Re: Packard V8 supercharged engine

Posted by Leeedy On 2014/3/15 18:27:21

Hello...

RE: the black Clipper... The Clipper I mentioned was a 1956 hardtop from Oregon. I believe it was in Hot Rod magazine in 1957 or so. As I recall it merely had the Caribbean intake with dual quads installed along with a bunch of things done to the engine. It had a stick & over trans and ran respectable times for its day. I kept the original magazine for many years, but it is in storage now and not easily accessible. Take a look around on the internet.

RE: the photo showing Clark Gable and the supercharger in a T-Bird... Yes, I am certain the the photos I have in my collection and others I saw many years ago were all from the same series. The photo you show here is different from the ones I have, but I am certain it was taken at the same time and place-in front of the Paxton building. My photos even have the same 1955 Oldsmobile sitting behind a chain link fence.

There were also once a couple of hopped-up race prepped V-8 Packards out in the Mohave Desert at a place called "The Packard Doctor." This was back in the 1970s. One of these cars was a 1956 Patrician that had the entire front end radically modified and lightened... and a very hot engine installed. There are photos of this car I took back then now posted on the PAC web site. Furthermore, there was another V-8 there that had a supercharger. No idea what ever happened to these cars.

I have seen two different configurations of supercharging on Packard V-8s over my lifetime. One I already have mentioned here is the Paxton/McCullagh version. The other was a impeller type, GM 6-71 type that sat on top of the engine and fed by what appeared to be four 2BBL carburetors with little individual chrome air cleaners this crazy car was once on display at a hot rod show back in the 1960s in Detroit. No idea if it even ran, but it got a lot of attention!