1931-1933 Marmon Sixteen

For years the 16 - cylinder automobile has been identified in the public ’s collective mind exclusively with Cadillac . But there was another fine Sixteen back in the early Thirties : the Marmon .

The 1931 - 1933 Marmon Sixteens were fine automobiles , and in a bit of respects , superior to the Cadillac . That fact was punctually recognized at the 1932 New York Automobile Show when the Society of Automotive Engineers declared the Marmon Sixteen railway locomotive to be " the year ’s most noteworthy automotive accomplishment , " an honor that Cadillac has yet to receive .

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Marmon had been build automobiles ever since 1902 , when Howard Marmon , the company ’s vice - president of engineering , constructed an strain - cool V-2 for his own use .

The second Marmon , built the following twelvemonth , ran with a V-4 . Half a twelve of these car were build and sold that season , mostly to friends of Howard Marmon and his senior blood brother , Walter . Production rose to 25 cars in 1905 , and a one - off V-6 was also built that year . By 1906 , Marmon had come up with a big 65 - horsepower , air - cool down V-8 . It was a pioneering effort , produced well-nigh nine years before the first Cadillac V-8 , but it failed to get beyond the paradigm stage .

In 1909 , a couple of established water system - cooled , T - head , four - piston chamber Marmons made their debut . One of these , the Model 32 – a very advanced car for its time – would remain in production as the company ’s mainstay as belatedly as 1914 . In all of these early cars , Howard Marmon insisted upon two feature : easy alloy building and perfect lubrication . While virtually all of Marmon ’s competitors clung to the old dipper - and - splash method acting , the Model 32 featured a gear wheel - ride oil heart with insistency livery to all bearing .

A major boost to the Marmon reputation for functioning add up with the launching , in December 1915 , of the Model 34 . This railcar was powered by a highly advanced overhead - valve six . Displacing 339.7 three-dimensional inches , it developed 74 HP . Block and crankcase were an inherent atomic number 13 molding , something most unheard of at that fourth dimension . Walter Piston , intake manifold , pushrods , even the water pump were made of aluminum metal . Iron was used only for the head and cylinder liner .

Nor was the use of atomic number 13 restrict to the engine . The transmission guinea pig and differential caparison , plus the body , cap , and even the wing were made of lightweight aluminum alloy . As a result , the Model 34 weigh in some 700 pound light than the contemporary Cadillac , giving it a substantial carrying into action edge . It was also the more expensive of the two . In 1916 , for example , the Model 34 Marmon touring car sold for $ 2,900 , while a Cadillac in the same body style could be purchased for $ 2,080 .

On the next page , get more selective information regarding the phylogenesis of the Marmon Sixteen .

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The Evolution of the Marmon Sixteen

rival predicted problems would arise with Marmon ’s aluminum engine pulley , for atomic number 13 was know in those days as " the worry alloy . " unluckily , they were right , so for 1920 an iron engine was used , cast in two block of three cylinder each . But Howard Marmon keep back his faith in the lighter metal , and kept working on style to make its function more practical . Eventually his efforts would bear yield , but that succeeder would not make out for another ten .

The machine performance was really a sideline at Marmon in those day . The company ’s chief source of revenue came from the manufacture of milling machinery , a theatre of operations in which Marmon was credibly the leader . And a right thing , too , for the cars were not trade well .

In 1924 , the automobile business was spun off and a Modern management team , headed by George M. Williams , was called in . Williams , with an eye to the volume market place , hired Delmar G. " Barney " Roos , formerly principal engineer at Pierce - Arrow , to design a medium - priced straight eight . Howard Marmon , who took a vague survey of any mathematical product that fell short of his own punctilious standard , withdrew at that point from active participation in the business firm .

Which is not to say that the Little Marmon , as the new mannequin was called , was a regretful car . It was in all likelihood at least as good as competing machine in its under-$2,000 cost field . But it understandably was not comparable to Marmons of yore – nor to the current Model 74 , successor to the Model 34 .

Meanwhile , Howard Marmon was by no means idle . work in his own laboratory , he devote much of his free energy to the fulfilment of a long - held dream : the development of what would eventually be bill as " The World ’s Most Advanced Motor Car , " the Marmon Sixteen .

Observe , by the bye , that Howard Marmon never referred to his car as the " V-16 " the elbow room Cadillac did . It was simply the Marmon Sixteen . Still , in concept the Marmon and Cadillac engines had much in common . Both were comprised of two straight - VIII fitted to a single crankcase . In both cases the cylinder block were situate at an of 45 degrees to one another , which in a 16 - piston chamber engine warrant an even sacking order . Both hire full - pressure lubrication , overhead valve , dual exhausts , and six - V electrics .

But there were major differences as well . While the Cadillac used tramp iron exclusively , the Marmon engine featured aluminum alloys throughout , let in the cylinder blocks , resulting in a considerable savings in weight .

And there were other preeminence . The Marmon , for illustration , used rubber eraser locomotive engine mountings . Its cylinder blocks and crankcase were a single casting , while Cadillac cast the three while individually . Comprised of an metal of aluminum and fuzz , the material used by Marmon was developed by a Pennsylvania metalworks .

And in stead of offset engine blocks , which made possible Cadillac ’s use of side - by - side connecting rods , Marmon used the more pricy fork - and - vane arrangement .

Like the Cadillac , the Marmon locomotive was based on a four - in stroke . But the Marmon ’s 3 - 1/8 - inch gauge was an 8th of an in greater than that of the Cad , resulting in a slight advantage in displacement : 490.8 versus 452.8 three-dimensional inches . The Marmon ’s compression ratio - highest in the diligence at that clock time - was 6.00:1 , equate to the Cadillac ’s 5.50:1 , and its duplex apartment downdraft carburetor was more efficiency than its competition ’s dual updraft . Taken together , these factors gave the Marmon a 35 - horsepower reward : 200 , compared to 165 for Cadillac .

Keep read to memorize more about the Marmon ’s carrying into action .

Marmon Performance

What a performing artist the Marmon Sixteen was . Its mightiness - to - weight ratio was the greatest of any car on the American route , save only the Duesenberg . Torque , though never promote , has been faithfully estimated at between 380 and 400 pounds / fundament , providing the Sixteen with phenomenal hill - climbing power . A San Francisco paper reporter declared , " We ’ve never driven a luxury auto that can rise James Jerome Hill like a Marmon 16 ! "

Top amphetamine was in excess of 100 miles per hour . In fact , upon taking delivery of a new Marmon Sixteen , the buyer receive a certificate signal that his automobile ’s chassis , outfit with a test consistence that simulate the weight of a amply equipped car , had been driven 210 miles at the Indianapolis Speedway , the last 10 geographical mile being run at " widely open gas pedal at not less than 105 miles an hour . " A further requirement of the examination run was that the number one wood must have downshifted from high to second at 80 mph without geared wheel clangor .

A 5,100 - pound , 100 - plus - miles per hour automobile obviously involve superior brakes , and Howard Marmon was not one to overlook anything so significant . He used the mechanically skillful , duo - servo type , Vacuum - assist and self - energizing . xvi - in drums were used , and at 353 3/4 hearty column inch , the liner region was well-nigh 64 percent greater than that of the Cadillac V-16 .

To style his splendid raw luxury - lining , Marmon called upon Walter Dorwin Teague , a New York - base industrial graphic designer . It was a puzzling choice , for Teague had had no late experience in auto styling , nor was he peculiarly interested in automobiles .

In fact , at that time he did n’t even cognise how to get . Chances are he was hired because he was a near personal friend of the Marmon brothers , and no doubt he jibe to do the job on the cheap , for by that time the society was in desperate financial stipulation .

In any case , the actual design was obviously the study of Teague ’s son , Walter Dorwin , Jr. , 18 years quondam at that metre and a freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Young Teague take up estimate from both Ray Dietrich and Frank Hershey , the latter an employee of the Walter M. Murphy Company in those sidereal day . His aim , middling controversial at the time , appear now to be clean , sleek , and more modern - look than most luxury cars of the early Thirties .

But of course the timing of the Marmon Sixteen ’s introduction could hardly have been worse . First , although a paradigm was expose at the New York Salon in December 1930 , actual production did n’t get under means until April 16,1931 . By that clip the Cadillac V-16 had been on the market place for more than 15 month , which took the edge off the excitement of the Sixteen ’s debut . And then there was the condition of the country ’s thriftiness , by then come near its low-water mark .

In the circumstance , it can hardly come as a surprise that production of this dandy automobile was severely circumscribed . Although eight LeBaron body dash were catalogue , according to the best useable appraisal only 390 Marmon Sixteens were built : 223 in 1931 , 111 in 1932 , and 56 in 1933 . Marmon had contacted a number of custom coachbuilders in the hope that some of them might practice the big Marmon ’s chassis , but apparently only three tradition job were ever produced : two phaetons by Waterhouse and one , a capital of Seychelles , designed by Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky and work up by the Hayes Body Company .

By May 1,1933 , the company was in receivership and the great Marmon Sixteen was history .

On the next Sir Frederick Handley Page , get specifications for the 1931 - 1933 Marmon .