Yahoo Autos When Volkswagen Smashed A World Speed Record With a 12-Cylinder Monster
Almost fifteen years ago Volkswagen concluded what was possibly the most ambitious project in its history: more left-field than the introduction of the Phaeton, more ballsy than taking over Porsche, more prideful than the Transparent Factory. On February 23, 2002, Volkswagen took its W12 supercar to the high-speed ring at Nardo. In twenty-four hours, it screamed at 200 miles per hour, covering a distance of nearly 5,000 miles-breaking twelve speed records in the process.
Did the "People's Car" need a supercar? No. (Does anyone, really?) Did it build one for the same braggadocio reasons as Honda, Toyota, and Ford? Yes. Ah, but did VW put it into production? No, we must remind you, no they did not. There is no German LFA, no Wolfsburg superleggera. Is it a shame? It is a damn shame.
But, at least, its heart lives on-and what it unleashed in the halls of Wolfsburg.
It should be of no surprise that a project with such ambition was conceived and demanded by none other than Ferdinand Piech, the steely-eyebrowed commandant of the Volkswagen Group, "the greatest living product guy," whom no man dares to question.
But, of course, there were questions anyway. Why else would the W12 engine, a three-bank engine configuration previously only used on French airplanes, obscure F1 cars, and the 1991 Audi Avus concept, be so essential? Why did Piech ask the legendary Giorgetto Giugiaro at Italdesign, a company that would eventually end up in the VAG portfolio? Why a Volkswagen and not an Audi, keeping in like with the aforementioned Avus? And why would Piech demand that Syncro all-wheel drive technology would be so integral to what would otherwise be a non-running concept, another pretty body under the lights?
Simply because he could.
Ultimately, three W12 concepts were produced: the 1997 coupe, a 1998 roadster, and the W12 Nardo of 2001, named after the very track it would eventually set its records. What started off as a 5.6-liter W12 with a not-insignificant 414 horsepower evolved into the 2001 concept's 6.0-liter engine, with 591 horsepower and 458 lb-ft of torque, tucked underneath eye-searing orange paint. It could hit 0-60 in 3.7 seconds, Volkswagen claimed, well on its way to over 200mph.
At Nardo, the W12 ran for 24 straight hours, covering 7,749 kilometers (4,815 miles) at an average speed of 200.6 mph. According to a VW press release, this was good enough to smash five world records, twelve class records, and the world 24-hour speed record, which had only been set four months earlier.
"It amounts to a sensation that the twelve most important class records for distance and time in the segment for prototypes with normally aspirated engines of up to 8,000cc-the class for supersport models-are all held now by a single manufacturer-Volkswagen. This is a situation that has never occurred before."
The W12 coupe never made it to production, but Piech's other pet projects for Volkswagen did: the Phaeton and the Touareg. Both were initially controversial, both represented uncharted territory, but both remain in production somewhere around the world. A year after the W12's original introduction, the Volkswagen Group officially snapped up Bugatti; the resurrected company immediately rolled out a series of concept cars powered by W18 engines. It bought Bentley. Its Audi subsidiary bought Lamborghini. In 2012, it bought up Ducati and the remaining shares of Porsche, finally eclipsing its stalwart sports car partner. The W12 concept may be sequestered in some musty basement somewhere, but its namesake engine lives on in the Audi A8, the Bentley Continental GT and Flying Spur, and appropriately, the Volkswagen Phaeton.
With such a rapid ascent, is it any wonder that VW engineers thought they could get away with a few cheating diesels? They had built a freakin' 18-cylinder engine, for God's sakes-how could they get caught fiddling with some TDI motors?
Call it hubris, call it the company's rightful place in the world, but one cannot call the W12 supercar anything but the beginning of an era. Where Volkswagen reached for the stars at any and all costs, and developed an arrogance both unchecked and deserved.
