hordes of people yearning to hear its Wookie growl and heaps of extra aftermarket turbocharged power, the VR6 has left an indelible mark on automotive history. But despite this success, and despite the proliferation of transverseengined front-wheel drive cars, it’ s remained an anomaly. No other car manufacturer took the template of the VR6 – or the Lancia narrow-angle V engines – and created a similar motor. Instead, settling for less compact more conventional V6s. And often, far less characterful engines too.
Volkswagen’ s unwavering commitment to packaging cars just one way might seem bafflingly restrictive and commercially unwise. But these tight constraints were the perfect catalyst to inspire VW’ s engineers to make something exceptional, the VR6.
VAG’ s W engine is simply two VR engines paired together at a 72 ° angle to make four banks of cylinders
32 The Engine Rebuilder Issue 05