1915 Packard Twin Six

Early in the twentieth century quality cars were greatly differentiated from popular models in terms of size, performance and finish, but not style. The old rich in every society tend to be extremely conservative so those who adopted the new and slightly suspect motor carriage preferred their vehicles to be not too distant from their house-drawn carriages. Racy lines were definitely not wanted, whereas rigorous vertical windscreens and radiators and rectilinear massiveness were prized. What the gentry accepted, other classes desired. So middle-class respectability suggested that popular cars, to the extent that there were any, ought to look like the cars the rich possess: sober and upright vehicles.

Packard engineers reasoned that if six-cylinder engines were harmonically smooth, twice that many cylinders would be better still. There had been a few experiments with V12 engines earlier, but in 1915 Packard was first to produce and sell what it chose to call the ‘Twin Six’. Enzo Ferrari claimed that he made V12s for the first cars to carry his own name because he had been so impressed by Packard Twin Sixes brought to Europe by Americans during World War I. He was not alone: the Twin Six inspired numerous other manufacturers to make V12s, most of them in the early 1930s. Taking into account aircraft and marine engines, it is likely that Packard made more twelve-cylinder engines than any other firm, before or since.

These extracts are taken from Auto Legends: Classics of Style and Design by Michel Zumbrunn, text by Robert Cumberford which was published in October by Merrell