Considering the small number of cars they built with them, I'd be surprised if Cadillac made even 1000 of the flathead V16's. One of the early issues of Hop Up (early '50s) had a road test of the "Marcad": a '41 Cad convert with a Marmon V16 engine. As I recall they thought it was pretty fast.
Howard Johanson (Howards Cams) had one (Marmon) in a rear engine '34 Ford roadster that he ran at the lakes around 50 or so. Howard may have been the worlds greatest inovator.
Guys, this has been a fun tread. From what I have read (since I was born in 1950 & was NOT around back THEN), the Caddy V-16 was an engineeing feat (AND a CASTING feat!) involving staggering two straight-eight castings and designing a CRANK to power it (I guess NO WONDER they didn't wind these OUT too far!). On the OHTER hand, the government commissioned Packard & Chrysler to make ALL sorts of exotic engines during the war.
Super-Six, YEAH, they knew a good "Loss Loser," even before the term became popular. Hell, Auburn was losing money on their boattail speedsters, etc. IT WAS ALL ABOUT TRYING TO CAPTURER PUBLIC ATTENTION (WHICH, HOPEUFLLY WOULD SPILL OVER TO SALES OF THEIR REGULAR MODELS OF COURSE).
HP = (peak torque x RPM) ÷ 5250, so... 175 HP x 5250 = 918,750 918,750 ÷ 3,600 RPM = 255.208... so... 255 lb ft of torque! 3600 RPM is a pretty good spin for this kind of engine. So to offset the relatively low (by modern standards) RPM, if you want to make more power you add cylinders and displacement.
FiftyV8, that Marmon V-16 is way keen, man. Most people nowadays wouldn't even recognize the Marmon name (except, last I heard, they were still making top-flite semis in Texas). But a Marmon WASP won the very first Indy 500 in 1911, and well into the '20s Marmon was counted a**** the best-quality U.S. LUXURY cars -- a club including Peerless, Packard, Pierce Arrow and Locomobile, as well. Only Cadillac and Marmon actually had V-16s in major production (small club, eh?). But, Peerless was all set to premier an all-new V-16 for 1930, when the company directors decide to pull out of the car business and brew Carling Black label Beer, instead. Wise decision in the long-run business sense, but a fine U.S. car make died.
The Marmon v16 was a masterpiece which would out run a Duesenberg until you got to 100mph. A friend's grandpa was chief engineer at Marmon in the late 20s (after Henry Ford fired him). Here is a very nice one that is going to be sale at Hershey. http://www.rmauctions.com/FeatureCars.cfm?SaleCode=HF09&CarID=r200&fc=0
WTF...only here on the HAMB. Just last week I picked up and delivered a 38 Cadillac V-16 Fleetwood Towncar. We had it in for some general pointing up, but the point is I got to drive it probably a total of 30 miles. So how does it run you may ask. The car weighs just a tick under 7000lbs. Yes seven thousand! It drives like a car 1/2 it's weight. You can feel the low end grunt and can nearly leave a red light in high gear. Hit the gas in high gear from about 30 and it almost feels like p***ing gear. Granted, the car no doubt has some steep gearing for that much weight. I still couldn't help but daydream of that V-16 in an open-wheeled hoodless hotrod.
$10,000 is probably cheap for one of those. I got to see a '38 Caddy V16 run ages ago... I was like 16 or 17 I think, one of the first times I went out on my own to look for a car for me and this happened to be at the place I went to. I knew then it was something special, although I had no idea how rare or expensive. Car was a sedan or a limo I think, I don't remember much beyond the cowl of the car. But I've never forgotten what that motor looked and sounded like.
They were known and advertised in 'the day' for there torque,..I'll get the specs. from my AERA. cylinder head and block guide...
Marmon had a great rep for their engineering. Everybody here knows Ray Haroon won the very first Indy 500 in 1911 in a MARMON Wasp. But what a motor, and WHAT stats! Cool info, ProStreet!
Yeah, guys! ONLY on the HAMB would a bunch of enthusiasts be kicking around info about some REAL BEASTS of EARLY hi-performance! That was a very different time -- torque and top speed were stressed over hp & blazing get-away. THAT is saying a LOT, NOT ONLY about how high performance DIFFERED, BUT ALSO why we can't draw a fair comparison between plants of the early '30s, let's say, with plants of the early and mid'50s. Honestly, I don't think we got off track. It seems we started with a Caddy V-16 and the discourse just went a NATURAL V-16 course! (Was done QUITE recently, starting with a Packard V-12, too! Touched on every V-12 except, maybe, Laborghinni! LOL)
The engine has 185 HP, not 175. However, since power ratings were sometimes inflated, sometimes not, actual power is unknown. Since Cadillac was then a very conservative company, the 185 HP might be accurate.
You ask why it was a flathead? With that 135 degree configuration, just imagine how wide it would have been with OHV heads......! The front axle would have had to be a suicide setup out front of the block to keep the car narrow enough to drive down the street!
The 135 degree series 90 had 9 mains. The earlier 45 degree OHV series 452 had 5 mains. (edit) Also, if memory serves only about 4,500 v16 Cadillacs were produced. Both series included. So these are rare beasts indeed.
The flathead V16s were rare,only 496 of them were made from 1938-1940 I was lucky enough to find one in a "barn" about 6 years ago,it is all original and runs good,it has 44,000 miles on it.When it is running it is whisper quiet and very smooth,barely hear it running,it is the 5th car built in 1938,was used in the Detroit auto show when it was introduced.Would post a picture of it but don't know how?. Harvey
Just picked up on this thread,,,,an early MOTOR's calls out 185 HP @ 3600 and 324 Torque @`1700. Also, 30 qt. cooling and 11 qt. oil. B@S, 3 1/4 x 3 1/4
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