Re: 120/160 & Clipper version & Twelve fuel economy

Posted by Tim Cole On 2013/1/20 22:00:16

According to the information of the day the post war Packards pretty much uniformly consumed around 15 mpg at a measured 60 mph and around 10-20% less overall.

Advertised mileage for 1934 was 10.5 mpg for the Eight, 10 mpg for the Super Eight, and 9 mpg for the V-12.

In 1937 the 120 was turning in under 14 mpg according to Packard and the 110 was reporting as high 18.

A long time ago I was at a party and it went like this: "Oh we had a Packard. You couldn't go around the block without putting gas in it."

The late Ted Kavenagh was working in a service garage after WWII and a Cadillac V-16 came in. The owner was using 10 gallons of gas every 30 miles. So Ted and his friend swapped out the carburetors for Zenith BB1's. They threw the original Johnsons in the trash. The owner came back a week later and tipped them $20 because the car was going 30 miles on 3 gallons of gas.

According to engineers up to 40% of motor power is used to turn the motor through compression so for those undersquare long stroke Packards the penalty is going to be higher.

I find the Lincoln story amusing because Chrysler was always an arrogant corporation. Those Ford V-8's ran great. You get behind the wheel of one and in the words of John Dillinger "it's a real treat." However, the Mobilgas runs always generated high numbers. I think they claimed 29-30 mpg for the Corvair on the run which seems impossible. But I've known lots of Ford V-8 owners who claimed over 20 mpg on a regular basis.