W Engines

No fooling!

Volkswagen wasn't the first to squeeze the two banks of a V engine together to fit under one cylinder head, but they were the first to wonder what they would get if they put two of THOSE together with a common crank. The result was an engine with four banks of cylinders, which they called a "W" engine (a name that had already been taken by a 3-bank layout, Wikipedia argues the double-vee or WR might describe it better). VW tiptoed in, bringing W8 and W12 engines to market first, but I'm skipping ahead to the ultimate version, the W16. You might recognize this as the layout used by the Bugatti Veyron.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDpSbhKXbOs

W8/W12 versions now available for download! I will be adapting this new (crossplane!) crankshaft design to fit my VR engine models.