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Technical Report: A Eulogy to VWs Marvelous W8

The W8 Was Overcomplicated, Underpowered and Too Costly for the Touareg and Phaeton

W8 - how we hardly knew thee. The news is now official, production of the very unique W8 engine and the Passat W8, the only vehicle which made use of it, has ended. Born in a time when Ferdinand Piëch was overlord at Volkswagen and nothing was too good for the upwardly mobile VW brand, the unorthodox W8 engine configuration promised compact packaging and big power.

It delivered the first, and a reasonable level of the second, but due to a serious lack of foresight the automaker had only a single model to display it, and while a nicely made but nevertheless middle-of-the-road midsize model the Passat could hardly justify its rarified price

Its official, production of the very unique W8 engine and the Passat W8 has ended. (Photo: Volkswagen of America)

once the new engine was fitted. The shame, after much expense and now embarrassing hoopla, is that the very capable Passat W8 failed to stir the souls of the masses.

While todays Volkswagens are more or less conventional automobiles, their engines are derived from a rather colorful background. Aside from being one of the only automakers to consistently offer diesel models in its lineup, VW shocked the world back in the early 90s with the announcement

The very capable, but lofty priced, Passat W8 failed to stir the souls of the masses. (Photo: Volkswagen of America)

that it would produce a large-displacement six-cylinder motor for use in a vehicle that had previously only enough room in the engine bay to accept a small inline-four. The world said it couldnt be done, but Volkswagens engineers said otherwise.

The fruits of VWs labors resulted in the worlds first and only narrow angle V6 engine, a distinction that carries on even today. At 2.8-liters in displacement, the VR6, as it was to be called, was much larger than any motor ever offered in a VW product previous to that point. Its unique 15 degree

The middle-of-the-road midsize model Passat could hardly justify its rarified price once the new engine was fitted. (Photo: Volkswagen of America)

angle layout gave the motor a physical stature that was shorter and narrower than a conventional V6, allowing it to be wedged under the hood of short, compact, front-wheel driven cars.

Since its development, Volkswagen has implemented two versions of the motor, the original 2.8-liter for use in its Golf and Jetta range, the VR6, and a larger 3.2-liter iteration without the cult-like R designation, first seen in the limited-run New Beetle RSi, and currently available in the Golf R32 and Touareg V6, as well as in Porsches entry-level Cayenne SUV.

After achieving a great deal of success with the VR6, Volkswagens

One can view the W8 motor as a W12 with one cylinder from each bank of cylinders lopped off, or as half a W16. (Photo: Volkswagen of America)

engineers applied the same theory to powerplants with larger displacements and a higher cylinder count. The first of such experiments was the fusion of two VR6 motors, side to side and still slightly staggered, sharing one common crankshaft. The new motor, known today as the W12, was first featured in the W12/Nardo supercar concept, as well as a variety of Bentley, Audi and Volkswagen products. It also became the basis of a series of modular engines of which a larger W16 and a smaller W8 were born.

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