Re: The Second Packard "Twin Six"

Posted by PackardV12fan On 2008/9/18 23:30:19

John - you are missing the point about what Packard was all about. It produced, in my view, about the best car you could buy in any given price class it chose to compete in.

It would be just as silly to compare a Packard Six with a Packard Super Eight, as it would be to compare a Packard Twelve with a Duesenburg or Marmon. You could buy three or four Packard Twelves for the cost of ONE of those.

As a Packard buff, you can take pride in the fact that Packard products were often near as much, if as not as much car as many other make's cars that cost much more.

Next time you get your hands on a Duesenburg or Marmon V-16, look under the hood at the carbs. Depending on the year, you will see carbs with only about two thirds of the "swept volume" of the Stromberg EE-3. All the fancy engine design in the world ( The Lycoming engine in the Duesenburg was pretty advanced, but in many Dusenburgs CRIPPLED by the smaller carb, they just couldn't BREATHE).

So of course the clearly RACING type engine of the Dusenberg (four valves per cyl., over-head valves with cross-flow heads, etc) made them faster than a Packard Twelve, but, depending on how they were set up and what bodies they carried. not by all that much. (UNLESS you are talking about one of the later ones which WERE also equipped with the same Stromberg EE-3 as the Packard V-12 used.)

Same goes for the Marmon. Bigger displacement motor in, in may cases, a MUCH lighter car. I road-raced a couple of times a friend of mine who had a Marmon V-16 coupe. Of COURSE he pulled away from me, but not by all that much.

The bottom line was that Packard was a success, and Marmon and Dusenburgs were failures in the market-place. Take a look at the photos of fancy diplomatic receptions, operas, estate parties, etc. And look at the sales figures. The big Packard outsold by many times EVERY other make ANYWHERE in the world. The wealthy car buyers of that era, test-driving a Packard Twelve, a Cad. V-16, Duesenburg, or Marmon, made their choice for good reason. A PROPERLY MAINTAINED Packard is by any COMPETENT writer who KNOWS what they are talking about, by far the most pleasant to drive.

Judging by what the Packard philosphy was all about, I believe that had Packard chosen to compete in the same price class as the Marmon V-16 and the Duesenburg, they would have been hopelessly out-classed by the Packard product.