Re: The Second Packard "Twin Six"
Posted by BigKev On 2008/9/20 19:28:58
Looking through the 51-54 STB's and SC's and I never really saw a trend to there being significant problems with the 51-54 series cars. The motor design was pretty much the same as it was for the previous 10+ years. Of course there were early issues with the Ultramatics, but by 1954 they were pretty well seasoned (except for the GearStart).
IMHO think one of the things that hurt Packard was how long it tool Packard to come out with a V8 compared to it's competitors. If you looks at the Salesmen Databooks from 1946-1954 that still made reference to V8 engines as being "to complex". Thats eight years beating the same drum. Packard was laggin style wise and by 1954 the Rheinhart body style was now in it's forth year, and it was showing competitively, and hence the changes to the Rheinhart body style in the 55 series.
Also think that the move to Conner, and the fact that Packard had to rapidly start making their own bodies again in '55 really upset the applecart, and caused the build problems that were evident in the early 55 series cars. Also the first year of any new redesign is going to have it's bugs and adjustments. So look at everything that was happening at Packard for the 55 model run in the last quarter of '54:
-Move to the Conner Plant
-Updated Body Style
-Bodies now produced again by Packard not Briggs
-First year for the new V8 after 20+ years of Straight Eights
-First year for the Twin-Ultramatic
-Still in the process of dealing with the Studebaker merger/purchase
-Economy was in a downturn between '54-57
But again...all this is just my
IMHO think one of the things that hurt Packard was how long it tool Packard to come out with a V8 compared to it's competitors. If you looks at the Salesmen Databooks from 1946-1954 that still made reference to V8 engines as being "to complex". Thats eight years beating the same drum. Packard was laggin style wise and by 1954 the Rheinhart body style was now in it's forth year, and it was showing competitively, and hence the changes to the Rheinhart body style in the 55 series.
Also think that the move to Conner, and the fact that Packard had to rapidly start making their own bodies again in '55 really upset the applecart, and caused the build problems that were evident in the early 55 series cars. Also the first year of any new redesign is going to have it's bugs and adjustments. So look at everything that was happening at Packard for the 55 model run in the last quarter of '54:
-Move to the Conner Plant
-Updated Body Style
-Bodies now produced again by Packard not Briggs
-First year for the new V8 after 20+ years of Straight Eights
-First year for the Twin-Ultramatic
-Still in the process of dealing with the Studebaker merger/purchase
-Economy was in a downturn between '54-57
But again...all this is just my
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