Cars with 16-cylinder engines

Sweet 16

To paraphrase an oft-used maxim, ‘Sometimes, there ain’t no substitute for cylinders’. Throughout automotive history, four-, six- and eight-cylinder engines have been the norm for production cars, with 12-cylinder engines being on the fringe of high-end performance and/or luxury-car engineering.

But, occasionally, even the might of a big-block V8 or large-capacity V12 wasn’t quite enough to satisfy a car manufacturer’s desire to create something outrageously powerful – or simply to go one better than its rival.

So here, in all their inestimable glory, are 16 road, race and concept cars that all boast 16-cylinder engines, presented in chronological order, plus a brief explanation about their two main configurations.