Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Seen on here where in 1951 Packard got 22 mpg in the Mobil Gas Run..... Find that hard to believe, unless the road was downhill all the way....LOL.I assume this was with a car with overdrive and 3 speed.

John

One thing to keep in mind is that gasoline of that era had a higher energy per gallon; the 10% ethanol costs us perhaps 6 to 8% less mpg. I think that kind of mileage in a carefully prepared car and with a professional driver is not unreasonable.

I know the had a lot of little tricks to help mileage along. Such as getting into high as fast as possible.

Dr. Dyneto's right again (above). Not hard to believe at all, esp. since it was probably the underrated, tough, short-stroke (3 1/2 x 3 3/4) 288 ci engine.
I got 22.5 mpg from a '40 One-Twenty (282 ci eight, 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 b x s) highway driving inc. some at 65 mph in the early 1980s. Only deviance from stock mechanicals in cars leaving the factory with overdrive was 4.09:1 rear axle in place of 4.36 (2.95:1 overall in OD). Denman bias ply tires, 32 psi cold, drove with light foot, let the car build speed on mild downgrades of the mainly level highways, slow a trace on upgrades, never falling below 55mph. Drive with "a light touch."

You have to "feel" your car, keep your foot out of the carburetor, not pull too much manifold pressure.

Absolutely nothing remarkable about the 22mph you cite.
A '51 Lincoln won that year's Mobilgas Economy Run class and Sweepstakes awards with a 66.484 ton mpg and 25.488 mpg. A 331-ci L-head V-8 introduced for '48 Ford F7 and F8 trucks running through standard shift with 3.31 rear end and 2.39:1 overdrive ratio.

1940-50 Packards with the 356-ci nine-mained straight eight are definitely "sisters under the skin (as a Packard ad boasted)" of the gas hog PT boats which often had to be towed back to base after sorties by destroyers.

My '47 Super Clipper has the slightly taller non-overdrive 3.92:1 rear axle (in place of factory 4.09) and overdrive (2.82 overall ratio in OD), plenty of tire pressure, whether the previous Denmans or present bias-sized Bridgestone R230 LT radials,
and mileage never beats the low teens. Anyone with a 356 who tells you better needs to learn how to use a calculator.

But with the 282, 288 engines, long enough legs, 32 psi cold bias ply, 40 or better radials, and a knowing driver with a sensitive foot on the gas pedal, these cars can easily eclipse 20mpg.

Packard Twelves never got better than single digit mpg. Never.

Gearing and tire pressure are paramount. Most old cars are geared like trucks, unfortunately, rare exception was 1936-37 Cord 810/812, their good Lycoming V-8 same b/s as Packard's 1948-54 288, 2.75:1 in fourth gear, blown '37s 2.95 because superchargers like rpm.

Remember: Weight is the enemy in any road car, which is how some of us see our Packards, coming from a sports car background, having no interest in the crapola most domestic old car owners want; air conditioning, gew gaws, add ons. Bentley discouraged even radio in their 1952-55 R-Type Continentals. Too bad Packard didn't produce something rivaling these, instead of the Olds Fiesta-, Buick Skylark-, Cadillac Eldorado-aping Caribbean; an essentially stock conv. with 200 lbs. additional "sporty" dreck, but by then the Company's cars were second-tier to their more lucrative, less hassle jet engine contracts, they increasingly following GM's leads, phoning in the cars with weary advertising copy, lame PR to a vanishing clientele, all independents doomed in the brave new postwar market, tho' a '51 200 nothingmobile owned long ago had good ergonomics and that stout 288. Idled so softly I had to tell people to step back from the door before driving away. The upholstery was like something out of an ordnance vehicle, the build quality and interior of an Oldsmobile better, all in all.

Bill Lear said, "I'd sell my grandmother to get rid of another pound from a Lear Jet."

Packards are good road cars and the more rationally engined models can get decent gas mileage, if, like the car you cite, the trunk isn't full of junk nor the backseat with chubby bubbies; a third of Americans clinically morbidly obese.

I'm slim, vegan per Drs. Neal Barnard/Dean Ornish/Caldwell Esselstyn/Joel Fuhrman, and jettisoned over 100 lbs. from my '47 SC, some of this from switching to a vastly better Optima Red Top battery.
Try the above yourself. All of it. Prevention's the key in both our and our cars' health and performance.
Less is more.

I do have the 288, but only have the Ultramatic, not the 3 speed with overdrive. I could shed a few pounds myself....
Figured a 1951 200 4 dr would probably get around 14-15mpg.

John

My '51, a little old not Pasadena but neighboring Hawthorne, CA Scotswoman's 48,414-mile original bought for a song simply as i was new to old cars and thought it nifty to have something my age with a Packard label to drive and save my '40 120 for special events, had a 3.9 rear axle, so I was always wanting "another gear" on the NorCal highways.
Her Xerox exec son had it for sale as he wanted the third bay of his garage for a pool table. That old gas smelled so bad I thought the Sinclair dinosaur had died.

However, Tom McCahill, dean of road testers who called them as he saw them and knew what he was talking, writing about, raved over an Ultramatic 3.9-axled '51 200 in one of his wonderful, oft hilarious Popular Mechanix reviews, in which he also tested a '51 400 (Patrician). Tom preferred the 200, and reported a stopwatched/fifth-wheeled genuine 95mph, which was "....really peeling the wind." The Patrician was only another six mph faster.

But jack up yours, chalk the driveshaft, and turn one of the tires with the other in place and count the revolutions, because at some point in '51, the 200s got a smarter 3.54:1 rear cog. Maybe someone here will know how to identify what gear yours is by markings on the case.

As said, good ergonomics, none better in the '50s,
certainly not the claustrophobia I had driving a couple Hudson Hornets.
Assuming your part of Pennsylvania's not as hilly as Pittsburg, and you keep the car, you can always switch to a 3.54 from a parts car, which shouldn't be too hard to find.

My ex-Packard, -Hudson, -GM garage mechanic's mechanic put in new rings, the legacies of the old cigarette-puffing harpie's short trips, but didn't touch the valves, that 288 idling like velvet.
Don't forget, your Ultramatic has a direct-drive, lock up torque convertor, unlike Buick's Dynaflow. Some of us Packardites were chagrined when Chrysler in the late '70s ballyhooed their "new" lock up torque convertors in an effort to boost CAFE ratings.

A period HydraMatic took more abuse and rapid acceleration, but Consumer Reports rated Ultramatic highest of automatic transmissions. Like many English cars, Ultramatic suffers an undeserved reputation simply from too many being serviced by those unfamiliar with them, and it was never suited to the torque curve of a powerful V-8 in the dying company's final cars. John DeLorean left Chrysler's work-study program to join Packard at a then impressive $14,000 annual salary under the respected Forest McFarland, who'd headed the team developing Ultramatic, giving it an improved torque converter and dual drive ranges, relaunched as "Twin-Ultramatic."
Ultramatic was Packard's sole postwar innovation of note, even Torsion Level coming from an outside engineer who had to sell the hell out of it to Packard's hidebound, coupon-clipping management after the Big Three passed.
My wonderful old mechanic's mechanic rebuilt mine, necessitated by some mummified seals, including the 11- to nine-inch lock up clutch upgrade, one of the few transmission specialists unfazed by Ultramatic, still around at 93 in great spirits but sidelined only by macular degeneration, remembers every job he ever did since before War II, when he ran motor pools in the Pacific.

Those "contour-styled" Packards have enormous trunks.
I'm 6'3" and had plenty of room behind the wheel. Remember, if you keep it, you can always upgrade the floor covering from that rubber matting to a nice carpet, etc.
Always amused us the purists who are up in arms over anyone tastefully upgrading an off-the-rack car priced for the cutthroat car biz, even tho' not butchering anything, while oohing and ahhing a Packard Darrin, for example, no two of them alike and much of their craftsmanship only a cut above a high school auto shop class.

Two other things you might want to do are locate the Ultramatic dipstick location just to the left of the driveshaft hump on your front floor, and hacksaw an opening to ease checking ATF level. And another in the trunk floor directly over your gas tank sending unit, something Chrysler did at least in the '40s, but not Packard. A piece of aluminum, four sheet metal screws and with carpet in place, no one's the wiser, life easier.

A friend back then with a '53 300/Cavalier had 127,000 miles on his Ultramatic and other than a band adjustment, never any service beyond periodic ATF drain and refill. He drove the car like a grown up.

However, Dave Brownell, editor of the much-missed Special Interest Autos, recounted a '51 200 with stick and overdrive owned in high school, with which he routinely stomped allegedly hot Fords, Mercuries, an Olds 88 and tri-Chevies, other than a '57 fuelie, in the usual teenage impromptus. He said he'd get it into second, then second overdrive and just leave it there, let that tough, short-stroke 288 wind.
Tho' babying my Ultramatic and letting impatient Datsuns and Toyotas whip around me, once underway, i liked opening up that 288 and making high-speed passes now and then, and it was sure-footed on winding roads, my Cavalier friend accusing me of driving it "like a Ferrari" once at speed. Ah, callow youth.

Jean Trevoux did well with a contour-styled Packard having a log manifold and four Strombergs at the grueling Carrera Panamerica, all the more impressive as he lacked class-winning Lincoln's covert factory support.
Thanks to Big Kev's well ordered site and contributors, you can read about that here.

Unfortunately, my rubber floor mat did not survive the years. It was brittle and cracked, so I will replace with carpet when I do the car. I mainly bought it as a "fun" car.

John

-> This way, please, for getting further information.

Thanks Guscha, that was a good read and by clicking on the images was able to enlarge enough to read them.

John

'Bentley discouraged even radio in their 1952-55 R-Type Continentals. Too bad Packard didn't produce something rivaling these, instead of the Olds Fiesta-, Buick Skylark-, Cadillac Eldorado-aping Caribbean; '

You could have ordered a club coupe with the big engine and overdrive transmission. Not up to the Bentley in terms of fine leather upholstery etc but a light weight (for a Packard) hot performing car.