Re: Powerful 46-47 Supers/Custom Supers

Posted by su8overdrive On 2012/2/23 18:52:28

Thanks, sportsfans, but this is a replay of the results i got when i posed the same question on the CCCA Forums. The words of buffs with experience in well-tweaked, modified race and drag cars in the '60s doesn't answer the question. Neither do drag race times, as they're about acceleration, not top speed.

Acceleration = weight/torque/final gearing

Absolute speed= coeficient of drag (CD rating)/horsepower/final gearing

I'm sure somewhere are documented, written, sanctioned top speeds of the above cars, stock, in the day.

Packard47's opening post about the listing of the 1940 Cadillac V-16 being a stretch is absolutely right. Cad V-16 production ceased in December, 1939. Only 61 1940 Cad V-16s were delivered. In fact, just 314 were sold in the flathead V-16's first year, 1938, and a mere 136 in 1939. Cad's final V-16 was strictly an ultimate statement for the marketing panache that'd filter down to lesser GMobiles, an advertising write off.

Packard management had a soft laugh when Cadillac's first V-16 debuted for 1930, as it was a vindication of Packard engineering, being a straight eight with the firing impulses halved for less crankpin loading. The Packard and Pierce-Arrow 12s were finer engines. But "16 cylinders" got the public's attention. This wasn't lost on Stutz, who called their sohc inline eight the "SV-16 (single valve)" and their dohc straight 8 the "DV-32."

As far as V-16s go, thirty years ago, a poll of SAE engineers included the Marmon, not the Cadillac, 16, among the top 20 internal combustion auto engines of the 20th Century.

So much for the 1930s. Now, if we can just unearth some concrete, sanctioned top speed runs of 1940s Buicks and Packards!