THE BREAKDOWN
- This Lamborghini Diablo SV served as a test mule for the W16.
- The quad-turbo, 8.0-liter engine powered the Veyron, and later, the Chiron.
- The sixteen-cylinder engine bows out after the Mistral roadster.
The late Ferdinand Piëch had more feathers in his cap 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 the legacy he left behind. Iconic cars such as the Audi Quattro and Porsche 917 spring to mind, but so do more normal 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 was a testament to the controversial CEO’s costly, no-compromise approach to development. A twelve-cylinder diesel engine briefly powered the Audi Q7, while VW also sold a Touareg with a V10 TDI.
But there is one engine that 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 made a splash with a massive 6.2-liter W18. Bugatti ultimately opted for a more "sensible" 8.0-liter W16 with four turbochargers instead of a naturally aspirated setup.
Before building Veyron prototypes, VW had to test the engine in a different car. Having acquired the rights to the Lamborghini brand in 1998, the company took a Diablo and yanked out its V12 to make room for the work-in-progress W16. Specifically, it used a facelifted SV, hence the absence of the pop-up headlights that were dropped in 1999.
Images graciously shared with us 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 tell the W16 needed more cooling from the additional cutouts in the rear bodywork.
Although the W16 would go on to power only the Veyron, 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 of its own, albeit with “only” twelve cylinders, peaking with the 2001 W12 Nardo.
Lamborghini Diablo SV with W16 engine
The W12 bowed out in 2024 when Bentley built the last one for the Batur, while the W16 is nearing the end of the road after Bugatti delivers the final Mistral roadster. The Tourbillon carries the sixteen-cylinder torch forward, but in a V16 configuration instead. At Lamborghini, the V12 story continues to this day with the Revuelto.
Motor1's Take: It’s fascinating to see the early days of the Veyron before it became an automotive legend. It might look like a regular Diablo to the untrained eye, but knowing the real story behind this strange-looking test mule completely changes our perspective.
