Houston Cars

With the announcement that the upcoming Lincoln MKS sedan would only offer a V6 instead of a V8, one had to wonder what the folks over at Ford were thinking.  It seems they *may* have been on track, what with President Bush signing the new CAFE bill into law.  With more strict fuel economy standards to meet, a V6 makes more sense than a V8. 

The real kicker is the news that Cadillac has followed Lincoln’s footsteps, and canceled their “Ultra V8″ engine development.  This engine was slated to replace the once-great, now-old Northstar V8 currently powered many Cadillacs.  With no new product on the horizon, the only logical assumption is that all non-SUV and non “V series” Cadillacs will be powered by one of several V6’s.  The Escalade and V variants will likely continue to be powered by one of GM’s fantastic pushrod V8’s. 

While the thought of a Caddy without 8 cylinders under the hood is quite odd, consider this.  Their current 3.6 liter direct-injected V6 puts out a solid 306 HP, compared to 320 HP from the Northstar V8 ( with a full 1 liter more displacement ).  That’s 14 less horsepower ( hardly noticeable, if at all ) from 2 less cylinders and 1 liter less displacement.  A much more efficient engine, indeed.  You also get a more compact, lightweight engine, with the better fuel economy to go along with it.

In a way this news saddens me - I’ve long been a fan of the incomparable V8 rumble.  But times change, as they say, and the V6 is going to become more common as the V8 becomes less so.  Not that I think V8’s will go away, but rather simply move over to trucks, SUV’s, and high-end sports cars / supercars.  Regular cars, luxury cars ?  Not so much.