This is a Ford hot rod that’s powered by a unique V16 engine built by Al Mathon of Hicksville, New York.
This engine is called the Mathon V16, and he built it by cutting and joining two Chevrolet V8s blocks, as well as their heads, crankshafts, and cams. This car was bought years ago by the world-famous Petersen Automotive Museum of Los Angeles, California, and they’re now offering it for sale.
Fast Facts – The Mathon V16 Ford Hot Rod
- This is a unique Ford T-Bucket hot rod featuring a custom-built Mathon V16 engine, created by Al Mathon of Hicksville, New York. The engine was constructed by combining two Chevrolet small block V8s, including their blocks, heads, crankshafts, and cams.
- The Mathon V16 engine required extensive fabrication, including welding blocks and heads, joining crankshafts and camshafts, and creating custom exhaust and ignition systems. The project was a collaboration between Al Mathon and his son.
- The hot rod features a custom steel frame, T-Bucket-style fiberglass body, and staggered-width Weld Racing wheels. It’s powered by the Mathon V16 engine coupled with a 3-speed automatic transmission and is road legal, titled as a 1923 Ford.
- Previously owned by the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, this unique vehicle is now being offered for sale. Despite its road-legal status, it has seen limited use due to its time in the museum’s collection and retains very low mileage.
Building The Mathon V16 Engine
The Mathon V16 was developed by Al Mathon, a professional welder and instructor from Long Island who is perhaps uniquely qualified to take two Chevrolet small block V8s and complete all of the welding, machining, and other fabrication requited to turn them into a single V16.
The engine is a tour de force of blue collar engineering, with two Chevy small block V8s joined as one, operating a single crankshaft with eight sequential power strokes per rotation.
Al Mathon worked on this project with his son, the two men started out by acquiring two identical small block V8s and then laying out a plan. They would cut and weld the two blocks together to form a single V16 block with nine main bearings, then cut and weld the four heads to create two which are fitted with finned valve covers with Mathon V16 in the center.
Next up, the two crankshafts were joined at the middle, with a 45º offset ensuring that each revolution delivers eight sequential power strokes.
After this was completed, they joined the two camshafts to match. Induction is through an alloy intake manifold and dual Holley four-barrel carburetors capped with a chrome air-cleaner cover with “Mathon V16” cutout in either side.
A set of four exhaust manifolds were then fabricated, they’re long-tube headers that exit straight, each set of four then combine into a single silencer, with two per side. The ignition system had to be custom made, as there are no standard V16 systems available off the shelf, and it uses a Mallory HyFire ignition box.
V16 engines are rare but they’re not unheard of, in fact the first V16-powered production car in history was designed and built in America – the Cadillac V-16 which debuted in 1930. The V16-powered Marmon Sixteen arrived a year later in 1931 – also an American design.
The Mathon V16 was far too long to fit into a standard hot rod, so Al Mathon and his son used a lengthened chassis.
Later production V16 cars would include the Cizeta-Moroder V16T of the 1990s, and the Bugatti Tourbillon which is set to go on sale in 2026 with an advanced 8.35 liter Cosworth V16 working in hybrid configuration with three electric motors for a combined claimed output of 1,775 bhp.
The Mathon V16 Ford Hot Rod
Due to the length of the engine, a custom-fabricated tubular steel frame needed to be made to accommodate it. This chassis was then given a Ford T-Bucket-style fiberglass body painted in classic black, with a windshield, bench-style seating for two, a custom steering wheel, and Stewart-Warner instrumentation with an odometer showing 13 miles.
The Mathon V16 rides on staggered-width Weld Racing 15” alloy wheels with 135-series Firestone F-560 tires in the front and 33×21.5” Mickey Thompson Sportsman tires in the rear. It has a chromed tubular steel front axle with a transverse leaf spring and radius rods. The live rear axle has adjustable coilovers, and it’s fitted with front disc brakes and rear drums.
Inside the car you’ll find seating for two, a custom steering wheel, a 3-speed automatic transmission, and a flat windscreen.
Power from the V16 is sent back through a 3-speed automatic transmission with a Lokar shifter to the wide rear wheels. The car is titled in California as a 1923 Ford and it’s road legal, though due to its years of residency in the Petersen Museum it seems to have spent relatively little time on the road.
The Mathon V16 is now being offered for sale directly from the collection of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles on Bring a Trailer. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
