In the classic era of American luxury automobiles, an Indianapolis automaker challenged the best that Cadillac could offer with the Marmon Sixteen.

Howard Carpenter Marmon (1876-1943) was one of the pioneers of the U.S. auto industry, completing his first motor vehicle in 1902. His forward-looking ideas included early V4 and V8 engines, and his Marmon Wasp won the very first Indianapolis 500 in 1911. Nordyke & Marmon of Indianapolis, cofounded by his father and later renamed the Marmon Motor Car Co. earned a solid reputation as a producer of high-quality, carefully engineered automobiles.

As capable as the company was, it had a fraction of the technical resources of rival Cadillac, which had all the engineering might of General Motors behind it. In 1928, Marmon’s biggest year, it produced fewer than 15,000 cars, dwarfed by GM’s 1.5 million total volume. That did not deter the ndianapolis carmaker from engineering an automobile that rivaled the best that GM could produce, the mighty Cadillac V16. Powered by an advanced V16 of the  company’s own design, it was called the Marmon Sixteen.

Marmon began its V16 experiments in 1926 with an engine based on two of its straight eights joined together, then decided that a fresh approach was in order and started over from scratch. The production Sixteen that resulted was based on a 45-degree bank angle for perfect balance, with a single camshaft in the block with rocker-arm overhead-valve actuation. With a 3.125-in bore, a  4.00-in stroke, and a total of 490.8 cubic inches, it was notably larger in displacement than the 452 CID Cadillac V16. And with an aggressive 6.0:1 compression ratio, the Marmon produced 200 hp at 3,400 rpm, compared to the Cadillac’s more modest 165 hp at 3,200 rpm.

At 930 lbs, the Marmon was also significantly lighter than the Cadillac, thanks to its nearly all-aluminum construction. The aluminum block featured push-in iron liners with rubber seals (above) while the beautifully cast rocker covers were secured with knurled thumbscrews. And while the Caddy was laid out like twin straight-eights with outboard intake and exhaust plumbing, the Marmon’s Stromberg two-barrel downdraft carburetor was tucked neatly between the banks, creating a relatively compact package.

Disappointed but not discouraged when Cadillac beat him to market with the introduction of its V16 in January of 1930, Marmon had the Sixteen in full production in the spring of 1931. Offered in a 145-in wheelbase chassis with an assortment of factory body styles, the Sixteen was priced at $5,090 to $5,440, more than competitive with its  16-cylinder Cadillac rival.

But by then, economic hard times were setting in, all the automakers were in real peril, and the market for ultra-premium cars was quickly drying up. Just 390 Sixteens were produced, approximately, between 1931 and May of 1933 when the Marmon Motor Car Co. filed for bankruptcy. Howard Marmon moved on to his next technical challenge as the cofounder of Marmon-Herrington, an innovator in four-wheel drive trucks.