Top 10 Front Wheel Drive Cars with a V8 Engine

Eight-cylinder engines, specifically V8s, are synonymous with performance vehicles and big luxury cruisers. Front-wheel drive contrarily, is mostly associated with economical, affordable, commuter-friendly transport.

With such opposing philosophies, rarely do these two intersect. But that doesn’t mean there’s never been a front-wheel drive car with a V8 engine stuffed under the hood.

Some examples date back 60 years, but the real heyday of these oddball configurations was in the 1990-2000s. Some succeeded while others did not. Regardless, they were memorable. Below we have listed our top 10 favorite cars that combine the opposing forces of V8 torque with front-wheel drive traction.

We’ll start our list where the front-wheel drive V8 ended. Cadillac will appear a lot on this list and that brand’s last front-wheel drive V8 car was the DTS. A successor to the DeVille (DTS stands for DeVille Touring Sedan), this big sedan from Caddy continued to use the 4.6-liter Northstar V8 under the hood. Depending on year and trim, the engine produced between 275-292 horsepower.

Like most General Motor products, the DTS had a corporate sibling, the Buick Lucerne. Although V6 engines were available in the Buick, it was the Lucenre CXL that housed the same V8 found in the DTS. In the end, both of these cars were finally laid to rest after the 2011 model year.

It’s not just the American manufacturers that have experimented with this unusual layout. Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi designed a large luxurious sedan with a V8 engine powering the front wheels. Called the Proudia, it was also produced by Hyundai at the same time, as the first generation Equus. 

The 4.5-liter V8 made 276 hp, which was the maximum power any Japanese manufacturer would advertise at the time. The Proudia only latest a few years before being discontinued while the Equus would soldier on until 2009.

The Cadillac Allanté is a unique example on this list as it’s one of the few coupes, and the only one that could come as a convertible. But it was the cars design and construction that made it most unusual. The body was designed by Pininfarina and manufactured in Italy. It was then shipped to America where the engine, chassis, and other components were added.

Initially the Allanté came with a 4.1-liter V8 that made 170 hp. That engine was later expanded to 4.5-liters good for 200 hp. In the car’s final year of existence, the mighty 4.6-liter Northstar V8 was installed and power rocketed up to 295 hp.

In the mid-2000s General Motors built a new version of the legendary LS V8 motor. Called the LS4, the new 303 hp 5.3-liter V8 was designed for front-wheel drive applications, and the company wasn’t shy to use it. Initially installed in the Pontiac Grand Prix GXP, the engine would also serve duty in that car’s corporate siblings, the Buick Lacross Super as well as the Chevrolet Impala SS and Monte Carlo SS.

The Grand Prix GXP had a cool party trick as it included wider tires up front compared to those in the rear, to help cope with torque steer and traction.

The Cadillac Seville switch to a front-wheel drive platform in 1980 and had V8 engines available right from the start. We’d say it wasn’t until the third-generation car showed up in 1992 though, that things got interesting. As the odd man out amongst the luxury set it competed against, the Cadillac still found some success. The secret was the 4.6-liter Northstar V8 that for the majority of car’s run, produced 275 hp in the SLS and 300 hp in the STS. It didn’t hurt that the car looked good too, eschewing some of the traditional Cadillac styling.

When the Aurora debut in 1995, it looked like nothing else on the road. In the mid ‘90s most cars were still square boxes with slightly rounded edges. The Aurora in sharp contrast was a wind-tunnel designed bullet on wheels.

Powered by a 250 hp 4.0-liter V8, the engine was a smaller version of Cadillac’s 4.6-liter Northstar V8. The car helped Oldsmobile alter its senior-citizen dodgy image. A second-generation Aurora arrived for the 2001 model year and although it was a better car all around, it lacked the visual statement of the original car.

We saved the O.G. V8 FWD car for last on our list, another ground-breaking Oldsmobile. Ok, in fairness, there was a Cadillac Eldorado twin as well, but it’s the original Oldsmobile Toronado that everyone remembers and fawns over. Flipping conventional American automotive manufacturing wisdom on its head in 1966, the Toronado wasn’t just an engineering experiment. The big front-wheel drive car was ostentatiously stylish, with a big front overhang and minimal body work protruding past the rear wheels. Under the hood wasn’t some minuscule V8 either, there was a choice of torquey big blocks, measuring 7.0- or 7.5-liters in size.

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