It is being said that German auto giant Volkswagen has got busy developing the successor for the very successful VR6 engine.
It may be noted that VW can be easily credited with being the first carmaker to bring the VR6 engine to mass produced cars and the nomenclature comes from the combination of German words “Verkürzt” and “Reihenmotor”, meaning “shortened inline engine”. The first gen VR6 motor was designed for transverse installations in FWDs. The narrow angle of 15° between the two ‘rows’ in the VR6 means that six-cylinder engines can be installed in existing four-cylinder cars.
The development of the next gen narrow-angle V6 direct-injection petrol engine is being supervised by Fritz Eichler, the new head of engine development at Volkswagen. Before getting associated with VW, Fritz Eichler was in-charge of the development of new engines at AMG, the performance wing of Mercedes.
While last gen VR6 engines were naturally aspirated, the upcoming motor will be forced-fed by a couple of turbochargers. All this means that the motor would become even more fuel efficient and would also have lesser emissions. Like its predecessor, this engine might find application in even smaller VW group cars.
Volkswagen fans would remember that the manufacturer gave us a glimpse of this upcoming engine back in May at the Wörthersee meeting. The motor made its debut with the new Design Vision GTI concept. The concept came equipped with a twin-turbo 3.0 litre “narrow-bank” V6 engine. This engine belts out a very healthy 503 HP/370 kW and has a peak torque of 560 Nm/413 lb-ft, developed between 4,000 and 6,000 rpm.
The production spec motor, however, is likely to come in a less powerful state of tune and may have a slightly smaller cubic-capacity. Power could be anywhere close to 450 HP/331 kW.
Source: autoweek.com