Cadillac Sixteen a mechanical beauty
It’s hard to conceive of a 16-cylinder car in these times of fuel-economy legislation and the proliferation of four- and six-cylinder engines. But in another era, it clearly distinguished Cadillac as a prestige leader.
As a reminder of that period, Cadillac unveiled its Sixteen, a V-16 powered concept car, at the 2002 Detroit Auto Show. Environmental concerns made it highly unlikely Cadillac would actually revive the V-16; it’s even less likely today.
The original Cadillac V-16 (there was also a V-12) arrived just as a cataclysmic social upheaval began. Conceived in the prosperity of the Roaring ’20s, an age of jazz music, flappers and economic prosperity, the V-16 unfortunately arrived just after the 1929 stock-market crash ushered in the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Cadillac’s 16-cylinder engine, the first in a production car, bowed at the New York Auto Show in January 1930, immediately vaulting Cadillac into the front ranks of prestige automobiles. Within three years, Packard, Franklin, Marmon, Lincoln and Pierce-Arrow responded with big multi-cylinder engines.
Packard revived its V-12 “Twin Six,” soon renamed the Twelve, and Pierce-Arrow, Lincoln and Franklin introduced V-12s. In sheer cylinder numbers, only Marmon’s aluminum V-16 matched Cadillac’s.
The Marmon 16 was an outstanding car, but Marmon’s automotive fortunes were fading and it would abandon them entirely in 1933. Cleveland-based Peerless also tried a V-16, but didn’t get beyond one prototype.
Americans weren’t alone with huge, multi-cylindered carriages. Spain’s Hispano-Suiza had a V-12 in 1931, and six years later, Rolls-Royce introduced its V-12 Phantom III. Mercedes-Benz was developing a V-12 in the late 1930s, but it would not see civilian production. Both Daimler Benz and Rolls-Royce produced V-12 fighter aircraft engines during the Second World War.
The mighty American Duesenberg J had “only” a straight-eight, but with racing technology such as twin overhead camshafts and four-valve cylinders, it could outrun a Cadillac Sixteen.
It couldn’t match its velvety smoothness, however.
The Cadillac Sixteen could approach 160 kilometres per hour depending on body and axle ratio, but its forte was the flexibility to idle along at walking speed in high gear and then accelerate smoothly up to speed. This was a highly prized feature in those pre-automatic transmission days.
The Cadillac V-16’s engineering was outstanding. Its overhead valves had almost silent hydraulic valve lifters and a cylinder bank angle of 45 degrees. Each bank had separate carburetion and manifolding, making it in effect two inline eights on a common crankshaft.
A bore and stroke of 76.2 by 101.6 millimetres yielded 7.4 litres and 175 horsepower, second only to Duesenberg’s 265 naturally aspirated and 320 supercharged.
Much attention was paid to the Cadillac V-16’s under-hood esthetics. The engine and engine compartment featured porcelain, polished aluminum and gleaming enamel with wires and plumbing concealed beneath tidy metal plates.
It was as quiet as it was beautiful. John Bond, editor/publisher of Road & Track, remembered that “at cruising speeds the only audible sound was from the fan and the twin carburetors pulling air through their large air horns.”
In spite of the Depression, Cadillac surprised even itself by selling 2,000 V-16s in the first half-year. This tapered off quickly to just 750 in 1931 and 300 in 1932. Cadillac then adopted a build-to-order policy and made only 212 V-16s from 1934 to 1937.
The original V-16 engine was not changed substantially between 1930 and ’37 although body styling kept up to, or led, contemporary trends. Independent front suspension arrived in 1934, the all-steel “Turret Top” in 1935 and hydraulic brakes in 1936.
For 1938, Cadillac replaced the majestic overhead-valve V-16 with a smaller and lighter sidevalve V-16 with a bank angle of 135 degrees. This made the engine appear almost flat, and compared with the original’s mechanical beauty, it looked dull and utilitarian. The new 16 was 330 mm lower, allowing the firewall to extend forward for more interior space.
With a “square” bore and stroke of 82.5 mm, the side-valve 16 was slightly smaller at 7.1 litres but produced the same 185 horsepower as the previous overhead-valve 16.
Cadillac continued building the Sixteen through 1940 and then quietly discontinued it. In an 11-year history, fewer than 4,400 were built.
While competitors such as Marmon, Pierce-Arrow and Franklin had succumbed to the Depression, the resources of General Motors kept Cadillac’s V-16 going.
It is unfortunate that Cadillac’s V-16 arrived when it did, and went through the worst economic decade of the century, a period when ostentatious, nine-mile-pergallon cars were generally socially unacceptable.
It’s amazing it survived so long, but in so doing it consolidated Cadillac’s position for many years as America’s predominant luxury automobile.