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Lengthy earlier than Bugatti made 16 cylinders its calling card, Cadillac launched V-16-powered vehicles in a bid to outdo different luxurious automakers. A first-rate instance is that this 1930 Cadillac V-16, at the moment a part of the Nethercutt Assortment, which lately appeared on an episode of “Jay Leno’s Storage.”
To maintain the V-16 secret, Cadillac initially let slip that it was growing a V-12 to match Packard. So it will need to have been fairly a shock when the Common Motors luxurious division unleashed this huge engine on the general public. Nonetheless, Marmon really beat Cadillac to the punch, launching its personal 16-cylinder engine just a few weeks earlier than Cadillac, Leno mentioned within the episode.
The overhead-valve engine itself displaces 7.4 liters however solely develops about 180 hp. Nonetheless, that was nonetheless a decent determine for the time as a result of there actually was no substitute for displacement.
This particular automotive has the sooner physique type, considered from 1928 to 1929, married to the 1930 Cadillac chassis and engine. The client wished a V-16 Cadillac as shortly as attainable, and the brand new physique wasn’t prepared but.
Not many individuals may have afforded this automotive when new. It value $6,500 at a time when mass-market vehicles bought for just a few hundred bucks. And with the U.S. within the midst of the Nice Melancholy, the launch wasn’t precisely well-timed.
The V-16 was extra about easy acceleration than uncooked velocity, Leno mentioned. These Cadillacs weren’t as quick as up to date Duesenbergs, however their beneficiant torque nearly makes the driving expertise similar to fashionable electrical vehicles, he mentioned. The graceful-running V-16 additionally supplied a extra refined expertise than most vehicles of the interval.
Cadillac continued making V-16 vehicles for a few decade, however finally went again to barely extra wise V-8 engines. Seeking to recapture the model’s glory days, GM unveiled the Cadillac Sixteen idea in 2003, however that by no means made it to manufacturing.
Watch the total video and revisit a time when a V-16 powered Cadillac to the entrance of the luxury-car class.
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