page_title: Cadillac V-12
section_title: Origin
hierarchical_section_title: Cadillac V-12 / Origin
caption_attribution_description: 1931 Cadillac Series 370 A Coupé V12
context_page_description: The Cadillac V-12 is a top-of-the-line car that was manufactured by Cadillac from the 1931 through the 1937 model years. All were furnished with custom bodies, and the car was built in relatively small numbers. A total of 10,903 were made in the seven model years that the automobile was built, with the majority having been constructed in its inaugural year. It was Cadillac's first, and is to date, Cadillac's only standard production V-12 powered car.
context_section_description: In the mid to late 1920s a number of luxury car manufacturers began work developing multicylinder engines. Not to be outdone, Cadillac began work on two different multicylinder engines, a V-12 and a V-16. Larry Fisher, Cadillac General Manager, leaked to the press information about the V-12, hoping to keep the V-16 a secret.
  Owen Nacker, who designed the Cadillac V-16 engine, also designed the Cadillac V-12 engine, and it shared the tooling and many of the components of the V-16. The V-12 was essentially a truncated V-16, with a bore of 3.125" instead of 3", and retaining the V-16's 4" stroke, giving it a displacement of 368 cubic inches. It shared the V-16's 45 degree bank angle., rather than the 60 degree angle that would have been ideal. The V-12 was less powerful than the V-16, generating 135 versus 175 horsepower. Both engines featured overhead valves in the first generation.
caption: Cadillac V-12 engine
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