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It took more than a decade to get here, but the arrival of Cadillac Motor Car Division’s 1993 Northstar V-8 is going to be worth the wait.

Cadillac has revealed that the engine powering its 1993 Allante will be a 4.6- liter (279-cubic-inch), 32-valve V-8. The engine is the division’s first completely new engine in over 10 years, and it is the first production power plant with four cams and four valves per cylinder ever built by Cadillac.

The new car and engine will be available in the spring.

As a V-8 whose design configuration has roots in the best Indianapolis Motor Speedway racing tradition, the Northstar will be exclusive to Cadillac, and will be used to power the Allante pace car for the 1993 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race.

The factory rates the Allante’s top speed in excess of 150 mph, so “500” spectators can look for a flying start.

Passenger-car V- 8s with four overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder are not overly common, but they certainly are not unknown on world automotive markets. The design of the Northstar, however, contains unique criteria that set it apart from the general range of 32-valve V-8s.

It also is going to be expensive to build, as its technology is far more complex than the push- rod/rocker-arm Cadillac V-8s of the past. To help offset the added expense, the division eventually will spread the cost over other models.

During pace-car ceremonies at the Speedway last fall, John O. Grettenberger, a General Motors Corp. vice president and Cadillac general manager, said, “At some time in the future, we probably will offer the engine in the Seville and Eldorado. That will afford us economies through greater volume.”

Multivalve engines traditionally have increased the price of the product, and the ’93 Allante with a 32-valve V-8 will be no different.

“They haven’t given us anything on price,” said David Moll, sales manager for Tutwiler Cadillac. “For the ’92 cars, the convertible is $58,470 and the hardtop $64,090.”

The car has rather upstream prices, to say the least, but in return the division intends to provide an automobile unlike any it has offered before. In addition to the engine, there is an equally advanced, completely new four-speed automatic transmission called the 4T80-E, road- sensing suspension, a new SLA (shorts/long arm) rear-suspension design, and a new-generation traction control system. It’s all designed to act in conjunction with the new V-8.

Cadillac apparently gave its engineers nearly unlimited funds to design the V-8. Comparable engines generally are found only in racing cars or exotic sports cars, and the Northstar eliminates the mechanically temperamental aspects of those engines.

The division says the engine is so smooth and quiet that a starter interlock system has been incorporated to prevent inadvertent starter engagement while the engine is running.

The aluminum V-8 fundamentally is a three-piece assembly consisting of the heads, and a two-piece block made up of the upper V-shaped cylinder block and a lower crankcase casting.

The crankcase unit is a separate casting that has the lower half of the main bearing journals cast right into it.

The casting replaces the main bearing caps, and provides far more rigid support for the crankshaft. The whole assembly bolts to the bottom of the block as one piece, rather than having the crank supported by individual caps that are independent of each other.

The crank also carries a reluctor ring that crank-fires the spark plugs via two magnetically activated crank sensors. Cadillac calls it the Direct Ignition System.

Traditional engines that have dual cams and four valves per cylinder follow a design configuration in which the two intake and two exhaust valves lie opposite each other and are canted at the same angle.

But the Northstar intake valves are canted at a 25-degree angle to the centerline of the cylinder bore, and the exhaust valves only 7 degrees, with the layout giving improved combu stion- chamber efficiency over the engine’s speed range.

Engineering demonstrated it knew what it was doing by using durable roller chain to drive the cams, rather that belts that can need replacing. And there are any number of little touches like having the starter in the valley of the V block rather than at the bottom rear of the block.

The total engine weight less accessories is 403.9 pounds. It is rated at 290 horsepower and 290 foot-pounds of torque.

For a moderately large engine, the Northstar has a fairly high rpm range. The shift points for the automatic transmission are redlined at 6,500 rpm. “That’s winding it pretty tight,” Moll said.

As a safety feature, the electronic fuel system is set to cut off fuel to the engine at 6,700 rpm. This prevents valve float during which the valves might touch the tops of the pistons.

While the body of the 1993 Allante basically is unchanged, the whole package of Northstar engine, 4T80-E transmission, high-tech suspension and advanced traction control makes this the most sophisticated Cadillac ever offered to the public.