Volkswagen tested Bugatti Veyron's W16 engine in Lamborghini Diablo SV after acquiring brand in 1998, removing V12 to accommodate work-in-progress powerplantAdditional bodywork cutouts show W16 required more cooling than V12, test mule used facelifted SV without pop-up headlights dropped in 1999W16 originally planned as W18 6.2L naturally aspirated for 1999 Bugatti 18/3 Chiron concept before switching to 8.0L W16 with four turbos The late Ferdinand Piëch had more accomplishments than most high-ranking executives in the automotive industry. He may have been one of the most controversial figures in the business, but no one can deny his legacy. Iconic cars such as the Audi Quattro and Porsche 917 spring to mind, along with more unusual models like the W8 Passat and W12 Phaeton.The former Volkswagen Group supremo spared no expense when it came to wild engine experiments. The company even stuffed a V12 diesel into the Audi R8, and although the TDI-powered supercar never reached production, it demonstrated the controversial CEO's costly, no-compromise development approach. A twelve-cylinder diesel engine briefly powered the Audi Q7, while VW also sold a Touareg with a V10 TDI. Image from Autostadt GmbH But one engine rules them all: the W16. Originally, the Veyron was supposed to have even more cylinders. At the 1999 Frankfurt Motor Show, the Bugatti 18/3 Chiron concept made a splash with a massive 6.2-liter W18. Bugatti ultimately opted for a more practical 8.0-liter W16 with four turbochargers instead of naturally aspirated configuration. Before building Veyron prototypes, VW had to test the engine in a different vehicle. Having acquired the rights to the Lamborghini brand in 1998, the company took a Diablo and removed its V12 to make room for the work-in-progress W16. Specifically, they used a facelifted SV, hence the absence of pop-up headlights that were dropped in 1999. Image from Autostadt GmbH Images shared by the Autostadt museum next to VW's Wolfsburg factory show the W16-powered Diablo SV. Its rawness makes it look like a race car in the final hours of Le Mans. You can see the W16 needed additional cooling from the extra cutouts in the rear bodywork. Although the W16 would power only the Veyron in production, the VW Group had two concept cars with the same cylinder count: the 1999 Bentley Hunaudières and the 2000 Audi Rosemeyer. At the height of the Piëch era, the VW core brand also had a few supercar concepts, albeit with only twelve cylinders, peaking with the 2001 W12 Nardo.
