Re: Hot Rod Packards

Posted by Tim Cole On 2009/12/28 18:42:10

Actually, immediately after the war one of the hottest cars on the drag strip was the bone stock Packard 160 two door coupe. However, after a short period of speed shifting the transmissions literally blew up and the cars junked on the spot.

The 10th-11th series cars had superior enough power to weight ratios to get into amateur racing as well.

I used to have a picture of an 11th series Eight racing on dirt track and being pushed hard enough to almost lift the front inside wheel off the ground.

In the hands of a skilled driver the solid axle cars could corner surprisingly well. I knew one guy (Jake Clancy) who set a record hill climbing his father's 1932 Cadillac V-12 sliding it around turns at over 50 mph. Charlie threw a fit when he found out.

Packard power usually was achieved via displacement and too much power is lost turning extra metal in those motors.

Another problem is these old blocks have lost a lot of metal due to age and this affects things like burn rates. So about the only thing I see coming from super tuning might be a powerful explosion.