(Short story read time = 10 minutes / Three informative videos at end)

Nahhh. Something much better. It is the annual Toy Rally. The what? Every year the Marines sponsor the Toys for Tots Program. Since 1947 the Marines have distributed 550 million toys to 250 million less fortunate children. It is a good cause, and Fort Lauderdale has a very special way of contributing a massive amount of toys to this foundation.
 

As it turns out, exotic cars are very popular in this area, and the lucky folks who own them sometimes use these beautiful machines to give back - to give something back to the community.
 

In early December every year, the South Florida Exotic Car Toy Rally is held to benefit the Toys for Tots campaign, and has for the past 15 years.
 

280 exotic cars - Ferrari, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Lotus, McLaren, Porsche, Bently, and yes, Bugatti all driving together for 20 miles in a caravan. $80 million dollars worth of shiny cars, an amazing sight. Seems like a million horsepower. Hundreds of police as escorts. The whole city shuts down.
 

They all start in a single file line at the BB&T Center, home stadium for the Florida Panthers, head east stopping at the Ferrari dealership. 280 cars parked bumper to bumper stretches three quarters of a mile along North Federal Highway. They then re-start their motors, and head due north up to the Goodyear Blimp Hangar in Pompano Beach, where the Marines collect a veritable mountain of toys, over 3,000 of them, along with $75,000 in cash, all donated to Toys For Tots. It takes two moving vans to collect all of those toys. That represents a lot of smiles on lots of kids.  This is an example of a very well run charity event, and congratulations to the sponsors.
 

The South Florida Exotic Car Toy Rally to benefit Toys for Tots will be held this year on Saturday, December 12th, 2020 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. More information can be found at ToyRally.com.
 

TRAFFIC JAM
 

So imagine that you are now stopped at a stop sign wanting to turn right on to US Route 1, but there is a police motorcycle blocking the intersection and an officer waving the parade on. Apparently this is going to take a while, so you put your two year old Chevrolet in park, and turn the key off. Open the door, and walk ten steps to the sidewalk, knowing that you can jump back into the car in just a moment after it clears. The drivers in the stopped cars behind you do the same, and everybody enjoys the spectacle.
 

Ferrari after Lamborghini after Maseratti, after Ferrari, and on and on. Wonderful. All beautiful machines. Eye candy.
 

As you are looking at all of the passing exotics, likely you may be saying to yourself - "If only."
 

Knowing that these beauties cost hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece, they are certainly out of your reach.  Look, here comes a Bugatti, the new ones can cost literally millions of dollars.  Possibly buy a lottery ticket on the way home?
 

Look back over your shoulder at your Chevrolet, actually a very nice and modern car in deep royal blue, and just shrug. Appreciate the good fortune of the folks who can drive these works of art.
 

Aspirational indeed.
 

Twenty five minutes later, there are still coming past. Ahhh yes, the "Song of the twelve".
 

WANT ONE
 

So you start wondering, "What if one of these manufacturers were to market something that was scaled back to the point that it might be affordable by mere normal people. It wouldn't have to be top shelf like these beauties, but something that you could actually buy and drive to the supermarket. Bright red with a tan leather interior would be nice. And oh yeah, love that exhaust burble.
 

Think about it.  Honda, for example, actively campaigns in the Formula One race circuit and does extremely well. The object of this exercise is multipurpose: to build a very desirable brand image, and to learn about new technologies. Some of the lessons that are absorbed and proven on the racetrack find their way back into production cars. If an idea can be proven under such stress and actually work in a race car, then that newly proven technology can possibly be applied to their passenger cars so that they can compete better in the marketplace.
 

Makes sense to me.
 

Ferrari long has been at the forefront of Formula One racing. And yes, the lessons learned on the track make their way down to be incorporated in their production cars. But unlike Honda, it is unlikely that many people are able to drive the Prancing Horse to their local supermarket. Those red cars are in the parade.
 

Think of it like a parent / child relationship. The knowledge from the parent filters down to the child who learns from the parent's experience.
 

As with Honda, what Ferrari learns from their experiences on the track are integrated into their production cars. Although they don't quite make as far down the food chain as Honda's cars, the process is the same.
 

There is an internet video of a mother black bear crossing a mountain road with her four cubs trailing behind her. Her mission is to take care of her cubs and make sure that they get across the street safely and training her cubs along the way.
 

If the mother bear had abandoned her cub, and it was wandering across the road alone, it would be in much more danger of not making it safely without the mother to lead the way with her experience.
 

PEOPLE'S CAR
 

Now consider Volkswagen. They make very nice passenger cars today. They started back in 1937 with the "People's Car" that evolved into the VW Bug that we all love. But over the years, the parent company also expanded their holdings to include various other automotive brands.
 

Volkswagen acquired the almost bankrupt Bugatti brand in July 1998. Shortly thereafter, in September 1998, Volkswagen also acquired the Lamborghini brand.
 

Volkswagen decided to capitalize on the storied history of Bugatti, and re-invent it as their top of the line flagship and create the best, most sophisticated, fastest, and most expensive sports car in the world, the Veyron, named after French racing driver Pierre Veyron.
 

To this end they wound up sandwiching two V-8 motors side by side in a W format and creating a W16 that displaced 8.0 liters, had 4 valves per cylinder (total of 64 valves), four overhead cams, four turbochargers, and developed 1,001 horsepower.
 

The original Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Coupe ran a cool $1.3 million and could reach a top speed of 253 mph - a speed it can maintain for 12 minutes before all the fuel is gone. The car could hit 60 mph in just 2.5 seconds, 100 mph in 5.5 seconds, and 150 mph in 9.8 seconds. Getting to 200 mph took 18.3 seconds, and 250 mph takes 42.3 seconds. *
 

As with Honda's investment in racing, my understanding is that part of the object for Volkswagen’s investment was their desire to scale back this motor and utilize the technology in their VW brand passenger cars in order to better compete with BMW and Mercedes Benz in their normal passenger automobile market.
 

To this end they cut the W16 in half and created what became known as the W8.
 

This new 8 cylinder motor has a displacement of 4.0 liters, still had hemispheric combustion chambers with 4 valves per cylinder (32) actuated by 4 overhead cams, and in the scaled back normally aspirated version produced 275 horsepower. They stuffed it into their higher end VW Passat during the years 2003 and 2004, but only producing several thousand of them per year.
 

Curiously it takes an enormous 9.4 quarts of oil, keeping it cool and well lubricated.
 

EXPENSIVE $$$
 

However, their new W8 powered Passat became dramatically more expensive.
 

Consider this scenario. A customer walks into a VW dealer in 2003 to look for a new car. There are two shiny new Passats sitting side by side in the showroom. Both are the same color station wagons, and both have heated leather seats.  Externally, they look almost the same, but one has four exhaust pipes.
 

The customer says to the salesman "That is a pretty nice car. How much does that one cost?"
 

The salesman says $20,000. (Which is about the normal price for a Passat that year).
 

The customer then points to the car right next to the first one. "How much is that one?"
 

The salesman says "$40,000."
 

Customer - "WHAT? They look exactly the same.  How are they different?"
 

Salesman - "This one has two more cylinders."
 

Customer - "Two more cylinders for an extra $20 Grand? Really? I'll take the one with two fewer cylinders for half as many dollars. Hey, I can buy two of these cars for the price of that thing."
 

And so it would go. The market simply did not accept this more expensive VW because of the perception of a Passat was supposed to cost about $20,000, not $40,000, and they just did not sell enough of them to make the entire venture worthwhile. VW stopped selling the W8 after two years in 2004.
 

OK, so what happened? How did this debacle occur? It's all about timing. Let's connect the dots.
 

Consider the release dates for these two Volkswagen cars. The Bugatti Veyron was released in the year 2005. The Volkswagen Passat W8 was released in 2003. Yes, two years EARLIER.
 

Let's go back to standing at that stop sign in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday morning in December. All of those beautiful machines whizzing past, and thinking "Wouldn't it be nice if there were to be a scaled back version of that magnificent machine that normal people could buy?"
 

If there were to be a "People's" version of that Bugatti with a somewhat more affordable window sticker, that still included the core technology that makes it shine, do you think that it would sell?
 

Ummm ... Youbetcha.
 

On that Saturday afternoon in Fort   Lauderdale there probably would be a line going out the dealer's door wanting one after this parade.  If only.
 

TIMING
 

Yeah, it's all about timing. In both Mechanical and Marketing issues.
 

Mechanical - The intake valve is closed and the piston is rising up and compressing a fuel and air mixture until just the right time, and then zapp, a high voltage charge arcs at the electrode end of the sparking plug, creating a fiery but controlled explosion in the combustion chamber and forcing the piston back down and creating power. If the timing of that spark does not happen at the exactly right moment, the motor will rumble, pop, spit and fart if it starts at all. At the hands of a skilled technician the motor can roar. And if not, the entire car becomes just an expensive paperweight.
 

Marketing - On that first December Saturday morning in Fort Lauderdale the local supermarket manager may elect to display Christmas cards on the aisle's endcap where customers line up for check out. A convenient impulse buy. But if that same manager did the exact same thing the weekend before the Fourth of July, he would have trouble giving those Christmas cards away. Timing.
 

If Volkswagen had released the Bugatti Veyron FIRST, as the most sophisticated sports car in the world, everyone would know about it. The shine of that car carries a vast and wide halo.
 

If, two years later, Volkswagen had THEN released a scaled back version of that spectacular motor, and stuffed it into their popular Passat passenger car, with everyone in the world knowing that it was actually a scaled back Bugatti motor under the hood, do you think that it would be a desirable marketing package?
 

Ummm ... Youbetcha.
 

But as it turned out, Volkswagen released the W8 with virtually nobody knowing anything about it. Nobody knew what it was or why it was there.
 

ORPHAN
 

The W8 was born as an orphan, with no parent to show the way.
 

There was no mother bear to blaze the trail so that others could learn to follow. The lonely cub might have been lost under the Peterbuilt logging truck barreling down that mountain road.
 

There was no Bugatti shine. The Veyron had not been introduced yet.
 

The net result was that it became an overly priced (and admittedly somewhat odd) car that absolutely nobody wanted to buy because it was too expensive to support the perceived value. And as such, it became a marketing disaster. At the end, the dealerships almost had to give them away to get rid of their unpurchased inventory. Salespeople wound up with them.
 

The reality is that this thing simply screams. It is a beautiful car, tame in the city, easily cruises to the supermarket, but wild when you put your foot in it. Your grandmother could drive this car everyday and still have no idea of what it really is. Buttery smooth.
 

Oversized tires and ventilated brakes with better suspension. All wheel drive. Xenon headlights. Canters effortlessly at 85, and zips to three digits before you can say "Huh?"
 

It is very happy on the highway. Start it up in Boston, drive it through the mountains of Vermont to Montreal to attend the Formula One race on a sunny June weekend.  Turn it off. Start it in Boston, head west to Pittsburgh to visit family in one colorful autumn blast. Turn it off. 400 miles to a 21 gallon tankfull.
 

HISTORY
 

There is historical precedent for Volkswagen to create a mash-up of different brands. In 1969 Porsche introduced the 914, a squarish mid-engine sports car powered by a four cylinder engine, popular in Europe as a Volkswagen. Concurrently they also introduced the 914-6. It was basically the same 914 but they had stuffed the running gear from a 911T into it - the normally aspirated flat 6 cylinder engine, transmission, brakes and wheels.
 

The four cylinder car was $4,000 and the six cylinder car was $6,000. Again, externally there was not much to differentiate between the two models other than their wheels. The four cylinder car had four lug nuts and the six cylinder car had five. Importantly, the genealogy of the powertrain was clear.
 

Driving the two were entirely different experiences. The six just loved to fly; there was a dramatic whoosh as the two three barrel Webbers gulped air immediately behind the driver's right ear. However it was not very good at going slow. Aunty Alice would have more trouble driving this one around that super market parking lot in Fort Lauderdale.
 

The W8 by contrast excelled at both going fast AND at going slow, and was by far the most civil of all three. Like the W8 the 914-6 suffered from slow sales and was also dropped after two years.
 

MOTOR TREND lived with a 2003 Passat W8 for twelve months and numerous people had driven it for 16,000 miles. At the end, in May of 2004, their review of the experience was summarized this way:
 

"Bottom Line - Nice car.  Wrong thing.  Wrong place.  Wrong time."
 

The Bugatti Veyron, although was prototyped in 2003 (which is when the W8 was introduced) was not released for two years until 2005, just months after that review.
 

The authors identified "Wrong time" in their evaluation just months before the introduction of the Bugatti Veyron. Imaging how differently they would have responded if they were to have understood that the W8 had the same engineering DNA as the Bugatti W16. How differently the market would have responded.
 

People's Bugatti? If only. Volkswagen certainly missed the boat on this one - big time.
 

The VW W8 is both an engineering success and a commercial failure.
 

Yeah, it's all about timing.
 

SUMMARY
 

Unfortunately the W-8 was born as an orphan, and then abandoned by its parents, although it was conceived with great intentions.
 

Today the existing examples may suffer from some prototype-itis. This is Version 1.0 and VW never really came back to polish this wonderful product. Had they put the necessary effort into this concept they certainly would have had a strong winner.
 

The Volkswagen Passat W-8 may be the most misunderstood automobile ever manufactured.
 

Perhaps this is the worst marketing blunder in automotive history.
 

VIDEO
 

To know more about this motor and its' background, please watch these three insightful videos with your sound ON. You will learn much.
 

This way you can compare the inner workings of the Bugatti W-16 to the inner workings of the Volkswagen W-8 and see how similar they are.
 

My understanding is that these well produced videos came from VW's advertising agency.
 

Hope that you have enjoyed this story.
 

* FOOTNOTE:

leftlanenews.com/bugatti/veyron-16-4/