Supercars.net

Quote from sketchas
its not a surprise this powerplant only lasted a few years. like come on, V16? i think thats simply over doin it. maybe if they stuck that engine in a big rig or somthin it would make sense.

Quote from Comunista

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Quote from vwdrivervw

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Quote from 280z
A V12 is geometrically balanced, and the displacement can be jacked up pretty high without making the cylinders too big, so it's really the practical maximum number of cylinders. Also, more cylinders means more parts, which means more complexity and less reliability. They probably did it mostly for marketing reasons, cause people like bigger numbers.

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In a v form you can have 16, 18 or 24 cylinders quite practicly as long as you have the displacement (trucks, tractor trailers, and whatnot). If you change the formation of the engine you can do even more cylinders (W). If you look at the length and design of some of the cars at the time you could easily have a v24 in without causing much problems in the way of balance, weight ditribution etc. There was very little in the ways of aerodynamic constaints of an engine because aerodynamics was not really understood at the time. So in a V16, even if it was not the most practicle number, nothing sufferd to much because of it.

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agreed. especially since it actually had quite a bit of power for its day... dudes, 160HP back then was QUITE a piece of power, back when many cars didnt even have 50...

Quote from azn086
the world biggest dump truck has a quad turbo v-24. i've heard of v-12s and v-16s but ive never seen a car with a v-14. also, isnt 45 degrees a little too narrow for such a large engine? u can get away with it small engines (VW VR6 for instance and those weird W engines) because i think there would be vibration problems or something like that

Quote from 280z
A V12 is geometrically balanced, and the displacement can be jacked up pretty high without making the cylinders too big, so it's really the practical maximum number of cylinders. Also, more cylinders means more parts, which means more complexity and less reliability. They probably did it mostly for marketing reasons, cause people like bigger numbers.

Quote from vwdrivervw

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Quote from 280z
A V12 is geometrically balanced, and the displacement can be jacked up pretty high without making the cylinders too big, so it's really the practical maximum number of cylinders. Also, more cylinders means more parts, which means more complexity and less reliability. They probably did it mostly for marketing reasons, cause people like bigger numbers.

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In a v form you can have 16, 18 or 24 cylinders quite practicly as long as you have the displacement (trucks, tractor trailers, and whatnot). If you change the formation of the engine you can do even more cylinders (W). If you look at the length and design of some of the cars at the time you could easily have a v24 in without causing much problems in the way of balance, weight ditribution etc. There was very little in the ways of aerodynamic constaints of an engine because aerodynamics was not really understood at the time. So in a V16, even if it was not the most practicle number, nothing sufferd to much because of it.

Quote from Duesey
Cadillac put a V16 in their car for sheer ego, it served no other engineering purpose then to show the other companies that they had more. If everyone offered "only" V12, wouldn't you want a V16 to trumpet around in? The car even had a huge 'V16' badge on the grille.

Quote from vwdrivervw

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Quote from 280z
A V12 is geometrically balanced, and the displacement can be jacked up pretty high without making the cylinders too big, so it's really the practical maximum number of cylinders. Also, more cylinders means more parts, which means more complexity and less reliability. They probably did it mostly for marketing reasons, cause people like bigger numbers.

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In a v form you can have 16, 18 or 24 cylinders quite practicly as long as you have the displacement (trucks, tractor trailers, and whatnot). If you change the formation of the engine you can do even more cylinders (W). If you look at the length and design of some of the cars at the time you could easily have a v24 in without causing much problems in the way of balance, weight ditribution etc. There was very little in the ways of aerodynamic constaints of an engine because aerodynamics was not really understood at the time. So in a V16, even if it was not the most practicle number, nothing sufferd to much because of it.