Re: Top Speeds

Posted by su8overdrive On 2023/2/14 21:08:49

Good question. Many of us would like to see sanctioned top speed results, per AAA for one.

I've seen various mentions in credible sources of 78-80 mph for the 1937-39 Six, including Packard's own "Promotional Pointers," comparing that model with a Buick Model 40 (renamed Special for 1940), including crowing over another inch of seat width, seat height, legroom, brake or driveline feature, in which Packard ceded the junior Buick "four miles an hour faster."

At 16 minutes into the below, Packard claims 104 mph for the new 1940 One-Sixty sedan on their Proving Grounds' banked oval, supposedly the world's fastest paved track through the 1930s at least, permitting higher speeds than Brooklands or Indy, etc., but the below promo is hokey,only shows how the Company forgot, as with hokum like a '40 junior print ad heralded "It's happening on a thousand Main Streets," that people want what the couple in the house on the hill have, not what their neighbors aspire to.

How many ads do you see containing the adjective "downscale?" No mention if that "104 mph" is confirmed or strictly, as the promo suggests, speedometer reading, which is no better than ballpark:

FIXED! 1940 Packard Motor Car Company Film - Quality First Runtime: 18:10

Packard later ran an ad for the new '41 1/2 Clipper (introduced in April, because used car inventories traditionally lowest that time of year; same reason the Mustang debuted 1964 1/2, both new models turning out to be bellringers) showing it traveling X amount further on the same amount of gas as an old/traditional bodied '41 120, thanks to streamlining.
Off subject, but the 1949-50 bathtub Nashes had the lowest coefficient of drag of any concurrent domestic car, Packard's porky 1949-50 Custom Eight among them.

Not much help, but neither am i tendering hear tell or my uncle said.

I have top speed results of all 1949-50 domestic cars via John Bond, Road & Track's founder, tech editor, a degreed engineer who allowed no BS, but this won't conclusively answer your prewar Six question.

In aeronautics, cruising speed is that which returns greatest economy of operation. There is no single percentage of top speed for all automobiles, because of the wide variance in quality, bearing type, engine design and breathing capability, gearing, CD ratings. For example, circa 1950, 2,500 ft. per minute widely accepted as safe sustained maximum piston speed, whether low-priced car or new Bentley Continental. We've seen breathless gush over the latter's "120 mph cruising speed," for example, when 116 possible on stringent manufacturer's test only with rear seat and spare tire removed, tires pumped up to 50 psi (very dangerous).

Similarly, you'll read about Packard Twelves able to reach 100 mph. Their tallest and rare optional rear axle ratio, 4.06:1, in a roadster with rear mounted spare instead of sidemounts, top in place, no outside rear view mirrors or other effluvia, might return 90+.

A '40 Hudson Eight sedan, certainly with overdrive, Hudson's first year for that feature, gave an AAA-recorded 93 mph at Bonneville, fastest US car that year, according to article in that year's trade monthly, Automotive Industries. But perhaps Packard, Cadillac, Buick didn't bother to send a car.

Finding credible absolute speed in non-sporting cars is difficult because it wasn't an issue to many people, nor necessary in advertising. For example, did you ever see a claimed top speed given in a late '60s, '70 Olds 98, Buick Electra 225, Cadillac DeVille or Ford LTD advertisement?

When England's respected road tester/auto writer John Bolster trialed the new and pudgy '60 Jaguar XK-150S, it offering same engine tune as the coming year's new E-Type (there's no such thing as an "XKE," that's 'Murican speak, and the E did not go "150 mph" unless
rigorously tweaked with the tallest available axle), they even removed the antenna.

May this provide perspective, and given the effort Howard HH56--and OwenDyneto, Tim Cole and only a couple others -- put into their helpful, accurate replies most here take for granted, yet do not bother reciporocating, might we make rule to delete those posts laden with misspelt words? This is a site for the preservation, maintenance, rebuilding, enjoyment of Packards, a company once advertising in National Geographic, Literary Digest, the New Yorker.

If most here gathered have their cars fettled to the level of their online effort or erudition, i wouldn't ride two blocks in, let alone drive one of them.
We get it. The Branson/Dollywood/Fox set likes Packards, too. So be it. But let's have some decorum and effort. Kev's knocked himself out providing a stellar site. We should all do no less contributing in kind.

If too lazy to consult a dictionary, try Spell Check, since most here live online, not in their garages or behind the wheel.

Finally, we all know why old cars geared like tractors, so let's not spin our wheels rehashing that.

John Fogarty, you also asked for 1937-39 120 top speed. Add four of five mph to the Six figures.