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Would This Fit In An Alpine?
- Thread starter Bill Blue
- Start date
Wombat
Donation Time
They (Audi) call it a W, but its more of a double V. They take two of their narrow angle V6s (15 degree I think) and join them joint them to a common crank at about 60 degrees. It more complex than that of course, but they can use common pistons, rods and perhaps heads. One of my father's trade journals had an article about them.
Apparently in German, W is not "double U", but "double V".
Apparently in German, W is not "double U", but "double V".
skywords
Donation Time
I had the pleasure of viewing one of the VW luxury sedans with the "W" type engine. Wow what a car it went no where for it had a price tag of $75,000.00 and the VW emblem on it. The car was as aerodynamic on the bottom as it was on the top. The CEO lost his job because he insisted on keeping the VW emblem. If I were one of the Pretty people I would have bought one.
Rick
Rick
Nickodell
Donation Time
Bill, your'e ..... aaarg ..... damn this is hard to say ... right. I don't know of any conventional automobiles that used a W-layout engine either. However, this design proved to be a winner in aero engine and water- and land-speed record use. A bit of trivia about the most successful one ever:
The Lion was a 12-cylinder W-block aircraft engine built by the British company Napier & Son starting in 1917, and ending in the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day, and kept it in production long after contemporary designs had stopped production.
Early in World War I, Napier were contracted to build aero engines from other companies' designs: including Sunbeams!. But in 1916 Napier decided to design their own instead. Their design followed the accepted criteria for aircraft power plants: high power, light weight, and low frontal area.
Napier actually called the layout a "broad arrow," which makes more sense than "W." The engine was also advanced even by modern standards, with four valves per cylinder, twin overhead camshafts and a single block milled from aluminum instead of the separate-cylinder steel construction used on almost all other designs.
Prototypes of the Lion ran in late 1917 and the engine entered production in June 1918. The first versions delivered 450 hp from their 24 litres, later being increased to some 550 hp, making them the most powerful aero engines of their time. In 1922 a turbocharger option [nothing new under the sun!] pushed this to well over 700 hp, which compares well with the initial output of the R-R Merlin of 950 hp from 27 litres nearly 14 years later.
The Lion was so successful, being almost unbeatable in the inter-war years and powering over 160 different types of aircraft, that Napier stopped making cars in 1925.
In racing forms the engine could put out 1,300 hp and it was used to break a host of world records: height, air speed, and long distance in aircraft, water speed (the first 100 miles per hour in 1933) and even land speed: Sir Malcolm Campbell's over 250 mph in 1932 and John Cobb's 394 MPH Railton Mobil Special in 1947 - a record that stood until 1960. Not bad for an engine designed 43 years earier. Some trivia within trivia: 1) Reid railton was so confident in his streamlined car's shape that he predicted where the high-pressure airstream would bulge the bodywork inward slightly on the rear of the car. After the first record run the dent was exactly where he had predicted; 2) Railton avoided the weight, drag and potential hazard of conventional radiators and water pipes by cooling the engines with crushed ice. Enough was put in cooling tanks for one run, the resulting water being drained off and more ice added for the return run; 3) Cobb was the first man to travel over 400 mph (one run) on land; 4) The car used two Lions, one driving the front wheels and one the rear (rather like my Twinpine!) making it possibly the fastest 4-wheel-drive of all time. 5) Cobb was killed when he tried to add the world water speed record to his land speed title. At the time of his crash he had already become the first man to travel over 200 mph on water.
The Lions powered successful entrants in the Schneider Cup air races, in 1922 and 1927, but were then dropped by Supermarine in favour of a new, especially designed for racing, engine from Rolls-Royce, the Rolls-Royce R.
The Lion was a 12-cylinder W-block aircraft engine built by the British company Napier & Son starting in 1917, and ending in the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day, and kept it in production long after contemporary designs had stopped production.
Early in World War I, Napier were contracted to build aero engines from other companies' designs: including Sunbeams!. But in 1916 Napier decided to design their own instead. Their design followed the accepted criteria for aircraft power plants: high power, light weight, and low frontal area.
Napier actually called the layout a "broad arrow," which makes more sense than "W." The engine was also advanced even by modern standards, with four valves per cylinder, twin overhead camshafts and a single block milled from aluminum instead of the separate-cylinder steel construction used on almost all other designs.
Prototypes of the Lion ran in late 1917 and the engine entered production in June 1918. The first versions delivered 450 hp from their 24 litres, later being increased to some 550 hp, making them the most powerful aero engines of their time. In 1922 a turbocharger option [nothing new under the sun!] pushed this to well over 700 hp, which compares well with the initial output of the R-R Merlin of 950 hp from 27 litres nearly 14 years later.
The Lion was so successful, being almost unbeatable in the inter-war years and powering over 160 different types of aircraft, that Napier stopped making cars in 1925.
In racing forms the engine could put out 1,300 hp and it was used to break a host of world records: height, air speed, and long distance in aircraft, water speed (the first 100 miles per hour in 1933) and even land speed: Sir Malcolm Campbell's over 250 mph in 1932 and John Cobb's 394 MPH Railton Mobil Special in 1947 - a record that stood until 1960. Not bad for an engine designed 43 years earier. Some trivia within trivia: 1) Reid railton was so confident in his streamlined car's shape that he predicted where the high-pressure airstream would bulge the bodywork inward slightly on the rear of the car. After the first record run the dent was exactly where he had predicted; 2) Railton avoided the weight, drag and potential hazard of conventional radiators and water pipes by cooling the engines with crushed ice. Enough was put in cooling tanks for one run, the resulting water being drained off and more ice added for the return run; 3) Cobb was the first man to travel over 400 mph (one run) on land; 4) The car used two Lions, one driving the front wheels and one the rear (rather like my Twinpine!) making it possibly the fastest 4-wheel-drive of all time. 5) Cobb was killed when he tried to add the world water speed record to his land speed title. At the time of his crash he had already become the first man to travel over 200 mph on water.
The Lions powered successful entrants in the Schneider Cup air races, in 1922 and 1927, but were then dropped by Supermarine in favour of a new, especially designed for racing, engine from Rolls-Royce, the Rolls-Royce R.
