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Origins
The Marmon Sixteen of 1931 may be the finest American engine of its era in the least fortunate car. Its 8-litre V16 was largely aluminium — block, heads, pistons — decades ahead of common practice, making around 200 smooth horsepower and pulling a full luxury chassis past 100 mph. The Society of Automotive Engineers honoured it; Howard Marmon, whose company had won the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 with the Wasp, regarded it as his life's summit. Cadillac's V16 had a two-year head start, a vast dealer network, and General Motors behind it; Marmon had the Depression. About 400 Sixteens found buyers before the company ceased car production in 1933, pivoting to the trucks that carried the name onward. Surviving Sixteens are treasured as the engineer's choice of the cylinder wars.
1931 Marmon Sixteen · bertknot from scarborough, australia · CC BY-SA 2.0
