Volkswagen Nardo

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The Volkswagen Nardo (officially known as the Volkswagen W12 Coupe) was a concept car created by Volkswagen in 1997.

Contents

[edit] Conception

At the request of then VW CEO Ferdinand Piech, Giorgetto Giugiaro and his Italdesign team was to design a Volkswagen supercar, 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 VW's Syncro AWD system.

Another reason for its conception was to prove to the world that Volkswagen could build a large and reliable engine for its luxury car, the Phaeton, and its SUV, the Touareg.

[edit] 1997 concepts

In 1997, at the Tokyo Motor Show, Volkswagen stunned the crowds with their 1st supercar, a bright yellow W12 Coupe with a 5.8L W12 engine producing 309 kW (420 bhp), with Syncro AWD, and also, to the surprise of the public, a red W12 Roadster with the same engine in a rear-wheel drive configuration.

[edit] 2001 concept

In 2001, at the Tokyo Motor Show, VW released their most powerful W12 supercar version yet, in Bright Orange. The engine was rated at producing 441kW (512hp) and 621 Nm (458 ft·lbf) of torque; it could go from 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) in about 3.5 seconds and had a top speed of 350 km/h (214 mph), weighing just 1200 kg. It was one of the fastest supercar concepts in the world.

[edit] World record holder

2001 W12 World record holder.
2001 W12 World record holder.

A special unpainted carbon fiber version of the W12 Coupe set 7 world 24-hour speed records at the Nardò Circuit[1] near Lecce, Italy. The car's nickname was derived from the circuit.

[edit] Popular culture

The Nardo has also been popular in other media. The scale model car maker Maisto produces a scale model of the Nardo as part of their collection,and matchbox produces a Nardo as part of their special collection series. It has been a popular vehicle in video games as well. Project Gotham Racing 2 had the Nardo and several other vehicles as part of their "Long Beach Booster Pack" up for download on Xbox Live. PGR2's sequel, Project Gotham Racing 3, featured the Nardo in the game. Gran Turismo 4 featured the Nardo as well. The W12 Concepts are featured in Test Drive Unlimited as unlockable vehicles.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Notice that original Italian names has stress on the last syllable.

[edit] External links and references

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