Got our 1931 Auburn V12 up and running yesterday, a bit of fiddling and sorting today and we took it out for a drive.
This car is a dream to drive, steering is good, brakes are great, power is absolutely incredible. It will pull away from a rolling stop in second gear and you find yourself shifting into third at 50 mph. 70mph down hwy1 is no problem. This car will be fantastic to tour with.
It's rolling sculpture!
I did a double take when I realized I was looking t the exhaust manifolds above the heads. Neat.
So many beautiful details on that car. I would love to hold the intake manifold in my hands.
Absolutely Gorgeous!
That must be an interesting combustion chamber shape. Flathead?
What's up with the lever just in front of the seat, overdrive?
Kenny_McCormic wrote: What's up with the lever just in front of the seat, overdrive?
It's a two speed rear end.
Wow! Gorgeous. 
Woody wrote:Kenny_McCormic wrote: What's up with the lever just in front of the seat, overdrive?It's a two speed rear end.
Close.
The two-speed rear end control is the lever in the middle of the dash.
The smaller shifter engages and disengages the freewheeling sprag in the transmission. You can coast in gear without engine braking but when you apply power, it engages again. It helps make shifting that big, slow transmission very smooth.
Shawn
Kenny_McCormic wrote: That must be an interesting combustion chamber shape. Flathead? What's up with the lever just in front of the seat, overdrive?
Kinda.
The valves are actually horizontal in the head which has a kind of "pre-chamber" which holds the valves and spark plug, the charge moves down into the chamber through a slot.
The spark plug is held in a removable "sub head" you can see bolted to the main part of the cylinder head in the above pictures. Removing the sub-head allows access to the valves which can be removed without removing the cylinder head assembly.
The Lycoming BB V12 is an incredible design.
The lever on the left of the dash is for the "ride control" adjustable shock absorbers.
Neat, it's always fun learning about all the competing ways of doing things in the early days.
Glad you guys appreciate it, I enjoy sharing this stuff with folks who get it.
I belong to a vintage motorcycle club as well, I posted these cars on our club website and most people appreciated them except for one dickbag who simply put "This has what to do with vintage bikes?"
I figured most people who like vintage anything would appreciate seeing this stuff, especially the Stutz because it's the only one of it's kind.
Trans_Maro wrote:Kenny_McCormic wrote: That must be an interesting combustion chamber shape. Flathead? What's up with the lever just in front of the seat, overdrive?Kinda. The valves are actually horizontal in the head which has a kind of "pre-chamber" which holds the valves and spark plug, the charge moves down into the chamber through a slot. The spark plug is held in a removable "sub head" you can see bolted to the main part of the cylinder head in the above pictures. Removing the sub-head allows access to the valves which can be removed without removing the cylinder head assembly. The Lycoming BB V12 is an incredible design.
Do you have a bigger version of that picture? Really different design there. It's interesting to see how many ideas where tried in the early days of automobiles that didn't survive to the present.
Trans_Maro wrote: I figured most people who like vintage anything would appreciate seeing this stuff, especially the Stutz because it's the only one of it's kind.
I can only speak for myself, but I think you figured right. I love looking at this stuff, both cars and bikes. Thank you for sharing.
Yeah, awesome pictures. You're shop does great work! I visited the Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg museum (highly reccomended by the way) a couple years ago and these cars are as nice or nicer than some in there. When I was a kid, my dad had a couple of old car books that had pictures of Auburns, Stutzs, Duesenbergs, etc (I think the newest was a 427 AC Cobra). I would go through them almost daily and make my "dream car" list of cars that I would own someday. Sad thing is that I haven't owned any of them...but the on the plus side...my standardsd are a little more realistic these days old Fiestas, Corollas, Mustangs, etc are much more attainable, but I've always maintained my love for those old cars.
Not only do I enjoy you posting these projects, I would love to see any vintage bike stuff too, despite the fact that I don't even ride! 
Incredible engine. The complexity of mechanical designs done by manually operated machinery blow my mind.
Thanks guys.
I don't have a better cutaway of the engine, sorry.
There is a book that is available from the ACD museum with better drawings of the engine internals in it. I think you cna order it online.
Shawn
The Lycoming BB V12 was also used in American LaFrance fire trucks, some quick google work brings up some more images.
from http://www.thev12shop.com/reference.htm
low res, but some interesting shots of an actual engine http://www.1932auburnsedan.com/
Like the deck side of the head
The LaFrance version is larger displacement with dual ignition systems. Not much interchanges with the Auburn version.
It's kinda like the Chevrolet 265 and 400 are both smallblocks.
I find it fascinating the different things that were tried in the past for mechanical operation. At our last local cars and coffee a guy that is into Willys-Knight cars has a cutaway of a Knight engine with sleeve valves that would operate with a hand crack.
Bristol used sleeve valves in their aircraft radial engines.
They sound incredible.
Trans_Maro wrote: the head which has a kind of "pre-chamber"
Im thinking CVCC... 
Finished to take down to Pebble Beach???
Nope, just an older restoration that we cleaned up for a local concours show.
We're thinking of doing another Packard for a later Pebble Beach show.
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