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

Posted by 58L8134 On 2014/3/3 13:25:10

Hi

Except for the oversquare configuration, the result would have been a replay of the 1926-'34 Stutz OHC engines, whether single or dual cam. While benefitting from inherent freer-breathing, they ran noisier than the quiet valve-in-blocks, unacceptable for most luxury cars except one with a sporting reputation. Packard would have never allowed that in their cars, being counter to the customer preferences. In either case, as marvelous as the powerplants were in their time, technology had marched on rendering the old long stroke/low rpm/high torque configuration outdated.

Preception is reality: when the public embraced the ohv V8 as the great new coming thing, any other configuration was toast. The public was ready for such advances that solved driveability issues, whether higher horsepower V8's, automatic transmissions, power steering, power brakes, etc. Whether these were advances is always questionable but folks voted with their dollars so the point is moot. Packard should have embraced the old saying "If ya can't beat 'um, join 'um" just done so a tad sooner.

As far as long hoods, postwar that would simply be a styling affectation, no one expected it to be a function of engine configuration.

Steve