Here’s a rarity. The Passat W8 4 Motion, effectively using half of a Veyron engine without the turbo chargers, the Passat was oddball for two reasons. One it was a high end luxury car wearing the VW badge. The boss at VW at the time, the late Ferdinand Piëch, decided there was no reason why VW could not compete in the luxury space. The sales figures told a different story – with approx 220 units sold in the UK, of which now in 2023 only 65 are currently registered on the road. The second reason was the engine. Imagine taking two narrow angle V4 engines and matching them to a common crank – that is the W8 engine. In this car it makes 275 HP at 6000rpm. It makes an unusual sound, one minute sounding like a cross plan conventional V8, then sounding like something else entirely. Match it to the VW 4wd chassis which they call 4Motion, and you have a quirky luxury saloon. It is on the heavy side but with the speed limiter removed, the slippery shape will see 170MPH on the Autobahn.
The challenge
The car came to us riding very low on H&R springs – the ride was appalling. It was sat on the bumpstops and the dampers couldn’t control the energy. The problem was sourcing the parts. Long since defunct from VW, even the OEM numbers didn’t yield much luck. In the end after a lot of cross referencing we worked our suitable springs and dampers from other models in the range. The end result was amazing – the ride quality is now sublime. In the customers words “It’s so comfortable now, the difference of the ride comfort between the passat and my daily Jazz is ridiculous.”
So if you’ve got a rare car that you’re struggling to solve a problem with, if you can’t find the parts you need – give Balance Motor Works a try. Call us on 01273 915045.
