German carmaker
Porsche
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...
built several series of
flat-eight engine A flat-eight engine, also called a horizontally-opposed eight, is an eight-cylinder piston engine with two banks of four inline cylinders, one on each side of a central crankshaft, 180° apart.
In a flat-eight engine, the connecting rods for corres ...
s of differing displacements over the course of many years. They were mainly used in Porsche's racing cars.
Type 753
The first Porsche flat-eight was the Type 753. Work began on it in 1960, following the announcement of a 1.5-litre displacement limit for the 1961
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
(F1) season. The design of the new F1 engine was done by Hans Hönick and Hans Mezger. The 753 inherited the traditional Porsche features of a
boxer Boxer most commonly refers to:
* Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing
*Boxer (dog), a breed of dog
Boxer or boxers may also refer to:
Animal kingdom
* Boxer crab
* Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans
* Boxer snipe ee ...
layout and air-cooling, but with the number of cylinders increased to eight.
Bore and stroke were respectively, resulting in a displacement of . The
oversquare
In a reciprocating piston engine, the stroke ratio, defined by either bore/stroke ratio or stroke/bore ratio, is a term to describe the ratio between cylinder bore diameter and piston stroke length. This can be used for either an internal comb ...
dimensions kept piston speeds low, and also kept the engine narrow and as far out of the airflow on the sides of the car's tub as possible, although it was still wider than the 120° V6 and 90° V8s of the competition.
The centre of the engine was a magnesium crankcase cast in two halves split vertically along the centre-line of the crankshaft.
The crankcase carried a one-piece crankshaft in nine main bearings. The eight aluminum cylinder barrels had their bores treated with a spray-on molybdenum/steel coating called Ferral. Each finned cylinder had its own separate aluminum cylinder head, with four studs per cylinder holding the heads and barrels to the crankcase. An aluminum valve-gear cover cast as a single piece stabilized the four cylinders on each side of the engine.
The valvetrain was similar in some respects to that designed by
Ernst Fuhrmann
Dr. Ernst Fuhrmann (21 October 1918 – 6 February 1995) was chairman of Porsche AG between 1972 and 1980. He was a German citizen.
Fuhrmann attended primary school in Vienna before progressing to a secondary school. Between 1936 and 1941 he att ...
for the Type 547 four-cylinder engine. There were
two overhead camshafts per cylinder bank, operating two valves per cylinder.
As with the 547, the cams were driven by shafts rather than gears or chains, and the cam lobes were separate pieces that were keyed onto the shaft. The 753 added a second countershaft above the crankshaft to the single one underneath the crankshaft in the 547. Both countershafts rotated at half crankshaft speed. Two layshafts from the upper countershaft drove the left and right intake camshafts, while two other layshafts from the lower countershaft drove the exhaust camshafts, eliminating the vertical shafts in the 547's cylinder heads that gave that engine one of its nicknames. A short vertical shaft from the bevel gear on the right-hand inlet camshaft drove the axial cooling fan at 0.92x crankshaft speed. The valvetrain was designed to operate reliably at up to 10,000 rpm.
The engine had a
dry sump
A dry-sump system is a method to manage the lubricating motor oil in four-stroke and large two-stroke piston driven internal combustion engines. The dry-sump system uses two or more oil pumps and a separate oil reservoir, as opposed to a conve ...
system with a separate oil tank. A Bosch dual ignition system with four ignition coils and two distributors fired two spark plugs per cylinder. The air-fuel mixture was delivered by four Weber double downdraft carburetors; two on each side.
Assembly of the engine was a time consuming job, often requiring repeated assembly and disassembly with extensive hand-fitting of components.
Building and setting up a 753 never took less than 100 hours and could take up to 220 hours.
The engine, with exhaust and clutch, was long, wide, high and weighed .
A prototype engine was first started on a test-bench on 12 December 1960.
Initial power output was disappointing; (some sources say ), when the target had been .
Mezger and his team worked to improve both the engine's reliability and power output. The earliest engines had a 90° angle between the valves.
When this was reduced, first to 84° and subsequently to 72°, power output rose. Other changes included reshaping the combustion chamber, lightening crank pins, and switching to titanium connecting rods. Power was eventually raised to .
Although the chassis of the
Type 787 F1 car was lengthened to accommodate the 753, the flat-eight was never installed and the car used the 547 throughout its short life.
The 753 engine debuted in Porsche's Formula One
Type 804 on 20 May 1962 at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. With a compression ratio of 10.0:1, the engine produced at 9200 rpm on its first outing.
This was still less power than the new Coventry-Climax and BRM V8 engines.
With the improved six-speed transmission from the Type 718 and a ZF limited-slip differential, the car reached a top speed of .
The 753 delivered Porsche's only F1 win as a constructor at the
1962 French Grand Prix
The 1962 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Rouen-Les-Essarts on 8 July 1962. It was race 4 of 9 in both the 1962 World Championship of Drivers and the 1962 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The race was won by D ...
at
Rouen-Les-Essarts
Rouen-Les-Essarts was a motor racing circuit in Orival, near Rouen, France.
From its opening in 1950, Rouen-Les-Essarts was recognized as one of Europe's finest circuits, with modern pits, a wide track, and spectator grandstands. The street ci ...
, in an 804 driven by Dan Gurney.
A short-stroke version of the engine was developed, designated the 753/1. The 753 also influenced the design of the engine for Porsche's 901 project, that would become the 911.
Type 771
![Porsche 771 engine front-left Porsche Museum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Porsche_771_engine_front-left_Porsche_Museum.jpg)
A second version of the Porsche flat-eight meant for sports-racers in the 2 litre class was developed at the same time as the 753.
This engine, designated Type 771, had a bore larger than the 753, resulting in an engine that displaced .
Carburettor bores were increased to Power output rose to . This engine was used in the
718
__NOTOC__
Year 718 ( DCCXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 718 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar ...
,
904
__NOTOC__
Year 904 (Roman numerals, CMIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* July 29 – Sack of Thessalonica (904), Sack of Thessalo ...
(of the 16 904s kept by the factory, six were fitted with the eight-cylinder engine
),
906
__NOTOC__
Year 906 ( CMVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* February 27 – Battle of Fritzlar: The Conradines defeat the Babenberg co ...
,
907
__NOTOC__
Year 907 ( CMVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* Rus'–Byzantine War: Varangian prince Oleg of Novgorod leads the ...
,
909
__NOTOC__
Year 909 ( CMIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Britain
* King Edward the Elder and his sister, Princess Æthelflæd of Mercia, raid Danish ...
, and
910
Year 910 ( CMX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
__NOTOC__ Events By place Europe
* June 12 – Battle of Augsburg: The Hungarians defeat the East Frankish army under ...
sports-racer models between 1962 and 1968. A version of the 771 enlarged to was designated Type 771/1.
Type 908
The next flat-eight Porsche engine was not a further development of the Type 771, but rather a version of the Type 916 quad-cam six-cylinder racing engine with two additional cylinders. This engine first appeared in the Porsche 908 racers, and is called the Type 908 engine.
The engine's internal dimensions were carried over from the Type 916, which had in turn inherited the measurements of the production 911 engine.
Bore and stroke were respectively, for a total displacement of . With a 10.4:1 compression ratio, power output for the early versions was . The engine debuted at the Le Mans practice weekend on 6 April 1968.
Type 908 engines were installed in two
VW-Porsche 914 cars at the factory in 1969. The first was built by
Ferdinand Piëch using a full-blown racing engine developing . The second received a detuned version of the engine, and was given to
Ferry Porsche as a gift on his 60th birthday. Called "914/8s", both are part of the collection at the Porsche Museum.
Type 1966
Another flat-eight engine design was related to Porsche internal project Type 1966, which corresponded to Volkswagen project EA266 of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The goal of EA266 was to develop a replacement for the Volkswagen Beetle.
Volkswagen's prototypes used a
rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout
In automotive design, an RMR, or rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout is one in which the rear wheels are driven by an engine placed with its center of gravity in front of the rear axle, and thus right behind the passenger compartment. Nowa ...
and were powered by a water cooled inline four cylinder engine with the cylinder bores laid over horizontally, mounted longitudinally under the rear passenger seat. Ferdinand Piëch envisioned the Type 1966 as the basis for a three-tiered replacement for the 911, with four-, eight-, and twelve-cylinder water cooled boxer engines mounted amidships.
A design for a car with three-abreast seating was developed.
A prototype flat-eight engine was also built for Piëch. The prototype engine was loosely based on the inline four developed for EA266, and included DOHC cylinder heads and two EA266 water cooled cylinder blocks on a common crankshaft.
The new car was expected to be introduced in 1973. According to designer
Anatole "Tony" Lapine, shortly after project EA266 was cancelled by Volkswagen all materials relating to the Type 1966 were destroyed, including the prototype engine.
Type 988/960
Rumours about another proposed Porsche flat-eight began to circulate in the mid-2010s. The mid-engined Porsche 988 (later renamed the 960) was to challenge the
Ferrari 458
The Ferrari 458 Italia (Type F142) is a mid-engine sports car produced by Ferrari. The F458 is the successor of the F430, and was first officially unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show. It was succeeded by the 488 GTB (Gran Turismo Berl ...
and
Lamborghini Huracán models using a flat-eight engine that displaced 4 litres and was fitted with four turbochargers. Power output was projected to be in excess of .
The 960 was expected to have been released in 2019, but some report that its release may have been pushed back as far as 2026.
References
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[{{cite book , last1=Födisch , first1=Jörg Thomas , last2=Neßhöver , first2=Jost , last3=Roßbach , first3=Dieter , last4=Schwarz , first4=Harold , date=15 March 2009 , title=Porsche 908: The Long Distance Runner , publisher=Veloce Publishing , isbn=978-1845842017 ]
[{{cite magazine , author= , title=VW-Porsche 914 turns 40. , url=https://www.clubvw.org.au/assets/pdf/Zeitschrift/2009/2009-06_June.pdf , magazine=Zeitschrift , publisher=Club Veedub Sydney Inc. , date=June 2009 , pages=15–16 ]
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[{{cite web , url=https://www.evo.co.uk/porsche/911/22001/porsche-911-history-the-complete-timeline-from-901-to-992/page/0/1 , title=Porsche 911 history: the complete timeline from 901 to 992 , last=Katsianis , first=Jordan , date=29 November 2018 , website=www.evo.co.uk ]
[{{cite web , last=Johnson , first=Davey G. , date=8 July 2014 , url=https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15363271/porsche-960988-new-info-emerges-on-the-semi-secret-weapon-from-zuffenhausen/ , title=Porsche 960/988: New Info Emerges on the Semi-Secret Weapon from Zuffenhausen , website=www.caranddriver.com ]
[{{cite web , last=Holloway , first=Hilton , date=7 July 2014 , url=https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/porsche-working-new-ferrari-458-beating-supercar , title=Porsche working on new Ferrari 458-beating supercar , website=www.autocar.co.uk ]
[{{cite web , last=Golden , first=Conner , date=31 August 2016 , url=https://www.automobilemag.com/news/porsche-960-supercar-delayed-2026-vw-emissions-scandal-report/ , title=Porsche 960 Supercar Delayed Thanks to VW's Emissions Scandal ]
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