One of the peaks of performance for current automotive mechanics is the one played by the Volkswagen Group's W16 engine. Structured around its four rows with four inline cylinders each, its design is based on a formidable smoothness despite reaching truly spectacular figures such as almost 1.600 hp deployed by the Bugatti Chiron.
A striking eccentricity seen as the latest trend in supercars, although, to tell the truth, the origin of car engines with such a number of cylinders dates back to quite ancient times. Specifically, the twenties of the last century, when manufacturers such as Maserati, Bugatti, Pierce-Arrow and Franklin focused their efforts on developing sixteen-cylinder engines driven by very different aims.
In the case of the first two, everything was due to racing, where the constant increase in displacement was the only way to gain power and speed until the arrival of Vittorio Jano and his excellent P3s with more effective engines based on lightness and compression. A new paradigm before which they ended up falling. both the Maserati V4 and the Bugatti Type 45, even more so if we take into account how supercharging by volumetric compressor was improving.
Likewise, in relation to the last two, their attempts did not go beyond the experimental phase, hampered by the enormous technical complexity inherent in the development of a V16 engine suitable for mainstream use on open roads.
In short, a technical climb in which only Marmon and Cadillac They managed to reach mass production, the latter being responsible for producing more than 4.300 cars characterized by their sixteen cylinders over a decade.
CADILLAC V16, THE COMMERCIAL RESPONSE TO PACKARD'S SUCCESS
Removing the example interpreted by the Marmon Sixteen -in production for just three years before the end of the brand-, the Cadillac V16s are the largest and most refined example of the use of engines with sixteen cylinders in the field of passenger cars.
A technical prodigy of power and smoothness Born not so much out of sheer ambition as from the commercial need to give a response as forceful as it was effective to the successes of Packard and its V12 engines, responsible for doubling the sales of a Cadillac entrenched in continuing as long as possible with the installation of its depreciated V8 blocks.
So in the late 1920s, Cadillac management assembled a small, secretive task force to design and test a new, revolutionary V16 engine; the only way to surpass the competition not only in power and smoothness but also in advertising reasons based on the recurring excesses associated with the high-end.
1930, A BET ON HIGH-END
After many years of slow and laborious development, the V16 engine designed by engineer Owen Nacker finally saw the light of day at the beginning of 1930 ahead of Marmon's Sixteen by at least three months.
Created under strict silence - a good part of the staff involved was deceived by saying that they were working on a project for an engine intended for industrial vehicles - the Cadillac V16 was a powerful stimulant for the high-end American market thanks to the incredible silence of its engine despite adding 7.412 cc and 175 hp at 3.400 rpm with a 45º opening, 32 valves and a single shaft with hydraulic thrusts located between both banks.
Finished -logically- by a far from moderate bill, this was nevertheless A huge success among the most exclusive clientele in the United States even though the outbreak of the 1929 Crash was really close. What's more, despite subsequently falling to more normal figures, its first two years on the assembly line yielded no less than 3.350 units: 77,6% of all the Cadillac V16s produced over ten years, adding up the two engine generations.
1938, THE CADILLAC V16 RENEWS ITS MECHANICAL BET
At the end of the 16s, two important developments occurred that affected the evolution of the Cadillac VXNUMX. The first and most striking of these was the gradual incorporation of more modern bodies, thus seeing the transition towards a modern design -finished after the Second World War by the massive Mercedes 180/190”Pontoon”- characterized by the integration of the wheel arches and other elements into a single volume.
However, beyond the aesthetic aspect -with its implications for comfort and aerodynamics- the most interesting thing came in 1938 with the appearance of a deep renovation in the block with sixteen cylinders. Characterized by the lateral position of its valves -previously found vertically-, this greatly simplified its design thanks to the use of approximately half the parts while losing more than 110 kilos along the way.
Also the opening angle opened to 135º with nine crankshaft supports, all of which seeks to double the bet on smoothness, going up to 185 hp despite having slightly reduced the displacement after leaving it at 7.064 cc.
Excellent data all of them (we do not have official data on consumption, although it does not matter in such a high-end car), finished off with a better center of gravity as well as the incorporation of effective braking in which the action of the brake booster, already seen in a pioneering way in the Hispano-Suiza H6B of 1919, is appreciated.
WHEN LESS IS MORE, THE VICTORY OF THE V8
By 1940, with the American motor industry hearing the drums of war - and therefore a more than certain temporary conversion to the war effort– Cadillac announced the discontinuation of the V16 series coinciding with its tenth anniversary in dealerships.
And no, that was not a defeat, much less a step backwards; far from it, the decade of the thirties had seen incredible advances in terms of performance per litre, as we indicated with the case of the P3 in charge of Victor Janus.
That said, continuing to equip the most exclusive models with the enormous V16 blocks made no sense because the latest generation V8s were as powerful, progressive and silent as the V16s themselves, including the advantages of having less weight and - above all - fewer moving parts. A logical end to this successful ten-year saga in the history of Cadillac, which, unfortunately for Packard, was one of the best episodes in American automobile technology.
Images: RM Sotheby's