Volkswagen Virtually Entered F1 within the Eighties With a VR8 Turbo Engine

Two of the largest tales of this 12 months’s Formulation 1 season have revolved new producers coming into the world championship for the 2026 season. Audi introduced its entry, partnering with Sauber for its manufacturing facility group. Porsche got here near finalizing a deal to associate with Crimson Bull Racing earlier than negotiations collapsed. Each Volkswagen Group producer has gone Grand Prix racing earlier than. Nonetheless, neither automaker was below Volkswagen possession after they final appeared on racing’s most prestigious stage.

Motor Sport has a narrative about Volkswagen’s canceled Eighties F1 undertaking in its December 2022 subject. Throughout the improvement of the VR6 engine, VW critically thought of upscaling the idea to eight cylinders for a Formulation 1 automobile. The story is essentially recalled by Peter Hofbauer, Volkswagen’s then-head of powertrain improvement. The 1.5-liter turbocharged VR8 engine idea was shopped to Judd, as a potential technical associate, and some potential buyer groups. Like many tales round secretive F1 initiatives, there are many discussions in paddocks, upscale eating places and boardrooms.

Hofbauer believes that the narrow-angle vee engine conceived for a transverse software in a hatchback may have been efficiently utilized to F1.

“The output of a high-power engine comes from the velocity at which you’ll be able to run it — and the smaller the cylinder the sooner you possibly can run it,” he says. “This VR8, an eight cylinder with just one head with these stacked cylinders, would offer you an enormously compact and lightweight machine, so the power-weight ratio could be superior. The facility density is the important thing quantity right here.”

A VR8 F1 engine would have had a excessive centre of gravity had it been mounted upright within the automobile. Hofbauer explains that this was by no means the intention. It could have been canted over in the best way that BMW did with its straight 4 in a line of Brabham Formulation 1 automobiles. He additionally hints at a extra excessive association that might most definitely have pre-dated Brabham’s low-line BT55 of 1986.

Sadly, Volkswagen’s finalized VR8 F1 engine by no means even reached the dyno. The undertaking was scrapped as a result of the manufacturing VR program was delayed. The VR6 could be utilized in VW’s highway automobiles beginning in 1991 after Formulation 1 banned turbocharged engines. Like a number of alternatives in Formulation 1, generally it simply comes right down to timing.

You’ll want to learn the total story of Volkswagen’s first try to hitch the F1 grid right here.