Hooniverse Asks- What’s Your Favorite Twelve Cylinder Automobile?
Maybe it’s the myth of Ferrari – the unburned fuel burning the eyes of spectators and staccato exhaust making hearts beat like squirrel sex. Or perhaps it was the silent elegance of a pre-war Packard, Cadillac or Lincoln, which slipped down the road like great white sharks in the inky depths. Or, just maybe, it was something with Merlin embossed on its block and a fat, four-blade propeller at its nose. Whatever it was, there’s always been something magical about a twelve cylinder engine.
Sure, there have been 16s, and 10s, but they’ve always seemed like little more than the quotation marks surrounding what real enthusiasts consider the main event – the smooth as a baby’s butt perfection that is a 12. Enzo Ferrari knew the magical properties of 12, as did Sir William Lyons, and while Schoolhouse rock tried to confuse matters with some sort of new age base twelve mumbo jumbo, it doesn’t take a junior high grad to know that nothing sounds quite as sweet as a twelve when its on full chat.
Jags, BMWs, Mercedes’ Lamborghini and the aforementioned pre-war odes to conspicuous consumption, V12 automobiles have been part of the landscape for nearly as long as there has been cars cluttering up that very same landscape. And one must stand out to you above all others. Perhaps it was that Countach that you once saw leaving the WalMart parking lot, the constant pop-pop-pop from its quad-tip exhaust at once melodic and madness-making. Or maybe it was a Daimler Double six, quiet as a kitten’s fart, and as smooth as a lardcicle. Are you initiated into the cult of twelve? If so, which one, in your estimation, stands head and cylinders above the rest?
Image source: [oldengine.org]
Related posts:
Muira
<img src="http://www.qualityautomotivecincy.com/files/Muira.jpg" width=500>
Well, they might as well just close this thread now. Everything else will be, "The Miura, but what about this?"
Probably. But I have my own "what about this?"
<img src="http://blog.caranddriver.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Lamborghini-Espada-8-626×382.jpg">
I just finished this story on Car and Driver. It was delightful; kind of like a "if Hooniverse went to Pebble Beach."
<a href="http://blog.caranddriver.com/getting-a-vintage-lamborghini-to-the-pebble-beach-weekend-and-then-getting-it-running/” target=”_blank”>http://blog.caranddriver.com/getting-a-vintage-lamborghini-to-the-pebble-beach-weekend-and-then-getting-it-running/
Does this count? It's still 12 cylinders arranged in a V configuration. <img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q65hec4bcZ0/TfXcN80SxqI/AAAAAAAAA3Q/IdRouDqB7DI/s1600/acura-nsx.jpg" width="500">
thats quite the speed between 6's
Ha, great article. It reminds me to never own a vintage Lamborghini… at least, not until I befriend a Lamborghini mechanic who will work for booze.
Indeed. You could also say that about most vintage vehicles. I need to find a Ducati mechanic who will work for cheap booze.
You would really have to love those things to own one. I'd put up with a Miura though.
I just read that post a little bit ago. That man is a stud.
Totally. I don't know if I would have the cajones to do what he did. Although, the results were delightful.
Page not found because it tries to send me to a mobile site. I really hate that.
Great story! At first glance I thought you finished writing it…
<img src="http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/2546/espada003.jpg" width=500>
(Picture related)
I WISH I was that cool.
No explanation needed. Looks, performance and, MY GOD, the SOUND of that carbureted V12…
[youtube 12w0842XCPg&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12w0842XCPg&feature=related youtube]
<img src="http://macnugget.org/albums/tboicey_comics/inline12.gif" width=500>
i'ld drive it
On the other hand, Voisin managed it…
<img src=http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/12/2007/11/medium_c28c.jpg>
(I don't think this is a straight-twelveVoisin, but it's the same model as the straight-twelve)
I would give you more thumbs up if I could. Desperately want a Voisin.
I'm partial to the BMW M70, mainly because I briefly owned a 1988 750iL.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/M70.jpg"width=500>
Especially in an E30…
<img src="http://wp1016621.wp027.webpack.hosteurope.de/fotost/f00017/10.jpg" width="600">
The Miura, but what about a 917?
<img width=500 src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/1969-06-01_Porsche_917.jpg">
A 917 at the 'Ring in 1969.
I concur. I might even say the 917 covers both my favourite 12 cylinder car and my favourite automotive drawings at the same time with the Vic Berris cutaways.
<img src="http://project917xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.homestead.com/files/bodyxray.gif" width="500">
<img src="http://project917xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.homestead.com/files/motor_50p.gif" width="500">
Both from here http://project917xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.homestead.com/917…
Oh, and thanks for yesterday. I can't get that damn Dream Weaver song out of my head.
Good call. 1500 hp [briefly] out of an aircooled, sub-5L flat-12? That's pretty nuts.
x(12cyl + race car) = 917
THIS Miura SV
<img src="http://www.cncpics.com/2010/201009/September-5th-2010-1/DSC05245/1176378906_BdNQy-M.jpg" title="" alt="">
The only problem with the SV is that it lost the eye-lashes. Although not having it catch on fire while waiting at the lights seems a reasonable trade off.
<img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5106/5606604325_4d8c3eb12e.jpg">
from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/garageandcellar/5606604325/” target=”_blank”>http://www.flickr.com/photos/garageandcellar/5606604325/
That is EXACTLY what I like most about it!
Phaeton W12. It's a double-u!
As one of the very few I've actually had the opportunity to drive, and could possibly own, I have to agree. What an astonishing car that is. Pity they're slightly, um, unreliable.
<img src="http://static.cargurus.com/images/site/2008/06/20/01/50/2004_volkswagen_phaeton_4_dr_w12_sedan-pic-56568.jpeg" width="600">
mitch, that is the one vw i would buy and forgive the reliability.
got what a pritty car.
B 702
<img src="http://www.playtuning.com/imagenes/playcars/1222711577.jpg">
What is THAT?! O_O
I love it!
<img src="http://www.gtspirit.com/uploads/images/blastolene-b702-0.jpg">
The Blastolene B 702. It's built by the guys who made Leno's Tank Car. It features aluminum bodywork, a glass grille, and a 702 cubic inch GMC truck engine that makes 650 ft-lbs of torque at 850 RPM on pump gas.
I'm glad someone mentioned the GMC Twin Six. I'm fascinated by that engine.
The side profile had me mesmorized. The front has me appalled!
I'm so confused right now.
"Hey Little Twelve Toes" was my favorite of the Schoolhouse Rock segments, a mainstay of my Saturday morning cartoon-viewing experience. A little later, when the computer bug bit me in 7th grade (circa 1975), I had no trouble contending with machine language in binary, octal, and especially hexidecimal. Had Schoolhouse Rock lasted a bit longer, I suppose they would have included hexidecimal themselves and laid the groundwork for America's youth in the digital age!
XJ13 is pure sex.
The classy 1940 Lincoln-Zephyr Continental.
<img src="http://www.ktsmotorsportsgarage.com/amelia98/images/fullsize/lincoln40cont-s1.jpg"width="500"/>
It's an unreliable mess of a design, but I do love it so.
<img src="http://www.productioncars.com/send_file.php/jaguar_xjs_blue_1984_a.jpg">
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Jaguar_5.3_V12_Engine.jpg/800px-Jaguar_5.3_V12_Engine.jpg" width="504">
It's my choice as well. It's kinda like a hot, slutty chick: I know it has a bad reputation and will let me down but I want to think that if I have it, I can change it and things will be different. Plus: Just look at it. It's so beautiful that you can overlook it's reputation and try to make it work.
Continuing that analogy…
…worst case, if it won't obey you and tries to cost you too much money, you can chain it up and rip its heart out…
…and then drop in something more easily serviced, like a small-block V8.
I could certainly live with a hot, 6.2L turbodiesel-powered Stepford Wife of a car.
Beautiful car, but the engine was a dog with insufficient oil passages and a tendency to blow head gaskets. For a long time, people were dropping later V8s into these Continentals just to make them more reliable.
It's hard to argue with a Miura on the basis of looks, but for something that can actually be driven, give me a McLaren F1.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/1996_McLaren_F1.jpg/684px-1996_McLaren_F1.jpg" width=400>
Obvious Ferrari is obvious
<img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6077/6042867046_1114d60e8b.jpg" width="500" height="402" alt="63 sebring 12hrs ireland-ginther ferrari 250gto">
Pagani Zonda <img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_AcBUSVxs82w/TAQfvL8dBTI/AAAAAAAAdbU/VIxxGNY_qL8/s1600/Pagani-Zonda-C12-F-Wallpaper.jpg" width=500>
I'm going to be a little contrary and say we would revere cars like the Miura and F1 regardless of their engine configuration. Or forget them, like the F50, which had a screaming race-derived V12 that didn't relocate the goalposts like the F40 and Enzo. To really celebrate the V12, I think something both completely logical and utterly insane is appropriate. The R8 V12 TDi edges out various engine-swapped Mercedes taxis.
<img src="http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt237/jskitter/hooniverse/AudiR8V12TDi.jpg" width="500">
An engine with its roots in racing.
<img width=500 src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Neckarsulm-AudiForum-Audi-R10-TDI.jpg">
Isn't that a V10?
Correct. This has a V12.
<img src="http://www.theracecars.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Audi-R15-TDI-LMP1-1.jpg" width="500" />
Nyet. The R10 had a V12 TDI. They dropped down to a V10 TDI in the R15 and R15+. The R8 V12 TDI uses a more streetable version of the engine in the R10.
http://www.audiusa.com/us/brand/en/exp/innovation…
*smacks forehead*
My bad. Audi's built so many diesel LMPs (each with a different engine configuration) that it's hard to keep track.
What makes those two really confusing is, if I remember correctly, they're both 5.5L.
No problem, when I thought of the diesel LMP with a V12, I went to the R15 first as well. Then I remembered it had a smaller (dimensionally) engine than the R10. To further complicate things, the new R18 is a V6.
That's why I prefer a good (HDi) FAP.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Peugeot_908_Nr1_Spa_2010.JPG/799px-Peugeot_908_Nr1_Spa_2010.JPG" width=500>
From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peugeot_908_HDi_FAP” target=”_blank”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peugeot_908_HDi_FAP
The French are scum!
The FAP is cool, but I'm an Audi man. Way too much of an Audi man to support the evil French in their quest to dethrone Audi.
V12 Packards are stately, to say the least.
<img src="http://allcarcentral.com/Packard/Packard_V12-7-place_1934_ca-mm-2008_OSE0043.jpg">
Ferrari 250. In pretty much any form; take your pick.
<img src="http://www.autogaleria.pl/tapety/img/ferrari/ferrari_250_lm_1964_01_s.jpg">
I can't choose just one!
1932 Auburn V-12 boat-tail Speedster:
<img src="http://www.luxuryautodirect.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/1932-Auburn-V-12-Boattail-Speedster.-rear.JPG" width="500">
1932 Cadillac V-12 phaeton:
<img src="http://i1.2photo.ru/i/a/343818.jpg" width="500">
The Mormon Meteor also apparently sported a V-12 engine for a while in the late 1930s…
<img src="http://img279.imageshack.us/img279/2144/a91f18941ke.jpg" width="500">
Quite possibly the last "normal" Benz that was, as the old ad tagline claimed, built to a standard, not a price.
A used car lot down the road had a 4-door V-12 one of those for $3200.
There's the miura but what about other Lamborghinis…
<img src="http://pictures.topspeed.com/IMG/crop/200909/lamborghini-jarama-3_460x0w.jpg">
That's a one-off near-race special based on the early-'70s Jarama. I think the most subtle Lamborghini is the Islero with its classic GT proportions. It was long overlooked in favor of the more exciting-looking cars, but I really like the lines.
<img src="http://files.conceptcarz.com/img/Lamborghini/69-Lamborghini_Islero_6267_DV-08_Belle_010.jpg" width=500>
What about the 350 GTV?
<img src="http://files.conceptcarz.com/img/Lamborghini/1963-Lamborghini-350-GTV_Coupe-Image-08-1024.jpg" width="550">
The 350 GTV was ugly with too much chrome up front and the concave A-pillar. The bug-eyed 350GT and 400GT models that reached production weren't much better.
That is beautiful. I especially like all the chrome and the reverse curve of the a-pillar.
<img src=http://www.carsbase.com/photo/TVR-Cerbera_Speed_12_mp87_pic_12685.jpg width="500">
Too fast to sell- even if you are a company whose cars have a reputation for being deadly.
And typical British build quality with the side sill drooping on the ground.
Those are British ground defects.
This is a TVR- the owner's dog helps with the styling.
I suspect it's recently slid off the road somewhere just before that pic was taken.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Lamborghini_Countach_LP500S.jpg" width="600">
only because this is the car that introduced the very idea of a V-12 to me as a child
When I was a kid the biggest engine I knew resided in my dad's Impala whcih was a small block V-8
Merlin powered shooting brake, anyone?
<img src="http://pic.phyrefile.com/c/cr/crazyrussian540/2009/09/06/8.jpg"width=500>
That's just plain sick. I love it!
Keeping in theme with A-T's Doppleganger post: The body is on backwards.
<img src="http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/concept/large/1967_Dodge_Deora_HotRod-Magazine.jpg" width=500>
And the blue oval copycat:
<img src="http://blogs.cars.com/.a/6a00d83451b3c669e2011571fc5aee970b-800wi" width=500>
I would buy that Ford.
I want the space ship tent…. I don't think I've ever seen a more useless tent though.
What. Is. That.
It's The Beast!
It's the John Dodd Rolls Royce, later renamed "The Beast" because Rolls threatened to sue if he continued to use their name, even though it was powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.
I'll always want a Diablo because it's the first car I ever lusted after, way back when I was 8.
<img src="http://www.scorpiocars.net/images/Lamborghini/1994%20Lamborghini%20Diablo%20SE30_7.jpg">
'Tis the power of Lamborghini. They grab you young and hold on forever.
MMMmmmuunngh . . . . British diesel flat 12 aeronautical engine . . .
<img src="http://www.benzworld.org/forums/attachments/off-topic/305581d1272648835-yummy-drooling_homer.gif">
Sunbeam Tiger
<img src="http://www.bss.ab.ca/sunbeam/suni4/image/segravestamp.jpg">
I will own some variety of V12-powered Grand Tourer in my life, whether it wears a leaping cat, three-pointed star, blue and white propeller (850i!), or prancing horse.
But if one of the following two found their way in my driveway, I wouldn't say no
<img src="http://www.productioncars.com/send_file.php/lambo_lm002_sand_red.jpg" width=500 /img>
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/1997_Toyota_Century_01.jpg/800px-1997_Toyota_Century_01.jpg" width=500 /img>
I dunno…I'd rock a Toyota Century. It's about the only V12 powered car out there that has a chance in hell of actually being reliable. Maybe a good compromise would be an XJ-S with a Century's V12 swapped in it?
Oh, I agree – that's what I meant to say, that the V12 Century is pretty cool. Hell, it's just about 15 years old (making it legal to import into Canada), and I've been digging on the land yachts lately.
I must have read it wrong then. I thought you were saying the opposite.
Around 1930, Packard seriously considered building a smaller front-wheel-drive sedan with a new 376 cid (6.2-liter) V-12 and a four-speed transaxle, developed by C.W. Van Ranst of Cord fame. They made one prototype — which interestingly enough still survives — but they had a lot of problems with the transaxle, so it proved impractical. The engine was bored and stroked to become the powerplant of the 1932 Twin Six instead.
I'm still intrigued by the stillborn Cadillac V-12 developed in the early sixties. It would have been all-aluminum, SOHC, probably with a 75-degree bank angle and split crankpins (like the later 90-degree V6), and up to 500 cid (8.2 liters). It was canceled in 1964, but if it had worked out, it probably would first have been used in the E-body Eldorado.
Here's a picture of the FWD Packard prototype – it still exists. Notice that it doesn't have the famous Packard radiator.
<img src="http://files.conceptcarz.com/img/Packard/31-Packard_Front_Wheel-Drive_DV-08_BC_a01.jpg" width=600>
Packard also experimented with an INLINE 12 cylinder engine.
<img src="http://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/uploads/newbb/1584_4c41f3cac09aa.jpg"width=500>
I've come to say <img src=http://www.iphonebrand.com/iphone-wallpapers/category/cars/1184_L-p-51-mustang-plane.jpg>
That is all.
I was totally going to go all aeronautical on their asses, but the title specified automobile. As such, you have chosen wisely. The other option was
<img width=500 src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Ray_Flying_Legends_2005-1.jpg">
A four rotor Wankel is just like a 12 right? (even has 12 spark plugs)!
http://www.mrfizzix.com/autoracing/images/New%20P…
Oh, the DB7Z always, the Aston everyone hates.
<img src="http://www.seriouswheels.com/pics-abc/Aston-Martin-DB7-Zagato-Side-Speed.jpg"width="500"/>
The back end is a bit Bangle-y.
It's the same story of Ferrari 250 GT SWB Drogo "Breadvan"…
<img src="http://archive.cardesignnews.com/news/2002/020819aston-zagato/images/aston-zagato36s.jpg">
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RWqDdIGYDOI/TNCewxOGeUI/AAAAAAAAFSc/SCxw5i4nuHY/s1600/Drogo_Ferrari_250GT_SWB_Breadvan_1962_27.jpg">
Except everyone LOVES the Breadvan.
Oh, and another Packard V12, the famous PT boat, of WW2 fame. Actually, it ran two Packard made V12's, but who's counting?
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/USS_PT-105.jpg/275px-USS_PT-105.jpg">
<img src="http://images.wikia.com/automobile/images/8/8f/Ford-GT90.jpg">
The thing of my boyhood dreams…
If anyone posts the Clarkson quote I'll stab them through the interweb.
It looks as though it could go more than 40 mph and handle … err … quite well.
Sorry, its just every time I post a picture of it some jackass chimes in with what some other jackass said. THE FOUR YEAR OLD ME DIDN'T CARE! It looked awesome at the time and that is all I could see.