Cadillac Hid This Engine From Its Own Company — and Lost Money on It for 10 Years

The Cadillac V16. The engine that made Cadillac the Standard of the World, and the corporate decision that buried it. A dark story of American luxury, General Motors, and a masterpiece killed by its own era. In 1930, Cadillac did something no carmaker had ever done. It put a sixteen-cylinder engine into a production car and aimed straight at Rolls-Royce, Packard and Duesenberg. Then the Great Depression arrived, and the most magnificent engine in America became something General Motors lost money on with every sale. This is the real story of how Cadillac built a masterpiece and then quietly buried it forever. No myths, just the engineering and the decisions behind it.