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Porsche’s Reported W18 Tri-Turbo Patent: What the 18-Cylinder Design Shows

Porsche’s reported W18 patent depicts three cylinder banks and provision for up to three turbos, but it does not confirm a production engine or supercar.
Entry073 Date Time2 min MechanicCarCody Team
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Porsche’s reported patent describes a possible engine with three cylinder banks, up to 18 cylinders and provision for as many as three turbochargers. It is a patent-stage design—not confirmation that Porsche is developing a supercar or has built a working engine.

Did Porsche patent an 18-cylinder engine?

Automotive reports published in October 2025 described a Porsche patent application depicting an 18-cylinder layout. The drawing is said to show three banks arranged at 60-degree angles around a common crankshaft, with six cylinders in each bank. Car and Driver reported that the filing allows for a different cylinder count, so 18 describes the illustrated configuration, not a confirmed production specification.

The primary WIPO or national patent record was not independently available in the reporting consulted. Auto Zeitung reported a WIPO disclosure date of 16 October 2025, but that date has not been checked against the underlying record.

Is Porsche building a W18 supercar?

No production car or development program has been announced alongside the patent design. Car and Driver reported that Porsche had not announced a project using the engine and that the design might never reach production. A patent describes a proposed or protected design; it does not establish that an engine has been built, tested or selected for a vehicle.

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How many turbos does the patent show?

The reported design provides for one turbocharger per cylinder bank, making three a possible arrangement. “Tri-turbo” refers to that bank-by-bank provision in the design, not to a verified running engine or an announced production specification. The reporting consulted does not provide measured power, displacement, fuel consumption, emissions or performance figures.

Why use three banks?

Reporting on the application says Porsche’s stated rationale includes reducing intake-airflow friction through straight cylinder banks and separating intake and exhaust routing to help keep intake air cooler. Those are design aims, not published test results: the reporting provides no measurements showing how much friction or temperature would change, or what effect the layout would have on output.

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How is this different from a Bugatti W16?

The key distinction in the reported layouts is their bank arrangement. Porsche’s drawing is described as three banks around a shared crankshaft; the Bugatti W16 is a production-engine comparison commonly associated with a four-bank W layout. The Porsche illustration is therefore not simply another version of the Bugatti engine, and the patent drawing alone does not support a comparison of performance.

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Feature Reported Porsche patent design Bugatti W16 comparison
Bank arrangement Three banks, arranged at 60-degree angles, according to Car and Driver’s 2025 report. Four-bank W layout.
Cylinders 18 in the depicted layout: six per bank; reporting says other counts are allowed. 16.
Crankshaft Three banks act on a common crankshaft, as described in the patent reporting. Not stated in the cited reporting.
Turbochargers Provision for one per bank, or up to three, in the reported design. Not stated in the cited reporting.
Status Patent-stage design; no announced Porsche vehicle program. Production-engine comparison, not a Porsche patent.

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