Judging by “the configuration of the intake and exhaust systems,” the Wörthersee-debuting Volkswagen Design Vision GTI concept appears to use a VR6 instead of a V6 as announced, says Autocar UK.
The British publication points out that the twin-blown 3.0 litre six-pot powerplant’s two cylinder banks share one cylinder head, with a narrow 15° angle between the banks, as opposed to conventional V engines which usually have two cylinder heads (one for each cylinder bank) and 45°, 60°, or 90° angles between the banks.
A Porsche engineer has confirmed to Autocar UK that the new VW engine is a narrow-angle VR6 and that it isn’t related to the new powerplants being developed for the upcoming Porsche Macan SUV.
The publication adds that the engine could power future models such as high-performance variants of the Volkswagen CC and Volkswagen CrossBlue Coupe, and that whether the unit is all-new or simply a development of an existing VR6 is not known at this juncture.
Designed for transverse engine applications, the VR6 configuration was synonymous with Volkswagen in the 1990s, with the Passat, Corrado and Golf among the first models to receive the original engine in 2.8 and 2.9 litre forms. There was even a 2.3 litre VR5 that found its way into the Golf, Passat and Bora models in the late-1990s.
In more recent times, the 3.2 and 3.6 litre units from the EA390 engine family are in fact VR6s, although most were badged as V6s. Recipients include the Mk5 Golf R32, B6 Passat (including Passat R36 and CC 3.6), Phaeton, Touareg as well as several Audi models. The Group’s W12 and W16 engines are also combinations of VR engines.
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Speedgasm!!!
Achtung! Die 500hp VW monster kommt
Anyways,the original VR6 flawed the Mk5 Golf R32 by making it really nose heavy, so by making the cylinder banks narrower and sharing a single head, I think VW is trying to make it lighter, not bad, As expected from Deutsch Fahrzeugtechnik. Technical aside, I really like the new headlights on the concept, come in VW, put it in the FL golf, spice things up a little.
Just came back from Wikipedia, turns out VR6 were always narrow angle and single head. Always thought they were twin-banks V6. Another thing is that since the previous Golf R32 has a VR6 which was criticize as “nose heavy”, will this high speed Golf suffer the same, I don’t see a rear mounted transmission that can off-set the frontal weight like on the GTR.
Who cares, mines is still faster