It's the end of an era for Bentley, as the automaker's iconic W-12 engine is no longer in production.
Bentley on Tuesday celebrated the construction of the final W-12 engine at its plant in Crewe, U.K., ending a run that lasted two decades.The twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter engine made its debut in the original Continental GT and has been updated over the years, as well as supplied to other brands within the Volkswagen Group at times.
More than 100,000 examples have been built, which according to Bentley makes the W-12 the most successful 12-cylinder engine of the modern era. Because of its W-layout, which essentially makes it two V-6s on a common crank, the engine is around 25% shorter than a traditional V-12, improving packaging characteristics. Fellow VW Group brand Bugatti used the same layout for the W-16 engine that powered the Veyron and Chiron hypercars.
Bentley had a team of 30 staff dedicated to the engine's construction, with each unit taking around 6.5 hours to complete. With each new development, which over the years saw output rise by 34% from the first iteration to the last, Bentley for durability testing would run an engine at full throttle for 100 hours, then repeat the process three more times. This simulates driving 20,000 miles at 200 mph, according to the automaker.
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