Re: 1938 Packard Eight Deluxe

Posted by su8overdrive On 2012/7/8 21:21:40

Cousin Raymond -- Welcome. Your big Lincoln is a tasteful, restrained barouche. I saw a '36 Lincoln Willoughby sport sedan in the early '80s, someone storing it in a hangar at the airport, as many folk with old cars do.

Marveled at the quality. Packard and Pierce V-12s may've had more oomph, but NO big '30s luxury car had finer craftsmanship than the Lincoln K, which used, as you know, chromeplated brass fittings where a Cadillac or Packard used chromed potmetal. Majestic car, with quality second to none from either side of the Atlantic.

My experience with Nashes comes secondhand, other than driving a friend's '54 Nash-Healey with its stock seven-main-bearing inline ohv six, one of those rare cars that has that solid, carved-from-a-single-billet-of-steel feel.
I'm not a Porsche guy, but a friend's '65 356-C bathtub coupe shared that quality feeling, and is no doubt why Sir William Lyons admitted in later years, letting his hair down tho' while he was still on Jaguar's board,

"We never got Jaguar quality near Porsche's."

Saw a '38 Jensen Model H saloon, which as you also know, is the stock 260-ci Nash twin-ignition, ohv straight 8-powered alternative to the stock 254-ci flathead, splash-oiled Hudson inline 8-propelled Railton. Lovely, and they all came with overdrive, which only a couple '39 Railtons had.

After asking everywhere why the 1935-41 Nash twin-ignition, ohv 260-ci eight wasn't more popular then and today, my auld mechanic's mechanic, a veteran amongst NorCal Hudson, Packard and other circles, being staff sergeant of War II Pacific motor pools, then working in, and running, postwar Hudson, Packard, Pontiac service departments, building Hudson sprint car engines before starting his own storied shop, gave me some insight.

"That Nash eight had nine main bearings, but they were narrow, so they soon lost oil pressure. And the Nash front suspension was okay, but it was weak, should've been beefier. Mine (bought 1946) was in nice shape, only had 30,000 miles on it. It drove nice, smooth, but was no ball of fire. It had low oil pressure. I dropped the pan, looked up at all those main bearings, and sold it for what i paid for it."

The Nash 8, as you also know, is a paragon of smoothness.
Others here will sing, on key, the One-Twenty's virtues, i also owned one many years. And the Hudson, its splash oiling notwithstanding, despite being the same size as the Nash ohv, had more oomph.

According to Maurice Hendry--- and will someone please tell me if he's still with us, he lived/lives in Auckland, New Zealand --- R-R engineers once substituted a stock 254-ci Hudson eight for the troublesome 445-ci ohv V-12 in the 1936-39 Phantom III. After R-R's brass drove it around Derby's grounds, raving about its virtues, the engineers opened the hood, showed them the flathead American engine.

Clearly, R-R's beleaguered engineers didn't want to build that monstrosity anymore than Fred Duesenberg wanted to produce the outsized, quickly obsolete Model J. As mentioned, Augie Duesenberg was in 1940 offering a marine version of the Hudson 254-ci eight. I mention this merely as Hudson was as much, or more, competitor to your Nash than Packard's One Twenty.

The Jensen was a higher quality job than the Railton, smoother, and a Model H owner told me back in the '90s that it was faster than his 4.3-liter Alvis, faster than a 3.5-liter R-R Bentley from the mid '30s. But a Railton had more hustle.

Packard's One-Twenty, like the Hudson and most such sized inline engines, used five larger main bearings. The earlier big 384-ci Packard, Pierce, Chrysler straight eights, having more room, had wider bearings which held oil pressure longer in service.

Duesenberg's outsized Model J used only five (large) main bearings likely as Fred Duesenberg was looking for performance over refinement.

My old mechanic also said Nash built relatively few eights, most of their production being the six(es).

Finally, if you know of a sound '37 Nash Lafayette coupe with overdrive for sale on the West Coast, please, please let me know, as an old friend who runs a Packard shop owned one as a young man, liked it, and wouldn't mind another, tho' he'll never, ever part with the '41 One-Twenty club coupe he's owned since 1956.

BTW, reverting to our other thread, "Okay, I'm Calling Your Bluff, Show Me How Packard Was Better" on the General Forum here,

the above underscores that all this junior/senior malarkey is just that.


Fine cars can come in any size, both your Lincoln K berline's, and your Nash Ambassador 8's. Thanks again for sharing these rare marvels with us, since we've long wanted to know about your Nash eight, another "pocket luxury car," as such were known in the day. Most of us here at PackardInfo are catholic in our tastes.

As Peter Packard posted on the aforementioned thread, they all have their merits.