Welcome to Thursday Trivia where we offer up a historical automotive trivia question and you try and solve it before seeing the answer after the jump. It’s like a History test, with cars!
This week’s question is: Which auto maker was the first to offer for sale a V12 engine?
If you know the answer, make the jump to see if you are correct. After all, the question raises your curiosity, dozen it?
The first V12 production automobile was the 1916 Packard Twin Six, which one-upped Cadillac’s smooth move V8 that had just been introduced a year earlier.
From AteUpWithMotor:
The Twin Six was introduced in May 1915 as a 1916 model, and immediately became a sensation.
That first Packard V-12, dubbed “Twin Six,” displaced 424 cu. in. (7.0 L). Its cylinder banks were set at a 60-degree angle, providing even firing intervals and making it narrower than a 90-degree V8.
Like the smaller six of the “38,” it was an L-head engine, but it had two camshafts, obviating the need for rocker arms. In the mode of European high-performance engines of its day, it had a narrow bore, 3.0 in (76.2 mm), and a long stroke, 5.0 in (127 mm), allowing the crankshaft to be shorter, more rigid, and considerably lighter than the six; Packard claimed the Twin Six weighed 400 lb (181 kg) less than the six-cylinder “48.”
Despite its smaller displacement, the V-12 was slightly more powerful than the six — 85 hp (63 kW) at 3,000 rpm, compared to 82 hp (61 kW) at 1,720 rpm for the “48” — with twice the torque.
Image source: AteUpWithMotor
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