16 May The VW Nardo W12 Concept Exposed

Posted at 15:51h in Cars by
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The VW Nardo W12 is a car that a lot of motorsport enthusiasts don’t even know about, including myself until I saw it today….thanks Reddit! There are several supercar concepts that have been made by the car companies over the years and this is one I wished they had made a little more of. I thought we could take a look at where this car came from and show off one of Volkswagen’s most exciting car concepts.

The car in the video above is the Nardo, but it’s not the first of these W12 Mid-Engined supercars, in fact we have to look back to 1997 for that. The first in the line of these cars was the W12 Syncro which was debuted at that Tokyo Motor Show that year. The Italian designed Syncro came strapped with a 5.6-litre W12 engine producing 414 bhp laid to the ground by their Syncro four-wheel drive system.

The reason this car is even alive is because of then Volkswagen Group CEO Ferdinand Piech, Giorgetto Giugiaro and his Italdesign team. with instructions that it had to accommodate a 12-cylinder engine in a W configuration, be mid-engined, and also be able to be configured with Volkswagen’s Syncro four-wheel drive system.

Baby Got Back

Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 2.51.23 PM
Photo Credit: PixelKlinik @FLickr
 
The second concept came out again in 1998 and was called the W8 Roadster. This version was a little bit less in length and instead of the four-wheel drive system, this was a RWD roadster with an engine right behind your head. This car was debuted at the Geneva Auto Salon and it also featured the same glorious W12 engine from the previous year.

In 2001 came the W12 Nardò and for me it got under my radar up until today. This version was insanely powerful and produced 591 bhp458 lbf·ft of torque. The 0-60 time was in about 3.5 seconds, and had a top speed of 221.8 MPH. Since the Nardo only weighed just 2,646 lb. it easily was one of the fastest concepts in the world.

The cars name comes from the Nardo race ring in Italy, you may recall it from a certain Top Gear episode. This lovely track is easily spotted from space and is home to the speed obsessed. This W12 completely dominated the Nardo ring and set seven 24-hour world speed records earning its name and appeal to VW enthusiasts and beyond.

If you’d like to know more about the VW W12 cars you’re just a Google search away.

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Ryan Clark
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Ryan Clark is celebrating 10 years consulting for luxury brands across the globe helping them reach UHNW individuals online and off. He specializes in luxury digital marketing, SEO, PR and luxury viral marketing. Connect with me to talk about your luxury marketing strategy and how our services can help you achieve more this year. I offer a luxury gaps audit to determine where you're falling flat and where I see you can improve in your marketing efforts.   To connect with him online you can follow on Twitter @LuxuryBranded, connect on LinkedIn Ryan R Clark and read his column on Luxe Getaways Magazine where he covers the world of luxury.