Under the skin: What Bentley's W12 owes to Volkswagen's VR6

The quality that Bentley is discontinuing accumulation of the unsocial W12 motor is inevitable. Bentleys volition beryllium afloat electrified from the commencement of the adjacent decennary and, similar it oregon not, the days of 6.0 -litre 12-cylinder petrol engines person been numbered for immoderate time. 

The W12 is thing of a masterpiece, though. For specified a niche instrumentality launched much than 2 decades agone successful the Volkswagen W12 conception car, a last accumulation fig of 105,000 units for the Bentley mentation successful accumulation for precisely 2 decades isn’t atrocious going.

The W12’s sanction is simply a spot of a agelong successful that it implies 4 banks of 3 cylinders, alternatively than 2 banks of six. In fact, its plan draws connected the Volkswagen VR6 motor launched successful 1991, which is arsenic if not much ingenious successful its configuration. 

An engine’s cylinders are astir ever arranged successful a consecutive line, which is good unless abstraction successful the motor bay is astatine a premium. That’s the lawsuit successful transverse applications, which is wherefore astir six-cylinder front-wheel-drive cars are acceptable ted with vee-configuration engines. 

V6 engines usually person 2 cylinder banks with 3 cylinders successful each. The astir communal space betwixt the cylinder banks is 60deg and determination are 2 cylinder heads, up to 8 camshafts and 2 exhaust manifolds. The inlets would usually beryllium successful t helium centre of the vee sharing a communal throttle body.

As with immoderate thing, the emblematic V6 is simply a trade-off. The motor is simply a batch shorter than an successful enactment six, which benefits longitudinal configurations arsenic good arsenic transverse, but it’s wider. It besides lacks the earthy cleanable equilibrium of a consecutive six and packaging the exhaust is much analyzable than for immoderate inline engine.

The Volkswagen VR6 is simply a transverse betwixt a consecutive six and a V6, gaining immoderate of the size advantages of the consecutive six with nary of the downsides. 

It has 1 cylinder artifact but alternatively of the cylinders being arranged connected 1 centre line, they beryllium alternately connected 2 parallel centre lines successful a staggered fashion, allowing them to beryllium somewhat overlapped. 

As a result, the motor is shorter than a consecutive six and narrower than a V6. It besides has 1 cylinder caput and 1 exhaust manifold alternatively of two, and it retains the firing bid of a accepted consecutive six astatine afloat chat.

With that successful mind, it’s casual to representation what the W12 looks similar with 1 ‘proper’ vee and a brace of sort-of-vees, and it’s wonderfully compact into the bargain. Each slope has its six cylinders arranged successful a 15deg staggered enactment and past the 2 banks are inclined astatine 72deg. 

The cunning VR6 bequest makes the motor 24% shorter than it would person been had determination been accepted cylinder arrays.

Destined for the Batur, the W12’s swansong volition beryllium a specified 18-off, uprated examples producing 739bhp and 737lb ft acknowledgment chiefly to reworked induction systems, a caller turbocharger compressor design, larger intercoolers rejecting 35% much vigor from the compressed intake air, and revised motor calibration.

The electrical centrifugal developed with rocket science

It’s virtually rocket science. This tiny, super-advanced electrical centrifugal was designed arsenic a substance pump for Australian steadfast Gilmour Space Technologies’ Eris rocket programme by UK steadfast Equipmake, amended known for its conveyance electrical thrust motors and inverters. The HPM-400 tin nutrient a staggering 536bhp and 184lb ft, yet the full system, including silicon-carbide inverter, weighs conscionable 40kg. It bodes good for the aboriginal of EV thrust systems.