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How many times have you heard an explanation of how the W12 engine in the Bentley Continental GT (among others) works and still didn't get it?
Well, it happens to us quite often, so when we spotted this display at the Bentley factory in Crewe, England we made sure to get a shot.
All makes sense now, right? Good.
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bankerdanny says:
10:05 AM, 05/ 4/10
Very cool. I used to have similar questions about how a radial engine worked until I saw a cutaway at the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, MI.
yellowbal says:
10:23 AM, 05/ 4/10
It still looks like a V12 to me. What makes it a W12?
smrtypants44 says:
10:50 AM, 05/ 4/10
@Yellowbal: a V12 has two banks of cylinders, 6 in each and a W12 has 4 banks of cylinders, 3 in each.
jederino says:
11:29 AM, 05/ 4/10
What is the advantage of engineering this? Is it more compact than a V8 of similar displacement?
estreka says:
12:11 PM, 05/ 4/10
Good luck figuring out with cylinder is misfiring in that configuration.
I'd hate to have been the engineer that had to balance that engine out.
inlinesix says:
02:53 PM, 05/ 4/10
Wikipedia: "The major advantage of these engines is packaging; that is, they contain high numbers of cylinders but are relatively compact in their external dimensions."
cah11705 says:
03:51 PM, 05/ 4/10
That is impressive. Makes sense now. Just to v6s on one crankshaft basically.
mazdaspeed_jon says:
03:54 PM, 05/ 4/10
Probably the easiest way to think of that engine is as 2 Volkswagen VR6 motors that share one crank shaft. The VR6 is called a "narrow angle" V6 but is probably closer in relation to an inline-6 but with cylinders that are offset from one another to maximize space. So just image 2 VR6's arranged in a "V" configuration.
jederino says:
04:33 PM, 05/ 4/10
I like to think of it as one V8, with an inline-4 banger added for good measure.
clarkma5 says:
05:26 PM, 05/ 4/10
W12s are easy...imagine each bank of a V12 as an inline-6. Now replace that inline-6 with a VR6. Done.
hybris says:
07:33 AM, 05/ 5/10
Now we just have to fit one in a Ford Focus or Fiesta...
jederino says:
08:55 AM, 05/ 5/10
The V6 analogy does not work for me, because you have 4 banks of 3 cylinders each. Two VR6's would be 6 x 2. This is three 4-bangers!
canada_rocks says:
01:04 PM, 05/ 5/10
i cant help but feel volkswagons years of making narrow angle v-6's contributed to this design. v-6 with one wide head. yep seems like that to me.