This Sleeper Wagon Has Half A Bugatti Veyron Engine
Sleeper wagons are some of the coolest cars on the road. These innocuous-looking grocery getters generally serve as the perfect daily drivers, with room for everything from groceries to plywood, while packing sports car performance under the hood. But real car fans know a sleeper car a mile off. There are normally a few telltale giveaways. The flared wheel arches, the subtle body kit, the ever-so-slightly dished rims — they all point to the potent power inside for those in the know. But one sleeper wagon didn’t have any of those. It barely had any performance tinsel at all. But under the hood was an engine that could be seen as half a hypercar unit. It’s just that hardly anyone has heard of this innocent-looking load lugger.
The Sleeper Wagon Is Sooo 2000s
Just like nu metal, Motorola Razrs, and Juicy Couture tracksuit sets, the sleeper wagon belongs very much to the early 2000s. You could blame it on the Audi RS2 of the ’90s, a 311-hp 80 Avant with a 2.2-liter turbocharged five-pot and the indicators off of a Porsche 911. You could blame it on the two liveried Volvo 850 estate cars that rolled up to the British Touring Car Championship starting line at the Thruxton track in southern England. But somehow, by the end of the ’90s, everyone wanted a fast estate/ wagon to hoon about in. The rise of the fast wagon and Sleeper Cars can also be explained by the fact that SUVs were not as popular as they are now, and were essentially mostly just glorified trucks at the time, so people turned to five-door wagons for a mix of family-friendly ferrying and fast, ferocious driving.
Most premium manufacturers began producing quick wagons. AMG, which was in the process of being fully integrated with Mercedes, was responsible for the E55 wagon, while BMW was experimenting with estate versions of its formidable M5. Volvo had brought its T and R versions to the mainstream, and Audi had taken the ethos of the RS2 and evolved it into the mass-produced RS4 series. Even Dodge had a 13-second grocery getter called the Magnum SRT8, essentially a muscle car for the school run. Not to be outdone, Volkswagen entered this competitive segment with its own sleeper wagon. It had all the right ingredients: an exotic eight-cylinder engine, all-wheel-drive, and even a manual gearbox. It should have been a sure-fire hit — except it wasn’t.
The Passat W8 Wagon Is Weird And Wonderful
While everything from the Volkswagen Beetle to the Golf has a cult following, the Passat has always been a model that has stoically resisted being cool. The Passat never really had halo models or a particularly exotic engine (the B3 and B4 did have the VR6 option), but VW always seemed content for these sedans and wagons to be dependable and quietly upmarket. In other words, a Passat is a very sensible car to buy. But then VW decided to jazz up the Passat.
Volkswagen CEO (1993–2002) Ferdinand Piëch was known for pushing engineering boundaries, and had conceived an idea for a new W-shaped 12-cylinder engine by joining two compact VR6s together. This idea grew into a “compact” 18-cylinder engine that appeared in the EB 118 concept, which debuted at the Paris Motor Show in October 1998. A version of this new W architecture would, of course, go on to power the W16 Bugatti Veyron, but before it arrived, VW decided to showcase the tech in the Passat B5.5. It would have a W8 configuration, showing off the compact attributes of the architecture by slotting in transversely in the front of a predominantly front-wheel-drive car.
The Engine Is Often Called Half A Veyron W16…Sort Of
It’s easy to see why the W8 is compared to the Veyron’s W16. Essentially, the Bugatti hypercar’s engine consists of two V8s joined at a 90-degree angle. Because the W16 cylinder banks are separated at a 15-degree angle, the engine was compact enough to allow for the use of four turbochargers, ultimately pushing out 987 horsepower and 922 lb-ft of torque. The Passat’s W8 engine is actually two narrow-angle, 15-degree VR4 cylinder blocks arranged on a common crankshaft at an angle of 72 degrees. So, while the 4.0-liter W8 is half the size of the Veyron’s W16 8-liter powerplant, it is not exactly the same; it is part of the same family and lineage.
The W8 Passat Wagon Is Half Sleeper, Half Muscle Car
The 4.0-liter W8 produced 275 horsepower and 273 lb-ft of torque at 2,750 rpm, all the while making a muscular (if muted) eight-cylinder roar. It’s one of the 2000s’ biggest oddities, because it isn’t as muscular as the 4.0-liter V8 engine in an E90 M3, or the 340-hp Hemi in a 2005 Dodge Charger R/T. But it’s not turbocharged like the legendary Volvo T-5R either. But it’s definitely a sleeper, with 60 mph arriving as quickly as 6.5 seconds. That’s not M5 or Impreza WRX territory, but it is still respectable, if not groundbreaking. At $40,000, it was more expensive than a 2006 BMW 330i, which had a 255-hp inline-6, but the BMW was notably faster. It was the most expensive Volkswagen model ever produced at the time and also the only car ever to receive the W8 engine.
The W8 Passat Remained Rare — And Forgotten
The W8 wagon came with 4Motion all-wheel drive and the option of either a six-speed manual or five-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission. Looking at the VAG lineup of the time, there was another car that was similar on paper to the Passat W8. The Audi RS4 came fitted with a 4.2-liter V8 and a six-speed manual, along with quattro all-wheel-drive. The RS4 was an instant classic whereas the W8 Passat remains to this day a forgotten oddity.
There are several good reasons for this. The RS4 looks the part, with pumped-out arches and large tailpipes, whereas the Passat looks like any TDI taxi, apart from spoked wheels and four small exhaust tips you could easily miss. The RS4 also has 420 hp from an engine that is only slightly larger. Clearly, VW wanted to keep the Passat a smooth, exec sleeper that bridged the gap between the standard car and the upmarket brands. In 2004, with only about 11,000 examples built, the W8 Passat was discontinued.
The W8 Passat Wagon Is The Cheapest Sleeper Around
It’s rare, it’s a sleeper, and it has a unique exotic engine. But the Passat W8 is still an absolute bargain on the used market. Before purchasing, remember that the W8 has a reputation for being expensive to maintain, before committing to an inexpensive used example. And cheap they are. Recently, a high mileage (189,000) 2003 Passat W8 Wagon auto sold on Bring a Trailer for an incredible $4,100. A very low mileage sedan did sell for $16,999, but generally $4,000 to $7,000 will get you the keys to your very own Passat W8. That’s not a lot for a wagon that can claim a link to one of the fastest cars on earth.
Sources: Volkswagen
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