Re: 320 engine in a 1956 Clipper

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2012/5/9 17:15:26

Yes Kev, that's the one. You and I had discussed this car at length some years back. It was a "D" car meaning it was ordered, built but cancelled, and then re-ordered 3 more times before finally being sold. It had a special request interior (#195) and it's history is quite well documented. I don't recall the details of the special interior or if it remained with the car after the last factory reconfiguration.

Back to the RHD export Clippers for 1956, some more interesting details from the "Autocar" article. Power steering was not available in an RHD conversion, and the headlights were French Marchal to meet the European requirements. They gave the handling/suspension very high marks, gave the brakes (especially the rears) poor marks, and found the radio to be exceptional. It had the 3.3l rear axle and they reported a 0-60 in 11.3 secs, quarter mile in 18.5 secs, and top speed of 110 and still rising when they aborted the run.

One interesting observation looking at the under-hood photo is that they flipped the vacuum wiper motor 180 degrees due to the relocation of controls to the right-hand side.