Bob Lutz’ Cadillac Sixteen concept wasn’t the first time a revival of the classic Cadillac V12 and V16 era was considered. In the mid sixties, Cadillac was seriously mulling production of one or the other, and several versions of a SOHC V12 engine were built. But if you think the Sixteen Concept had a long nose and was a bit over the top, check out this rendering by Cadillac Studio Chief Wayne Kady. From the size of the steering wheel and dashboard, it appears they were planning to transplant the V16 from a tug boat. This must be where the infamous bustle-back trunk of the 1980 Seville originated.
Wayne Kady spent 38 years in the Caddy and Buick studios, and is responsible for the “highly successful 1971 Eldorado” .
According to former product planner Richard Stout, this would have been machined on the V-8 line, the longer block being moved "halfway down" to bore the extra cylinders. Leading the way in the 1960s multi-cylinder race was Packard, which in 1955 was desperately seeking to recover some of its squandered past glory. The idea was a V-12 derived from its just-announced V-8.
©2007 Publications International, Ltd.
This circa-1963 concept for an open V-16 Cadillac was reminiscent of classic 1930s speedsters. Since the V-8 block was a 90-degree "Y," 30 degrees out of phase for the "in-step" firing desirable in a V-12, each rod throw would be staggered 30 degrees to compensate. Buick would use this same "split-throw" principle for its 90-degree V-6 in the early 1960s.
In fact, Studebaker-Packard then faced imminent bankruptcy and so abandoned luxury Packards after 1956, substituting medium-priced Studebaker-based cars through the marque's sad demise in 1958.
A few years later, Cadillac Division took its own stab at modern multi-cylinder power. The attempts followed two paths: a fairly crude, "bolted together" V-16 composed of two V-8s, and an exotic all-new V-12 with single overhead camshaft.
 ©2007 Publications International, Ltd. This multi-cylinder concept car from designer Wayne Cady was done in March 1965. It was badged LaSalle, the name of the 1930s Baby Cadillac. |
The contemplated V-16 probably had nothing to do with Cadillac's own V-8. By 1960, the division's milestone 331 V-8 of 1949 had swelled to nearly 400 cid, which would have made a twin-block sixteen simply gargantuan.
A more likely choice was Chevrolet's 283, which would have doubled-up to 566 cid -- big, but not impossible. According to former GM Design Director Chuck Jordan, who then headed Cadillac Styling and worked on that side of the V-16 revival, this engine was more conjecture than concrete proposal.
"We were working with Engineering Staff to put two V-8s together," he later recalled. "It was kind of a homemade way to do it, but it was just to project an image we wanted to get across to [division management] at the time. Nothing serious was ever developed engineering-wise."
More intriguing was the clean-slate V-12 being prepared at the same time. Jordan remembered this as "a very sophisticated powerplant, and quite beautiful. I'm sure it was designed from scratch as an overhead-cam engine -- a very exciting piece of machinery to see."
 ©2007 Publications International, Ltd. This radical 1960s Cadillac concept car was an August 1963 effort from Wayne Cady. The nose of this scale model carries hints of the 1966 Buick Riviera. |
Also a 90-degree unit, it was designed for instep firing à la Packard's stillborn V-12. Aside from that and sohc heads, technical details remain obscure.It's unclear whether the clean-slate V-12 or the crude V-16 were ever seriously considered for production, but there's no doubt that development stopped at the prototype stage. Still, Chuck Jordan and his colleagues came up with a remarkable group of design studies for a new multi-cylinder Cadillac.
1960s Cadillac Concept Cars
One of the first scale models of 1960s Cadillac concept cars was a close-coupled coupe with approved 1963 lower-body styling but a much longer front -- truly enormous, in fact -- plus a dramatically tapered fastback roof of the sort favored by corporate design chief William L. Mitchell. Gradually, work proceeded through scale- and full-size clay models designed from the ground up.  ©2007 Publications International, Ltd. A two-seat V-16 fastback coupe was the full-scale mockup for Cadillac's project XP-840. |
Jordan emphasized that it was all mostly for fun: "It was a two-passenger Cad with 16 cylinders all right, but it was done just to make a statement about the heritage of Cadillac and where we were going with the image. . . .
"We built several scale models and one full-size clay. The concept of all was invariably the same: a long-hooded car to contain the long engine. These designs were exaggerated, almost cartoon-like, but exciting to work on. This was one of our pet advanced projects at the time."
 ©2007 Publications International, Ltd. Approved in December 1966, project XP-840 continued the "substantial look" of earlier Cadillac concept cars. Note the "outrigger" fenders. |
Still, somebody must have taken this work seriously, for by December 1965 the new multi-cylinder Cadillac had won "official" status as one of GM's famous "Xperimental Projects": XP-840. This progressed to a full-size mockup for a two-seat V-16 fastback coupe.
Typically shown in the GM Design viewing court, it continued the "substantial" look of earlier proposals, most notably in profile, plus a domed "prow" hood and matching vee'd windshield.
 ©2007 Publications International, Ltd. The fastback coupe had no back window or inside rearview mirror. Instead, in a prediction of a real future feature, a video camera supplied the view aft. |
But there were many startling firsts here -- like no back window or inside rearview mirror; instead, a narrow slit was cut into the roof as a viewport for a rear-facing TV camera
As photos testify, designers really cut loose on this two-passenger fastback, giving it a massive undercut nose, semi-separate front fenders, a huge wrapped windshield sans A-pillars, double-notched beltline, a back panel deeply inset between bold "outrigger" rear fenderlines, and the ribbed "cuffs" spilling out and down from the hood to recall the outside exhaust pipes of Classic days.
 ©2007 Publications International, Ltd. The nameplates on the XP-840 fastback coupe concept car said "Eldorado." |
Nameplates read "Eldorado," but probably just for convenience. Cadillac had no need for a new V-12 or V-16, and all the design work toward such a car was done mainly in speculative fun.
1960s Cadillac Concept Cars and the Future
Some 1960s Cadillac concept cars and the future weren't that far apart. Many of the ideas explored in 1960s Cadillac concept cars later showed up in GM showrooms. One fastback combined lower body contours like those of the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado with an exaggerated version of the 1966 Buick Riviera front. Renderings often toyed with open or semi-open concepts. Wayne Cady, for example, sketched a concept car that was rather reminiscent of Classic 1930s speedsters. The circa 1963 concept car featured an open V-16, wore "Cyclone" badges, and had a plethora of hood air intakes. The rakish perimeter windscreen harmonized with the Buick-style bodyside "sweepspear" lines, but it would have been far too costly for series production.
A May 1963 proposal shows a crisp yet bulky-looking V-12 hardtop with close-coupled notchback roofline and wild two-tier front. Aft fenderlines would show up in modified form on Cadillac's new front-drive 1967 Eldorado.
Another drawing shows a super-low roadster with the character of a speedboat: low windscreen wrapped all the way to the rear fenders, vee'd deck, and 16 "ventiports" in the vastly longer front to accommodate the engine. The ventiports, presumably, were air intakes for separate carbs in these years before government emissions standards and Detroit's wholesale move to fuel injection. This sketch also showed a sweeping fastback roof -- a feature that likely would have been too much for Cadillac's conservative audience.
Another scale model for the stillborn new-generation multi-cylinder Cadillac appeared in August 1963. A prominently peaked hood and grille were highlights, along with a "cantilevered" roof sans A-posts, a radically vee'd windshield, a vee'd rear deck to complement both the windshield curvature and the pointy snout, and muscular, wide-stance proportions.
The concept car's profile displayed hints of the 1966 Buick Riviera front, while the front view displayed sharp fenderlines and bulging wheel arches like those adopted for Oldsmobile's new 1966 Toronado. A fastback roof treatment with no beltline "break" at the rear wheels would also be seen on both those production models, though in quieter form.Another Cadillac concept was a more formal multi-cylinder from March 1965; its C-post script intriguingly read "LaSalle." The semi-open fastback would have been a 1960s novelty.
 ©2007 Publications International, Ltd. The unchallenged luxury sales leader, Cadillac really had no need in the 1960s for a V-12 or V-16 model, so wild concept cars such as this were mostly flights of fancy. |
In the end, though, there was no hope. As Jordan recalled: "We finally dropped the project after the full-size model was completed. We had a lot of other things to do, and here we were playing with a full-size clay we never intended to expose. It was strictly a styling exercise."
Of course, it's styling exercises like this that fire the dreams of enthusiasts, and in retrospect it's a shame the division went no further with a postwar multi-cylinder car.
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