The V8 engine, a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft, had been patented in 1902 by Léon Levavasseur, who had taken out a patent on a light but quite powerful gasoline-injected V8 engine which he called Antoinette after the young daughter of his financial backer, and from 1904 had installed this engine in a number of competition speedboats and early aircraft.

The V8 engine configuration, popular in France from 1904 onward, had been used in a number of aircraft engines introduced by Renault, and Buchet among others.

Some of these engines had found their way into automobiles in small quantities.

Rolls Royce had built a 3,535 cc (216 cu in) V8 car from 1905 to 1906, but only three copies were made and Rolls Royce had reverted to a straight-6 design.

De Dion-Bouton had introduced a 7,773 cc (474 cu in) automobile V8 in 1910 and displayed it in New York in 1912.

Although produced only in small quantities, it had inspired a number of American manufacturers to follow suit.

The first mass-production automobile V8 had been introduced in the United States in 1914 by Cadillac, a division of General Motors which sold 13,000 of the 5,429 cc (331 cu in) L-head engines in its first year of production. (Cadillac has been primarily a V8 company ever since.)

Oldsmobile, another division of General Motors, had introduced its own 4 L (≈244 cu in) V8 engine in 1916.

Chevrolet had introduced a 288 cu in (4.7 L) V8 engine in 1917, but after merging with General Motors in 1918, discontinues the V8 to concentrate on economy cars.