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V-12 Power!

© Dan Cooper

The V-12 engine configuration has been used previously by automakers, as their ticket into the ultra-luxury market. Cadillac is currently playing that card again. And just as they did the first time around in 1930, the car brand is also deploying a V-16 about the same time they introduce a V-12. Except this time around, the 12 was introduced first.

And why not? It worked pretty well before, establishing Cadillac as America's premier luxury car-a reputation that has managed to endure without much serious challenge. While Cadillac has never enjoyed a similar reputation in Europe, it has for some time, taken over the top spot in the US. That image, which developed as a direct result of the V-12s and V-16s of the 1930s, is still seen in the catch phrases heard today, which link the concept of quality with the Cadillac name. When superlatives are exhausted, one can hear the comparison voiced. Your "whatever" is the Cadillac of "whatevers."

When Cadillac was originally integrated into the General Motors lineup, the brand was supposed to fill a market niche just below the top echelon held by Packard, Pierce-Arrow, etc. Then as the Depression weakened most of the upper class, Cadillac made its move to take over the top spot by virtue of their new power plants and the economic fading of the original contenders for the crown of Best Luxury Car. The plan worked beautifully, as did those fabulous engines.

The original Cadillac V-12 was truly beautiful. Launched one year after the introduction of their V-16, it was an advertising coup the likes of which the industry had never seen. Compared to its big brother introduced one year earlier, it had one-inch smaller headlights and other noticeably smaller accoutrements. The hood was four inches shorter than that of the V-16 and five inches longer than the now run-of-the-mill V-8 (no pun intended). The perception was indelibly instilled in the mind of the consumer: This car is at least the equal of the very best that everybody else is offering. The obvious conclusion, then, was that the V-16 was better than anything else you could buy. While others had V-16s, the audacity of having both a V-12 and a V-16 was stunning.

Lincoln tried to counter the early advantage Cadillac had mustered, by continuing to use their V-12 as the only engine offered, from 1933 through 1947. But in more recent years, Lincoln has fallen somewhat in consumer respect, and Cadillac has maintained a relatively strong market share, despite the fact that now, imports in that class are judged to be of a slightly higher quality than domestic brands.