Cadillac V16 engine

[citation needed] 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[who?]

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 side valve engine design was no handicap for the time because the era's typical top engine speed of 3400-3700 rpm provided little opportunity to exploit the high speed breathing efficiency of the more advanced overhead valve design.

Unlike most cars of the era, an external oil filter safeguarded the precision valve lifters.

Cadillac claimed that the 1938, 1939, and 1940 Series 90 Sixteen had the best performance of any production car in the world at the time and would accelerate 10-60 in high gear only in 16 seconds.

As with the V-16s, Cadillac V-12 cars were designed to make a statement, so all engine wiring and plumbing was hidden from view.

The V12 was used in the Fleetwood-bodied V-12 models: The Cadillac Sixteen concept debuted in 2003 utilized an all-aluminium pushrod V16 engine based on the same architecture as GM's then-current small-block V8 developments.