Even the engine's base form is confusing with common designations like V-Twin, inline-four, straight-six, V6, and V8. Throw in V16 and the weirder-sounding W16 and it almost becomes a foreign ...

A perfect miniature of the quad-turbocharged 8-litre W16 engine, the scale model still technically has more cubic capacity than a Formula Ford racer, even if it’s not actually functional.

In the late 1990s, Ferdinand Piëch, head of the Volkswagen Group, went on just such a buying spree across Europe, gobbling up an armful of exotic names like Bugatti, Bentley and ...