Кадиллак V16: История и эволюция легендарного двигателя.

The Cadillac V16 engine is a term that applies to two different Cadillac designed V 16 automobile engines, an overhead valve 45 degree model produced between 1930 and 1937, and a 135 degree side valve between 1938 and 1940. Both were used in its most luxurious model line, the Cadillac V 16. Cadillac produced two of only four production gasoline fueled V16 engines in history. The company has twice since attempted to build a new V16 engine, once in the 1980s and again in 2003 (the Cadillac Sixteen), neither making it into production.

With its chief competitor, Packard, already having sold a V12 engine against Cadillac's eight cylinder cars, work began late in the 1920s under Hemmings to produce a car of real impact. Lawrence Fisher, Cadillac General Manager, leaked to the press that the company would also build a V12, hoping to keep the real engine secret. The original Cadillac V16 could be said to be two overhead valve Buick Straight 8 engine engines on a common crankshaft and crankcase, because each bank operated entirely independently of the other with no other shared components. It sported a narrow 45° bank angle for use in the new Cadillac chassis Cadillac Series 90 V 16 (which became the Fleetwood). The engine was well engineered, with a counterweighted crankshaft (quite a mathematical challenge at the time), overhead valves, and hydraulic tappets. A production version with a base V8 and the option of the V12 engine was planned, but was never approved for production and was ultimately shelved around 2008.