A friend of mine has offered me the chance to buy his 39 Cadillac Town sedan with the V-16 in it. Its an over restored concours car there were only 18 townsedans built with the V-16 in them and this is the last one built. im not sure i wanna lay out the $70k for a concours car but in the back of my mind all i hear is V-16. what do you guys think
I'm not sure this is the right place to obtain market for a 39 V16. In any event, like all posts like this the devil is in the details. Off the top of my head, assuming that it is "concours" (btw, 1 in 10 cars called -concours- actually are) for real then 70k is probably high retail for that body. The flathead engines are technically superior then the earlier ones, but much uglier and do not bring the same money.
Personally, there are just some things I don't think should be touched. If you had a really poor condition car, or even just an engine, I would say go for it. As for the engine itself, it is huge. the V-8 flathead is 750 lbs. The V-16 must weigh more than that. Also, end-to-end it has to be much bigger than any slight firewall modification will tolerate. Anyway, if you're interested, here is a pic of the engine.
That's a good picture of the car that was at Newport last Memorial day, no? As I recall, the guy had been restoring that car has been working on it for 20 something years. Doesn't the flathead v16 exhaust from the top of the head? All those engines (Packard v12, Pierce, etc) with the top of the head exhaust make it pretty tough to fabricate headers. The Marmon exhausts from the bottom, so you can fab some nice headers.
Are you asking a world wide group of traditional hot rodders if you should buy a concours Cadillac for 70k? Why not , if that's what you want?
Wow, that is a good eye to notice that the shot is indeed a photo from the Newport show last summer. I didn't get a chance to talk to the owner, but I talked to a bunch of his friends that were maning the Cadillac-LaSalle Club booth using his car as the promo piece. I found this car to be the most interesting of all the cars at the show. It was almost sad, though, to see all those beautiful old cars sitting on a lawn of a mansion, never to see the pavement again.
The long wheelbase Duesenberg Murphy in the background was an easy give-away. Don't feel bad, as a surprise all the cars had to drive back all the way through Newport in 2 mph traffic to get back to the trailers that had to be parked at the other end of town. I do believe it was about 85 degrees that day so that if your "trailer queen" wasn't road worthy you were screwed. A lot of those cars get driven more than you would think - although certainly some never do.
The only L-Head (side valve/flathead) V type engine that has the exhaust ports low on the outside is the Ford. It's the only one that's "wrong". L-Head engines are not cross-flow. Look at in line L-heads like Pontiac, Plymouth, Packard etc. The exhaust and intake are on the same side of the engine. Likewise; the Cadillac flathead V-8, V-16, Packard V-12, early Lincolns all have the exhaust coming out the "top", right beside the intake. The only reason the Marmon seems right is that it's an O.H.V. and it's crossflow like all modern V-8s. The early Caddy V-16 (and it'd little brother V-12) was an O.H.V. and crossflow.
Well the reason i posted on here was this. I figured who better to ask than a group of true car guys their opinion. I have decided to buy it this car is a true concours car it was at pebble beach 2 years ago. the car hasnt been driven since it was restored. I think in the past 5 years he has put at the most 50 miles on it. BTW I collect more than just hot rods and the ones listed are just my current torn down projects that i am looking for parts for. I acctually have a real passion for restoration and have a larger collection of restored cars. I had a restoration shop but closed it when a friend hired me to work just on his collection of cars.
If you have an extra seventy grand on hand, I would invest it in the new flathead block project. That project has been dead in the water for a long while now, for lack of funds. That knid of funding could get the ball rolling. I think that would be a better investment than another collector car. Of course it's none of my business.
Oh yeah, that new aluminum flathead block project would be a real good place to SINK $70Gs in a hurry. You'll be sitting there with a couple hundred new block castings, a monster machining bill, a crapload of "serious" inquiries, and after you notify the inquirers you'll get 5 downpayment checks which won't cover the machine work on 3 blocks so you'll still be sitting there with a couple hundred new block castings...but now you be holding a .45 Auto to your head! How many ARDUN sets were sold when the new pieces became available? I'm guessing less than were originally made. Oh Yeah, great potential there.
I'm with you. The further I get into old cars, the more I appreciate cars that are restored stock. And the chance to get a V16 Cadillac is probably pretty rare indeed. If you can afford it, I'd say go for it. I'd love to see pictures.
Yeah, I know how you feel. I got a extra 70$ in my pocket and i'm at harbor freight thinking, "A new grinder and some knock off vise grips".
Yeah, it is a little sad... When I was a kid (mid 1970's), my dad had a '39 LaSalle. Kinda' rough; but was a pretty good driving car. He's bitched since the day he let it go. As much as I respect the art and workmanhip of one of these 'overrestored' cars, I wouldn't really want one (even if I could afford it). I'd rather have several really nice drivers. But that's just me.
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