Re: What if Packard developed an overhead cam short stroke straight eight?

Posted by Dave Brownell On 2014/3/3 11:56:27

While I will agree with you that the 1948 double overhead cam Jaguar six was placed into a mostly-undeserving chassis, left-over from a previous generation, the "mechanical brakes" comment was mistaken. The early cars had drum hydraulic brakes combining Lockheed and Girling technology. Remember, those brakes and their inadequacies led Jaguar to fit the world's first early disc brakes to later versions of that best selling premium sports car.

A better example of what might have happened might be either the Pontiac Sprint engine with a belt driven cam on top of what used to be a Chevy six cylinder block, or what Kaiser did with an overhead valve head atop their old L (or was it F-type?) block in Jeep Wagoneers. Each probably reflected engineering departments trying their best to get around accounting's rules of what could be afforded.

Packard, at least, never gave in as witnessed by their independent designs for Ultramatics, Torsion-Level and their own free-breathing V-8. Perhaps a 1951 or 1952, combined with an out-sourced GM or Chrysler V-8, might have been a better seller in hindsight, but the conservative board stayed the course with the L-big eights. If they had gone the overhead valve conversion, all those post-war cars would have sounded like pre-1953 Buicks.