Volkswagen’s Bentley W-12 Engine will be replaced with V-8 and V-6 hybrid production. The 20-year-old engine will reach the end of the line in 2024. The new version is expected to have 740 horsepower. As automakers are transitioning towards electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, the changes are bringing an end to the old models and equipment as well.
Typically made up of two VR6 engines, the W-12 has been around since the early 2000s in various forms. Besides the wide range of Bentley models in which it’s available, including the Continental GT, the Flying Spur, and the Bentayga, it was previously offered in other VW Group vehicles such as the Audi A8 and Volkswagen Phaeton. Bentley views the Batur as the sendoff for the W-12, as that model features the most powerful version of the engine, with a new confirmed output of 740 horsepower and 737 pound-feet of torque (up from the 729 horsepower originally claimed). However, it’s already sold out, and the company warns interested customers that few order slots remain for other Bentley models equipped with the W-12.
Indeed over the years, Bentley has steadily increased the power output of the 6.0-liter by 37 percent, and torque by 54 percent, noting how emissions have come down over the same period by 25 percent. Clearly not enough for the future, of course. The two-decade-long evolution of the W12 has taken in oil and cooling redesigns, better turbo tech, better injection, and combustion processes, and in 2015, a complete overhaul from the ‘sump up’.
Powerful versions
“When we first launched the W12 back in 2003, we knew we had a mighty engine that would propel both our cars and the brand forwards at speed,” Bentley boss Adrian Hallmark said. “20 years and more than 100,000 W12s later, the time has come to retire this now-iconic powertrain as we take strides towards electrification, but not without giving it the best send-off possible, with the most powerful version of the engine ever created.”
He’s pointing to the final act for the W12, where it will sit inside the astonishing Bentley Batur Adrian Hallmark (pictured above) and realize its most powerful iteration – a heady 740bhp and 738 lb-ft of torque. The power has been liberated via bigger turbo ducts, redesigned turbo compressors, bigger charge-air coolers, and revised engine and transmission calibrations. All 18 of these unique cars have of course been sold, but Bentley says it’s still possible to order the ‘standard’ 650bhp Speed version of that W12 in the Conti GT, Bentayga, and Flying Spur. With the concession, of course, that demand for these last W12 cars “is expected to be high”.
