Nine road cars with giant engines

Rolls-Royce Phantom and Cullinan – 6.75-litre V12

In this company the 6.75-litre V12 which powers the largest models in the Rolls-Royce line-up seems almost diminutive but we wanted to include it because its displacement was carefully chosen to honour the famous V8 which powered Rolls-Royce and Bentley models for decades. The famous 6.75-litre V8 has now ceased production but its legacy lives on, at least in the displacement of the engine under bonnet still led by the Spirit of Ecstasy, even if it is split between 12, rather than eight cylinders.

Previously Rolls-Royce would only ever refer to the output of its engines as ‘adequate’ but in today’s marketing-led world, we know that the Cullinan Black Badge version of the V12 produces 600PS (592bhp) and 900Nm (664lb ft) of torque.

Lister Storm – 7.0-litre V12

You would be forgiven for forgetting about the existence of the Lister Storm – just four road cars were built and its competition record was mixed – but it was the last hurrah for Jaguar’s improbably long-lived V12. The Lister Storm was the Cambridge-based company’s re-entry to the FIA GT Championship and used the same engine with which Jaguar had won the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Just four examples were built as road cars and with a 7.0-litre capacity the V12 became the largest fitted to a road car since World War Two. Producing 553PS (546bhp) and 790Nm (582lb ft) for a 0-60mph time of 4.1 seconds and top speed of 208mph, the Lister Storm was the fastest four-seater in the world for some time in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Cadillac V16 – 7.4-litre V16

We recently covered the oddball Cizeta-Moroder V16T and its Hollywood roots but it is still surprising that the only other production V16 engines should also come from the land of the V8. The other came from the long defunct Marmon (the company also pioneered the single-seat layout for racing cars and the rear view mirror) but the Cadillac was first into production so gets the attention here.

Cadillac’s arch-rival, Packard, had already introduced a V12 and so the company’s general manager Lawrence Fisher decided to go one better. Effectively two straight-eight engines with a common crankshaft and crankcase, the V16 was superbly engineered with a counterweighted crankshaft, overhead valves and hydraulic tappets. Rated at 167PS (165bhp) it allowed some of the lighter Cadillacs to top 100mph on its introduction in 1930. Cadillac followed this up with a second, unrelated V16 in the late 1930s and claimed that Series 90 Sixteen fitted with it were the fastest production cars in the world.  

TVR Cerbera Speed 12 – 7.7-litre V12

Never known for its restraint, the TVR Cerbera Speed 12 was the car which the Blackpool-based company decided would be too fast to sell to the public. Unveiled as a FIA GT1 competitor at the Birmingham Motor Show in 1996, the car was titled the TVR 7/12 in reference to its engine size and number of cylinders with its makers claiming it would be faster than a McLaren F1. The engine was essentially two TVR AJP6 straight-six engines sharing a single crankshaft and a steel block.

Rule changes meant that the car was obsolete almost before it ran and plans for a road car were drawn up. The story has it that when tested, the V12 engine broke a dyno rated up to 1,000PS. The company tested each bank of the engine separately, with the resulting 480PS each suggesting a total output of 960PS. However, when TVR boss Peter Wheeler drove the prototype he decided it was simply too powerful for road use and prospective owners had their deposits returned. However, in a typically TVR twist, the company placed a classified ad for one Speed 12, to be built up from one of the prototype chassis and the body from the GT racer, and sold only after the hopeful buyer had been vetted by Wheeler.

Bugatti Chiron – 8.0-litre W16

It would be hard to write a list of automotive engine superlatives without including the Chiron, successor to the all-conquering Bugatti Veyron. The Chiron adopted its forebear’s 8.0-litre W16 engine but in a state of tune delivering 1,500PS (1,479bhp), a full 499PS (492bhp) more than the original Veyron. Driven by Juan Pablo Montoya, in 2017 the Chiron set a record by accelerating to 400kmh (249mph) and then back to a standstill in 41.96 seconds.

Two years later, in the hands of chief test driver Andy Wallace a modified Chiron set a production car top speed record of 304.77mph. Also driven by Andy Wallace at the same Volkswaged Ehra-Lessien test track was the life-size Lego Technic Bugatti Chiron. Powered by 2,304 Lego motors it produced approximately 5.4PS (5.4bhp) and 92Nm (68lb ft).

Cadillac Eldorado (500) – 8.2-litre V8

It’s a bit surprising that we should make it halfway through this list before we came to a lump of Detroit steel. We have admittedly overlooked some of the Small Block Chevy and Chrysler Hemi engines in favour of the big daddy Caddy. A development of the 427 cubic inch (7.7-litre) engine, the famous Cadillac ‘500’ was fitted in 1970 to the range-topping Eldorado which, mind bogglingly, was front-wheel drive. Producing 550lb ft of torque it was, somewhat surprisingly, praised for its handling and road manners in contemporary reviews.

At around 11mpg, the Cadillac Eldorado was never going to float its way through the fuel crises of the early ‘70s unhindered and its output was progressively strangled in the name of efficiency. In its final form it produced just 190PS (187bhp) and 488Nm (360lb ft).

Dodge Viper - 8.4-litre V10

The idea of building a modern-day Cobra first came from Bob Lutz, Lee Iacocca signed off on it and Caroll Shelby drove a pre-production model as pace car for the 1991 Indy 500. With parents like that, it’s not surprising that the original Dodge Viper is the stuff of legend. By the late 1980s when the car was first proposed, fuel economy was not high on the agenda. But why a V10 rather than an American-as-apple-pie V8? Well at the time, Chrysler had no big-block V8 and so its Dodge brand was developing a V10 petrol engine, mainly for bragging rights in the macho pick-up market.

Chrysler also owned Lamborghini at the time and the unsophisticated pick-up engine was shipped off to Italy for some refinement. It came back, well, still pretty unsophisticated but producing 406PS (400bhp) and 630Nm (465lb ft) from its original 8.0-litre displacement. Enough, in a car with a wheelbase little longer than an original MX-5, to give the Viper a reputation for unforgiving handling. As a working man’s workhorse the engine only lasted a couple of years but in the Viper it eventually grew to 8.4-litres with 649PS (640bhp) and 813Nm (600lb ft) over a 16-year production life.

Bugatti Royale – 12.7-litre straight-eight

Taking engines from boats or planes to power cars has been a well-trodden path in creating automotive absurdities but there aren’t many examples of the reverse being the case. One exception is the Bugatti Royale, often held up as a prime example of automotive hubris but whose 12.7-litre straight-eight was used to power SNCF railcars. Once it had been detuned.

Known officially as the Type 41, the Bugatti Royale was intended to be the transport of royalty and certainly had the sheer scale to suit heads of state. At nearly 6.5-metres and weighing over 3,000kg, it dwarfs a modern Rolls-Royce Phantom. Likewise, the displacement of one of its cylinders is nearly three times the volume of the dinky V12 with which we kicked off this article. The car’s symbol was an elephant, which may as well have been white, given its production history. The first was intended for King Alfonso of Spain who was deposed before taking delivery and the car was launched just as the Great Depression really began to bite. Eventually just six were made and none found royal homes, with Ettore Bugatti refusing to sell one to King Zog of Albania on the basis that “the man’s table manners are beyond belief”. The stock of unused engines went to the French national rail companies who then requested a continuation of 186 more.  

Pierce-Arrow Model 66 – 13.5-litre straight-six

Despite its reputation, the Royale cannot lay claim to the largest engine fitted to a production passenger car. That honour goes to a now largely forgotten American automotive pioneer, Pierce-Arrow with their Model 66 and its 13.5-litre straight-six engine meaning each cylinder displaced two and a quarter litres.

Originally a bird cage manufacturer – which led to a nickname of ‘Fierce Sparrow’ – the Pierce-Arrow was an early innovator, the first to introduce power brakes and steering, hydraulic tappets and light alloy construction. Launched in 1910, the Model 66 was held as the pinnacle of US automotive engineering against its rivals such as Packard and Peerless (together the firms were known as the ‘3Ps’ of American automotive luxury). Originally displacing a mere 11.7-litres the straight-six produced 66 horsepower, hence the name. Enlarged to 13.5-litres added an additional 100PS, the name remained unchanged but the car was now capable of 80mph, despite being clad in one-eighth inch thick cast aluminium panels. Of the 1,250 examples hand built between 1910 and 1918, only 14 are known to survive.

Main image by Jayson Fong, Cadillac and Pierce-Arrow image courtesy of Bonhams, TVR image courtesy of Motorsport Images.