Why do motorcar engines stop at V12? why isn’t there a V 16 or V20?
In: 43
There are W16 engines on sale today in some very high end sports cars. That actually sort of proves the reason why we got rid of engines like this though. They’re just too big. The Bugatti Chiron is basically all engine and radiators, with two seats as an afterthought. And that’s with the clever packaging of a W16 which is “smaller” than an equivalent V16.
A V16 engine is *enormous*. You have 8 inline cylinders that each need a certain amount of real estate, and then you have a second bank of the same that needs to be offset to the side.
For comparison, there were cars that used to use straight 8s, and they were also enormous. These are cars like the Duesenberg Model J, which had a hood about 15 miles long.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duesenberg_Model_J](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duesenberg_Model_J)
So, the reason we don’t use these engines anymore is basically size and weight. Displacement used to be the only practical way to make power, but it also means your car has to be big and heavy.
You get better efficiency and even performance out of a smaller engine, provided you can make the same (or enough) power. That’s why F1 cars now have tiny 1.6L V6s that make ~700hp. *And* they can go around corners because they’re not carrying 1,000 lbs of engine.
Latest Answers