Somehow I'm a little confused and want to save you a lot of work. You can make the height of the car anything you want just by shortening your adjustable front pins or making even shorter ones. It is just like cutting the heels off a pair of high heel shoes--the lady is going to stand closer to the ground. Then you adjust your leveler to whatever rake you like and you are done.

Shortening or lengthening the front pins changes the height of the WHOLE car. The leveler only changes the trim. I regularly change pins on customer's cars to achieve the desired ride height--usually beause the bars have sagged (particularly 56s) and the car is already sitting low.

Heads up: TL cars that are sitting low do not ride well. Many folks have told me they can hardly believe how much better their car drives after I've brought it back up to standard height. But as the Germans say "Schoenheit muss leiden"---beauty must be painful.

Is this an R11 with the long 51-54 style tailshaft, or the short 49-50 style tailshaft? Believe I have numbers for both and will look them up when I get in the shop tomorrow.

For illustration, check out this great 55 Clipper Deluxe I saw at Warren this year. The sculpturing of the rear quarters is fine.

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Great topic, and I appreciate the various comments tho I tend to prefer 55s--I never could quite deal with the headlight hoods on the 56 seniors, or the chrome headlight dishpans on the 56 juniors. I also like the windsplits on the tops of the 55 fenders and the concave scallops on either side of the hood. The view over the hood while driving is great.

But an important detail I'd like to point out, where Packard was ahead of most of the competition is surface development, that is the actual contours or sculpture of the sheet metal. Stand by the front wheel of a 51-56 and site towards the rear. The sculpturing of the rear quarters is taut and quite well done, especially the 54-56 seniors. Likewise the scallops on the hoods. Site along the fenders of say a 58 Olds and it brings to mind standing behind a fat lady in stretch pants at the checkout at Walmart. I'll take the Packard.

That's why 53 Caribs and 55 Senior look so smart with minimal trim on the quarters, IMHO.

Back to the question about who would want a V8 without TL, let me put it this way:

I?ve had a 51 200 for about 15 years and have driven it more than 40K miles, some of them at over 100mph. I love the way it rides and handles (with radials). Well, how about a 51 200 with 90 extra horsepower, delightfully weird two-toning, and a really beautiful dash? That is a 55 Clipper Deluxe. The chassis is the same. In most normal driving, the ride is virtually indistinguishable from a TL car. I'd say the TL cars corner slightly better because of better roll control. But with or without TL, I would happily match Packard handling with a contemporary Buick, Olds or Chrysler. The Packards really were better.

I love having TL in my pickup truck, but for normal driving around its about a horse apiece. Ross

Sadly, I don't have a source for new compensator springs, though I don't think it would be a big deal to have some wound. I have a shelf full of BTVs in the basement and regularly canabalize them for oddments. The spring shown in the article was original to that unit and somehow sat in that decaying fetid brake fluid without damage.

Thanks, Rusty, that was just the insight I was looking for. I am guessing they left the 288 alone so as not hurt its low speed torque. With that relatively short stroke it does not have that in the abundance the 327s did. With that in mind, I think I will just dial in my cam timing to the stock 15 degrees before TDC. But the next time I build a 327...

I get to drive lots of Packards in my business, and I have always felt that there was something a little special about the 54s. Clippers and Cavaliers always seemed to have more snap and be more responsive than the equivalent 53s. I was hard pressed to believe that the 5 hp difference between equivalent engines could be that noticable--and wondered also where that 5 hp came from.

There were only two basic cams supplied for the 288/327 family, either hydraulic lifter or solid lifter flavors. Even the cam for the 359 has the same timing as a 327 (per the specs in the back of the service manual), but I understand it is notched a bit for conrod clearance. Thus it gets a different part number.

Anyway, I just noticed that all the 54s other than the 288 got a new cam gear. This must be indexed differently than the old cam gear. With the old gear the intakes started to open 15 degree BTDC, with the new, at 10 degree. All of the specs are shifted the same 5 degrees.

I'd love to hear some comments from folks who know cams about the whys and hows of this change. Apparently it helped the breathing on the big engines. Wouldn't it also help the 288? I'm just building up a 288 now for my roadster and would make a stepped drive key to achieve the 54 timing if it seemed a good idea.

I'd go a little further and point out that the 245 six is actually the "father" of the 356, 288, 327, and 359. They worked out their new architecture, so to speak, on that engine first, and eventually settled on its bore size and spacing and valve locations so that all engines could be manufactured on the same tooling. So the eights listed above are actually sixes with extra cylinders and finessing. All but the 359 use the same piston, and the 245 shares rods with the 327.

Somehow Mercedes has managed to cover a very wide spectrum of price classes with no loss of prestige at the upper end. I think Packard could have done it too, but under Christopher lost the will or vision to do so.

No fear, the power antennas always had a bigger hole than the manual antennas. You can just enlarge your existing hole and the grommet and phenolic adapter from ANY 51-56 power antenna will work fine. PM me if you need a template for grinding out the hole or need the correct antenna switch.