Increasingly, new vehicles of a type, size and status once deserving of a V8 are finding themselves powered by a turbocharged V6, or even a hybridised one. That's true both in the US and in Europe, where big Mercs, BMWs and Audis are ever less likely to have eight cylinders. But we're concerned here with cars of a more historical flavour: let's say pre-1980s. Among those most of interest hailing from across the Atlantic have a V8 of some sort. In Europe, classic-era V8s are rather rarer but there have been some great engines among them. So, let's look at a few.
We begin with the first V8 to be fitted to a roadgoing passenger car, and it's British. In 1905 Rolls-Royce built three cars with a 3535cc engine, its two cylinder banks at 90 degrees to each other for optimum smoothness and balance (as is still the norm today) and with 'square' bore and stroke dimensions. That was very modern; early engines tended to a have a stroke rather longer than the bore was wide, especially if built with a view to minimising UK tax which, in a decision which hamstrung the British motor industry's engine designers for years, was based on piston area.
Rolls-Royce sold one car, then bought it back, and decided instead to concentrate on the straight-six. Not until 1959 did another Rolls-Royce V8 appear.
De Dion Bouton in France was the next European carmaker to create a V8, in 1910 and with a 7773cc capacity, but Cadillac in the US was first to put one into proper production, in 1914. Then there was Italy's Lancia which, as ever, did things differently. Lancia favoured a very narrow vee-angle, making its engines more of a staggered in-line than a regular vee, and its first V8 – for the Trikappa of 1922 – had just 14 degrees between its banks. This was a 4595cc engine, larger than the 3.6-litre Dilambda of 1928 and the sub-3.0-litre Astura engines (one of which I sampled a few years ago, in the 'Steady Special' originally created by the late Ronald 'Steady' Barker, a motoring journalist of astutely witty observation).
Three more British designs pre-war, all made in tiny numbers in Coventry, were the engines for the Riley 8/90 in 1935, the Flying Standard V-Eight of 1936 and the Autovia of 1938, this last one generating 99bhp from its 2.8 litres. Then, post-war, we find that Fiat made the unlikely decision to go racing with a glamorous coupé powered by a V8 of just 1996cc and featuring a curious 70-degree vee-angle. Fiat made very few of its '8V' cars – just 114 – although specialist sports-car maker Siata also used the engine.