Porsche Is Quietly Designing A Monster W Engine With 18 Cylinders And 3 Turbos

Automobile motor designs pinch W-configurations and double-digit cylinder-counts rank among the astir analyzable car engines ever made. While different automakers person more-or-less accomplished combining those 2 creation features, Porsche's caller W-shaped-design, for which it was precocious awarded a patent, is unique. Porsche had this to opportunity astir its creation from nan patent filing pinch nan World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO):

"An soul combustion motor according to nan invention pinch a W-cylinder statement comprises a first cylinder slope pinch a first cylinder caput bank, a 2nd cylinder slope pinch a 2nd cylinder caput slope and a 3rd cylinder slope pinch a 3rd cylinder caput bank, wherein nan cylinder banks are arranged astatine an perspective to 1 another. Each cylinder slope has a circumstantial number of cylinders, and each cylinder caput slope besides has cylinder heads according to nan number of cylinders."

While Porsche doesn't explicitly specify nan cylinder count for its caller design, drawings included pinch nan patent filing intelligibly show six spark plug wires attached to astatine slightest 1 slope of cylinders. Multiply that by 3 — nan number of cylinder banks shown — and we tin envision a W18 motor design. Porsche's creation is unsocial among W-engines successful that it features 3 abstracted cylinder banks, each pinch its ain cylinder head, sharing a azygous crankshaft, pinch 60-degrees of separation. Each cylinder slope has intake and exhaust ports and is tin of supporting an exhaust state turbocharger, allowing a full of 3 turbos.

While Porsche's unsocial W18 motor creation has immoderate advantages, location are pros and cons to immoderate W-engine design. One downside to engineering and producing nan caller creation is cost. An exotic motor creation for illustration this would require a typical car pinch a very constrictive market. There's besides a chance that Porsche will ne'er travel done pinch nan build moreover though it received nan patent, arsenic automakers patent chaotic worldly each nan clip and ne'er travel done pinch them.

Unfortunately, that intends nan reply is no, you cannot bargain a Porsche equipped pinch a triple-turbo W18 engine. At slightest not yet, and possibly never. However, location is still dream that an breathtaking invention successful gasoline-power could travel from Porsche, which precocious shifted its attraction distant from early EV plans.