Maserati's Six-Valve V6: A Bold Idea That Proved Too Ambitious
Maserati built a 2.0L twin-turbo V6 prototype called the 6.36 with six valves per cylinder and a cam-rocker system to run three valves per cylinder, claiming about 257 hp at 7,200 rpm and a 34% larger gas-flow area over four-valve designs, but the project was shelved. Yamaha similarly tinkered with six- and seven-valve configurations on the FZ750 and faced detonation and high development costs, illustrating diminishing returns after roughly five valves per cylinder; five-valve setups later appeared in cars from Ferrari, Mitsubishi, Audi, and VW, while the six-valve concept remained an ambitious, unproduced footnote.
