The VW F1 engine axed before it could change GP history

F1

A secret VW Formula 1 engine could have taken the racing world by storm in the 1980s, according to its developers. But a mysterious veil was drawn over the project after it was abruptly canned. We investigate in our latest issue

VW F1 car concept

What could have been: VW is said to have had plans for a chassis as well as F1 engine

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Audi’s entry into Formula 1 is a new frontier for the Volkswagen Group, which has never been involved with the series before.

Although Porsche, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Bentley and Audi have grand prix heritage (some more than others), none of the VW Group brands were owned by the company at the time.

But in a parallel universe, we could be watching Volkswagen fight for this year’s championship, in its 36th consecutive Formula 1 season having had years of domination.

From the archive

In the mid-1980s, Volkswagen was working on an innovative 1.5-litre V8 turbo engine, which could have been ready for the 1986 season. The project was led by VW’s head of powertrains and briefly drew in Sir Jack Brabham, John Judd and — depending on who you speak to — March.

Three Formula 1 teams were reputed to be interested in running the engine, a driver was signed up and a factory team with a VW chassis was rumoured to be on the agenda. And then, suddenly, the secretive development work assumed a mythical status when the project was dropped and then denied by the company.

In the latest issue of Motor Sport, Gary Watkins investigates what really happened behind the doors of VW’s Wolfsburg research unit and speaks to figures who believe, to this day, that their unique concept could have changed the course of F1 history.

“We would have had a good chance with this engine,” reveals Peter Hofbauer who, while VW’s engine chief in 1983, realised that the VR6 engine being developed for the diminutive bonnet of the road-going Golf, was a concept that could conquer grand prix racing.

Peter Hofbauer

Peter Hofbauer was VW’s engine chief

VW

Hofbauer believed that the compact unit, expanded to eight cylinders, would offer a world-beating power-to-weight ratio thanks to its two banks of cylinders with a narrow internal vee angle of 15 degrees, offset within a single block, within a common head.

“We thought this concept could be used in a highly compact performance engine, says Hofbauer. “We took our production engine, played with it and changed the stroke.

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“The output of a high-power engine comes from the speed at which you can run it — and the smaller the cylinder the faster you can run it,” he says. “This VR8, an eight cylinder with only one head with these stacked cylinders, would give you an enormously compact and light machine, so the power-weight ratio would be superior. The power density is the key number here.”

VW had got as far as running an early-stage development engine before the project was axed, as a result of internal politics, according to Hofbauer. When word of the research project later emerged, the company was able to truthfully say that it was not involved in an F1 project.

Read the full article with more details of Brabham and Judd’s involvement, as well as the decision to can the project, in the December 2022 issue of Motor Sport.

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