It’s been thirty years since Volkswagen’s VR6 engine was introduced. Released by the Golf and Corrado, it has constantly changed configuration to animate sports cars such as family cars or to serve as a basis for other engines. He still officiates, but no longer with us.
In early 1992, Volkswagen marketed the Golf VR6 and Corrado VR6 unveiled a few months earlier. The engine that fitted them quickly formed a fan club because of its ability to offer unprecedented performance in high-volume compact vehicle segments. He animated many sports models of the Volkswagen group thereafter. Stronger: its atypical and pointed design, far from being an industrial defect, made it a veritable Swiss army knife serving as a basis for the development of other engines. This is why the VR6 is still in Volkswagen’s catalog, thirty years after its introduction.
Small car looking for big displacement
At the launch of the third-generation Golf, Volkswagen sought to offer a high-performance version of its compact that was both more powerful and more upscale than the four-cylinder-engined GTI. However, the installation of a classic six-cylinder in V or in line was incompatible with the architecture of the car in terms of size. The firm’s engineers then had the idea of a V6 with a very low opening angle, a concept already tested by Lancia many years before.
Thus was born the VR6, with an R like Reihe (“line” in German), whose angle of only 15° made it possible to combine the two banks of cylinders in a single cylinder head in a transverse position. The VR6 therefore made its debut under the hood of the Golf with a displacement of 2.8 l, two valves per cylinder, an output of 174 hp at 5,800 rpm and a maximum torque of 235 Nm at 4,200 rpm. All with a new kind of sound. The Corrado VR6 coupe was even entitled to a 2.9 l block delivering 190 hp and 250 Nm.
TO READ. Volkswagen Golf (1991). The third generation turns 30
Two decades of improvements, then oblivion (or almost)
The power, the torque and the relative compactness of the VR6 engine quickly destined it for less sporty but bulkier models (Passat, Sharan, etc.) which could not accommodate large displacements with the traditional arrangement either.
The engine was carried over to the next generation of Volkswagen, losing the R in its name but not its specific architecture. However, it evolved significantly, for example adopting a 24-valve configuration to power the Volkswagen Golf V6 4Motion and its “cousin” the Seat Leon V6 Cupra4, both offering 204 hp and all-wheel drive. Its displacement increased to 3.2 l, while its power soared to 241 hp under the hood of the Golf IV R32. It even reached 250 hp for the Golf V R32, as well as for the most opulent Audi A3 and TT, among others. Then came the 3.6 l unit powering the 300 hp Passat R36, for example. Porsche, too, adopted this engine for the entry-level versions of the first Cayenne.
In 2011, the entry into force of the Euro 5 environmental standard got the better of almost all of the group’s vehicles which were equipped with this engine on the European market. Volkswagen’s VR6 fell on the field of honor, alongside the VTECs of the Honda Civic Type R and S2000 and the Wankel of the Mazda RX-8 to name but a few. If it was replaced on the Old Continent by turbocharged four-cylinders, he pursued a discreet career in certain territories such as North America. In the country of Uncle Sam, it is a VR6 3.6 l that can be found today under the hood of the Atlas Cross Sport with a power of 280 hp.
The VR6, from 4 to 18 cylinders
The VR6 served as the basis for other engines. The V5 offered by Volkswagen in the 2000s was a one-cylinder VR6. The W8 available for a time for the Passat was made up of two small V4s made from VR6. The W12 inaugurated by the eponymous concept car was a combination of two VR6s.
Even the eighteen-cylinder engine of the Bugatti EB 118 (1998) and EB 18/3 Chiron (1999) concept cars was made by assembling three VR6s. You probably guessed it, the W16 8.0 l quadriturbo used by Bugatti since the Veyron stems from this work. As electrification gains traction across the automotive industry, will the VR6 change shape again to survive another generation? History has shown it to be full of hidden resources…
