W12 engine
Encyclopedia
Cylinder (engine)
A cylinder is the central working part of a reciprocating engine or pump, the space in which a piston travels. Multiple cylinders are commonly arranged side by side in a bank, or engine block, which is typically cast from aluminum or cast iron before receiving precision machine work...
piston
Reciprocating engine
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common features of all types...
internal combustion engine
Internal combustion engine
The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...
in a W configuration
W engine
A W engine is a type of reciprocating engine arranged with its cylinders in a configuration in which the cylinder banks resemble the letter W, in the same way those of a V engine resemble the letter V....
. W12 engines are manufactured in two distinct configurations. One configuration uses four rows of three cylinders merged into two 'cylinder bank
Cylinder bank
Internal combustion piston engines are usually arranged so that the cylinders are in lines parallel to the crankshaft. Where they are in a single line, this is referred to as an inline or straight engine....
s' (two narrow-angle VR6 engine
VR6 engine
The VR6 engine is an internal combustion engine configuration, consisting of six cylinders. It was developed by the Volkswagen Group in the late 1980s, and evolutions of the original variant are still produced by them....
blocks), coupled to a common crankshaft
Crankshaft
The crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank, is the part of an engine which translates reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation...
- as in Volkswagen Group W12. The other uses three banks of four cylinders coupled to a common crankshaft as in the Napier Lion
Napier Lion
The Napier Lion was a 12-cylinder broad arrow configuration aircraft engine built by Napier & Son starting in 1917, and ending in the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day, and kept it in production long after contemporary designs had stopped production...
.
Napier Lion
The Napier LionNapier Lion
The Napier Lion was a 12-cylinder broad arrow configuration aircraft engine built by Napier & Son starting in 1917, and ending in the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day, and kept it in production long after contemporary designs had stopped production...
was a broad arrow-style W12 engine produced by Napier
Napier & Son
D. Napier & Son Limited was a British engine and pre-Great War automobile manufacturer and one of the most important aircraft engine manufacturers in the early to mid-20th century...
at Acton, West London, from 1917 to the late 1930s
1930s
File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression; Due to the economic collapse, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese...
. This mostly alloy engine had a capacity of 24 litres (1,463 cu in) and produced from 450 hp. It was used in many racing cars by John Cobb
John Cobb
John Cobb may refer to:People* John Cobb , Australian politician* John Cobb , English cabinetmaker* John Cobb , Canadian politician)...
and Malcolm Campbell
Malcolm Campbell
Sir Malcolm Campbell was an English racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times during the 1920s and 1930s using vehicles called Blue Bird...
, racing aircraft such as the Supermarine S.5
Supermarine S.5
|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Andrews, C.F. and E.B. Morgan. Supermarine Aircraft since 1914, 2nd edition. London: Putnam, 1987. ISBN 0-85177-800-3....
Schneider Cup winner, and speed boats such as Hubert Scott-Paine
Hubert Scott-Paine
Hubert Scott-Paine was a British aircraft and boat designer, record-breaking power boat racer, entrepreneur, inventor, and sponsor of the winning entry in the 1922 Schneider Trophy.-Early life:...
's Miss Britain III
Miss Britain III
Miss Britain III is a racing power boat designed and built by Hubert Scott-Paine, a British aircraft and boat designer.During 1932 Hubert Scott-Paine, owner of the British Power Boat Company and already a noted power boat racer, asked Rolls-Royce for a Rolls-Royce 'R' engine which had powered the...
. This configuration had three separate four-cylinder banks, each at 60 degrees offset from one another, as opposed to the "double V" layout used by Volkswagen-Audi (VAG). Sunbeam tried the similar Kaffir, based on their Arab
Sunbeam Arab
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Lumsden, Alec. British Piston Engines and their Aircraft. Marlborough, Wiltshire: Airlife Publishing, 2003. ISBN 1-85310-294-6.* Brew, Alec. Sunbeam Aero-Engines. Airlife Publishing. Shrewsbury. ISBN 1 84037 023 8...
V8 engine
V8 engine
A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....
.
Volkswagen Group W12
Volkswagen Group
Volkswagen Group is a German multinational automobile manufacturing group. , Volkswagen was ranked as the world’s third largest motor vehicle manufacturer and Europe's largest....
showcased a prototype Volkswagen Nardo W12 Coupé
Volkswagen Nardo
The Volkswagen W12 Coupe was a concept car created by Volkswagen Passenger Cars in 1997...
, a mid-engined, rear-wheel drive supercar
Supercar
Supercar is a term used most often to describe an expensive high end car. It has been defined specifically as "a very expensive, fast or powerful car"...
powered by a 6.0 litre W12 engine, producing 600 hp. A week before, the W12 Coupe broke the 24 hour world endurance record. A total distance of 7085.7 kilometres (4,402.9 mi) was covered at an average speed of 295.24 kilometres per hour (183.45 mph), breaking the old record by 12 kilometres per hour (7.5 mph). Production of the W12 Coupé was considered, but was subsequently cancelled.
Volkswagen Group
Volkswagen Group
Volkswagen Group is a German multinational automobile manufacturing group. , Volkswagen was ranked as the world’s third largest motor vehicle manufacturer and Europe's largest....
currently produces W12 engines by forming two imaginary narrow-angle 15° VR6 engine
VR6 engine
The VR6 engine is an internal combustion engine configuration, consisting of six cylinders. It was developed by the Volkswagen Group in the late 1980s, and evolutions of the original variant are still produced by them....
s at an angle of 72°. The narrow angle of each set of cylinders allows just two overhead camshaft
Overhead camshaft
Overhead cam valvetrain configurations place the engine camshaft within the cylinder heads, above the combustion chambers, and drive the valves or lifters in a more direct manner compared to overhead valves and pushrods...
s to drive each pair of banks, so just four are needed in total. Note that this design differs from the W18 engine
W18 engine
A W18 engine is an eighteen cylinder piston engine which usually has a single crankshaft with three banks of six cylinders arranged in an inverted broad arrow configuration. Recent W18 engines powered the Bugatti EB 118, Bugatti EB 218 and Bugatti 18/3 Chiron concept cars in the late 1990s. This...
that Volkswagen Group produced for its Bugatti
Bugatti
Automobiles E. Bugatti was a French car manufacturer founded in 1909 in Molsheim, Alsace, as a manufacturer of high-performance automobiles by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti....
concept cars of 1998 and 1999. Due to this distinction, the Volkswagen Group's W12 engine can sometimes be described as a "WR12".
The 2011 Audi A8 debuted a revised 6.3 liter version of the W12 (WR12) engine with 500 PS.
The advantage of the W12 engine is its compact packaging, allowing Audi to build a 12-cylinder sedan with all-wheel drive, whereas a conventional V12 engine
V12 engine
A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually but not always at a 60° angle to each other, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft....
could only have a rear-wheel drive configuration as it would have no space in the engine bay for a differential and other components required to power the front wheels. In fact, the 6.0L W12 in the Audi A8L W12 (only offered in the long wheelbase models) is actually a bit smaller by overall dimensions than the 4.2L V8 that powers the Audi A8 4.2 variants.
The Volkswagen Group W12 engine is used in some high-end luxury models:
- Audi A8L W12Audi A8The Audi A8 is a four-door, full-size, luxury sedan car manufactured and marketed by the German automaker Audi since 1994. Succeeding the Audi V8, the A8 has been offered with front wheel drive or permanent four-wheel drive, with multitronic or tiptronic automatic transmissions — and in short- and...
- Bentley Continental GTBentley Continental GT-Flying Spur:The four door Continental Flying Spur saloon was first displayed at the 2005 Geneva Motor Show. The Flying Spur utilizes most of the technical underpinnings of the Bentley Continental GT, and was introduced to European and North American markets in the summer of 2005...
- Bentley Continental Flying SpurBentley Continental Flying SpurBentleys have worn the Continental Flying Spur name on two quite different classes of four-door cars since 1957.The first is a four-door saloon body made to special order by coachbuilders H. J. Mulliner & Co. on a Bentley Continental chassis...
- Spyker C12 LaTurbieSpyker C8-Models:There are several variants of the C8:* C8 Spyder SWB * C8 Spyder T* C8 Laviolette* C8 Laviolette LM85* C8 Double 12S* C8 Double 12R* C8 Spyder GT2-R* C8 Laviolette GT2-R* C8 Aileron* C8 Aileron Spyder* C12 LaTurbie...
- Spyker C12 ZagatoSpyker C12 ZagatoThe Spyker C12 Zagato is the second production car from the Dutch automobile manufacturer Spyker. The C12 Zagato is an all-aluminium, mid-engine/rear-drive exotic luxury sportscar....
- Spyker D12 Peking-to-ParisSpyker D12The Spyker D8 Peking-to-Paris is a luxurious 4-door high performance crossover SUV from the Dutch car manufacturer Spyker Cars, a subsidiary of Swedish Automobile. The car was designed by Michiel van den Brink and introduced at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show. The car is currently still under...
(prototype version only) - Volkswagen Phaeton W12Volkswagen PhaetonThe Volkswagen Phaeton is a full-size luxury sedan/saloon manufactured by German automaker Volkswagen, and is described by Volkswagen as their "premium class" vehicle...
- Volkswagen Touareg W12Volkswagen TouaregThe Volkswagen Touareg is a mid-size crossover SUV produced by German automaker Volkswagen since 2002. The vehicle was named after the Tuareg people, a Berber-speaking group in North Africa...
- Volkswagen GTI W12-650 (prototype only)
MGN
In the late 1980s1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
, two W12 engines were designed and built for use in Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
. In France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Guy Negre produced the MGN which had three banks of four cylinders offset so that each crankpin accommodated three connecting rods side-by-side. The MGN also had a novel system of cylindrical rotary valves located at the top of the combustion chamber
Combustion chamber
A combustion chamber is the part of an engine in which fuel is burned.-Internal combustion engine:The hot gases produced by the combustion occupy a far greater volume than the original fuel, thus creating an increase in pressure within the limited volume of the chamber...
s, making the engine notably compact. The engine was tested in an AGS Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
car, and in a Norma sports car, but never raced.
Life Racing
The other W12 Formula OneFormula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
engine was built in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
by Life Racing Engines. The chief engineer for this project was Franco Rocchi, who had already designed and built an experimental 498 cc W3 engine when he was at Ferrari in 1967 as an investigation into the viability of a W18
W18 engine
A W18 engine is an eighteen cylinder piston engine which usually has a single crankshaft with three banks of six cylinders arranged in an inverted broad arrow configuration. Recent W18 engines powered the Bugatti EB 118, Bugatti EB 218 and Bugatti 18/3 Chiron concept cars in the late 1990s. This...
F1 engine. Rocchi's W3 engine used a central master connecting rod, with a slave rod locating onto each side of the master rod, rather than directly onto the crank pin. This meant that there was no offset between the cylinders, and the crankpin did not have to be unusually long. A similar arrangement was employed for the Life W12 engine. Life Racing Engines failed to attract the interest of an existing team, so they acquired an F1 chassis which had been built for another team and tried to enter F1 on their own account in 1990. The engine proved to be unreliable and lacking in power. The car never qualified for a race.