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When a new engine layout becomes popular, it tends to hang around for a very long time. The straight eight is a rare exception. Introduced just after World War I, it was widely adopted for road and racing cars but fell out of favour in the ’50s, in part because of its length compared with other engines. But during that short period, it inspired some truly grand cars.

Bugatti Royale 1927

Five years after introducing a straight eight of modest size, Bugatti created the largest engine of this layout ever used in a production car. Conceived at the end of the prosperous Roaring Twenties, the Type 41, aka Royale, was powered by a 12.8-litre behemoth originally destined for an aircraft. It delivered around 300bhp and a somewhat unearthly 875lb ft. Such a package meant that it remains one of the longest cars in history, at 6401mm. It was also extremely expensive, which proved a big problem after the 1929 stock market crash and ensuing depression. Only six Royales were built and survivors today are valued at around £20 million each. The unused engines from the curtailed production run found a second life powering streamlined railcar trains for the SNCF, one of which took a contemporary speed record of 122mph in 1934.

Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8 1919

It’s generally agreed that the Tipo 8 was the first car sold to the public with a straight-eight engine. Italian maker Isotta Fraschini devised a 5.9-litre unit that helped make its first post-war vehicle a credible alternative to those being produced by rival luxury makers Rolls-Royce and Hispano-Suiza. The engine was later enlarged to 7.4 litres for the Tipo 8A and 8B, the latter proving to be exactly the kind of car the world didn’t need during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Renault Reinastella 1929

Hard though it might be to imagine now, Renault was famous for luxury cars before World War II, so it was almost inevitable that a straight-eight model would be introduced sooner or later. Sure enough, the 7.1-litre Renahuit was unveiled at the Paris show in 1928 and went on sale the following year after being renamed Reinastella. As well as being the company’s first eight-cylinder car, it was the first Renault with a radiator mounted in front of the engine rather than behind it.

Buick Series 50 1931

Buick introduced its overhead-valve straight eight for the 1931 model year and immediately fitted it to every car in its range, including the Series 50 (pictured). Different applicatio