Re: Since Packard had a V-12 in the 30's....

Posted by Packard53 On 2009/7/22 20:14:14

Rusty: I surely having been missing something about RR in my 60 years on this earth. Please tell what years RR had a production straight 8. From what I have been able to read about the history of RR the reason they never produced a straight eight for automotive use was because they couldn't figure out how to solve the torsional problems of a straight eight.

The main reason that Wills Saint Claire dropped the V8 engine and went to a 6 cylinder engine was because of cheaper production costs. The twin overhead camshaft V8 that was first introduced in the Wills Saint Clair was expensive to produce and considered by many at the time as to complicated to work on and service.

John F. Shireman