When’s the last time you felt the rumble of 16 cylinders at your command? The odds are: never. You’d have to go back 75 years to 1940 to find the last mass-produced V16 automobiles. Aside from the occasional limited-run exotic, the Cadillac V-16 (or Sixteen) stands as the only 16-cylinder automobile to have left a major auto factory in any real quantity.
The 1930 Cadillac V16 up for sale on eBay Motors represents the first model year for the venerable classic, which enjoyed two generations over the course of a decade. It’s not just that the Sixteen boasts so many cylinders that make it special. It also signified a number of important firsts for General Motors in that era—such as the decision to bring the design and crafting of luxury car bodies in-house, rather than contract them out to boutique shops (as was standard practice at the time).
An elegant and classic design that has stood the test of time.
Cadillac was facing an uphill battle bringing the Sixteen to life, as the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression put a damper on sales of almost every automobile, not just ultra-luxury models. Still, the decision to develop the car had been made in 1927—alongside many other 12-cylinder models from Lincoln, Packard, and Pierce-Arrow. Executives wanted to dominate the market with its behemoth motor, and Cadillac had too much invested in the V16 to step back simply because the world’s economy had crumbled.
Although Cadillac was slowly moving all body production in-house, this early V16 saw its panels built by Fleetwood in Pennsylvania.
That giant first-generation 16-cylinder engine displaced 7.4 liters, and in many ways functioned as two separated straight-eight units packaged together and split by a 45-degree bank. The V16 generated a then-enormous 175 horsepower, with 320 pound-feet of torque also on tap—a number that dwarfed the 208 lb-ft produced by Cadillac’s V8 of the time. It was also a remarkably smooth and silent motor, giving the Cadillac Sixteen a serious luxury leg-up over its competitors.
The Cadillac V-16 convertible coupe could handle three passengers up front plus whoever could squeeze into the rear rumble seat.
According to the Cadillac Database, this body style—number 4335, chassis number 47—was most recently sold in 2010 at RM’s Scottsdale, Ariz. auction. The two-door convertible coupe body style with rumble seat and removable hardtop is one of the almost 70 different configurations that could have been had with the V16 engine, including enormous limousine-style models and more restrained sedans.
Perhaps the sportiest configuration of V16, the convertible coupe’s classic proportions have aged incredibly well, and stand up as one of the more gorgeous, and almost impossible to find, examples of 1930s American engineering and design.
See Cadillac Coupe Cars & Trucks for sale on eBay.
