Re: Audi W engine, not the first!

[Igor Kessel <e6941tb@ix.netcom.com>]

Phil wrote:
> >
>         >Porsche will (and do) perform technical work for >_anybody_.
> They always have,
>         >and they always will.

Then Aleksander Mierzwa wrote:

>Also the engines
> for Lada Samara were designed by Porsche. In spite of Soviet build
> quality, they still are able do do lot of miles without rebuild.

Not only the engines. Porsche also contributed to the body-in-white. 

Porsche is said to have the best wind tunnel in the industry and subcontract a 
lot of aerodynamic (and, generally, any engineering work) for third parties. 
There are a lot of mainstream car companies out there, who have their products 
designed with the help of Porsche. That's kept secret, of course.

As far as Lada Samara is concerned, in the early '80s my buddy, who was 
graduating from an Automotive Faculty of a certain Soviet college, was wrighting 
a thesis work on the design of the (then advanced) Lada 2108, later known in the 
Eastern Block as a "Samara".

He told me that the Soviets were too cheap to subcontract Porsche outright. They 
would do the design, build a prototype, put it into a container and ship to 
Porsche for evaluation. P-engineers would blow it in the tunnel and send it back 
along with a report of why exactly the car is NFG (a scientific term. No 
Frigging Good for all non-engineers on the list).
The Soviets would alter the design and the whole process would start over again.

Net result - an ugly duckling, known as a *Samara*.

Igor Kessel
'89 200TQ - 18psi (TAP)
'97 A4TQ - on order