In 1997, on a Shinkansen bullet train running between Tokyo and Nagoya, then-Volkswagen AG CEO Ferdinand Piëch grabbed an envelope and sketched an engine that had been on his mind for a while. He had just finished talking with Karl-Heinz Neumann, the automaker's head of powertrain development, about the VR6, Volkswagen's narrow-angle six-cylinder engine, compact enough to fit transversely even in a Golf.
Piëch's sketch took two of those VR6 blocks and mounted them together at a second, wider angle. Viewed head-on, the four cylinder banks no longer formed a V, but rather a W. The drawing would later justify Volkswagen's purchase of Bugatti and give Bentley a reason to exist under VW ownership.
And for three model years, the engine would also end up under the hood of an ordinary Volkswagen Passat.
The idea on the envelope (pictured above) grew into an 18-cylinder engine first, a naturally aspirated 555-horsepower unit built from three merged VR6 blocks. It debuted in the Bugatti EB118 concept at the Paris Motor Show in October 1998, not long after Piëch closed the deal to buy the brand.
From there, engineers trimmed the concept down to a W16, the quad-turbo engine that would define the Bugatti Veyron, and a W12, which revived Bentley starting in 2003 and later powered the Phaeton, Touareg, and Audi A8.
The smallest member of the family, the W8, was built from two narrow-angle 15-degree VR4 blocks that shared a common crankshaft at a 72-degree angle. The resulting 4.0-liter W8 made 270 horsepower and 273 lb-ft. of torque at 2,750 rpm, numbers modest next to the Veyron's eventual 987 horsepower.
However, the W8's real asset was its compact length, not its peak horsepower. At just 16.5 inches long, the W8 fit longitudinally under the hood of a platform that, until then, could only accommodate up to a V6. Volkswagen ultimately used the Passat to prove the W-engine concept before committing it to the costlier Phaeton and Bentley models still to come, badging the car “W8 4Motion” and sending it to market for the 2002 model year.
Carnival funhouse on wheels a masterpiece of automotive design.
Piëch spent the late 1990s pushing Volkswagen upmarket on every front, from the Bugatti acquisition to the Bentley revival to the subsequent Phaeton sedan. The W8 Passat carried that same ambition into VW's mainstream lineup.
Every W8 came standard with 4Motion all-wheel drive and a choice of a six-speed manual or five-speed Tiptronic automatic, along with tinted and heat-insulated glass, bi-xenon headlights, park distance control, leather upholstery with wood trim, and an upgraded audio system. A wagon body was available alongside the sedan, a detail that still draws enthusiasts to the model today.
Pricing started around $40,000, making the W8 the most expensive Volkswagen sold at the time, yet still thousands less than European luxury sedans with comparable output. Adjusted for inflation, if the W8 Passat were on sale now, its starting MSRP would be about $74,000.
Both the sedan and wagon versions of the W8 Passat had an EPA-estimated 16 in the city, 23 on the highway, and 18 combined with the automatic transmission. If you owned one today, your average annual fuel cost would be about $4,200, or about $7.00 per 25 miles driven, according to EPA data.
Packaging eight cylinders into a space built for six came with tradeoffs. Cam adjuster failures, the W8's version of variable valve timing wear, were common enough to trigger diagnostic codes P0011 or P0021 depending on which bank failed. Oil consumption problems were documented starting with the 2002 model year, the very first year the W8 Passat went on sale.
Meanwhile, W8 Passats with an automatic often experienced torque converter failures before 70,000 miles, according to VW Tuning's breakdown of common W8 issues. The engine's tight packaging made routine service difficult even for experienced mechanics, since the same compact dimensions that let it fit under the Passat's hood left little room to work.
Volkswagen also had an internal competitor to worry about. Audi introduced the B6-generation S4 for 2003 with a 4.2-liter V8 making 340 horsepower, a lighter body, and a 0-to-62-mph time of 5.2 seconds, all for about $5,000 more than the W8 Passat. Buyers weighing the two often chose the Audi badge as the cost was justified with the more powerful and reliable V8 and a more upscale ownership experience.
