Re: Confidential Information for Cadillac Retail Salesmen
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Home away from home
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I think the Packard is a better looking car, because I hate those Mamie Van Dorin bumpers on the Cadillac. I think the 55-56 Packards would look a lot better without them. I thought the 53 Packard Patrician interior was tops, but they cheapened it in 54. I also can't stand that ridiculous rear clip on the Cadillac.
There is no arguing about motors. The 331 OHV Caddy is a deep block and a standard setter. The Packard V-8 isn't even a deep block. Hydramatic was likewise an engineering triumph, but in 55-56 the Packard 400 was actually faster than the Imperial with the hemi. The Chrysler racked up superior miles on the odometer because the hemi head burns cleaner and so the oil stays cleaner. Everybody copied Cadillac. Nobody copied Packard. Heck, Cadillac was outselling Studebaker. If the 55-56's hadn't racked up so many customer complaints things might have gone better for Packard, but Packard just didn't have the money to sort out the engineering and so their reputation was in tatters.
Posted on: 2013/9/16 20:07
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Re: Confidential Information for Cadillac Retail Salesmen
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Forum Ambassador
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Mr PB said:
Quote: The Chrysler Hemi was copied from the Cadillac engine, verbatim. The Hemi head was the only difference. PatGreen replied: Quote: Wasn't the studebaker pretty much a direct copy as well? I would have thought Chrysler would have been more original.... The story* goes: Chrysler knew they needed a modern V-8 engine, and the Cadillac V-8 was the first modern large bore,short stroke engine engine and rather than start from scratch they went to a funeral home on Woodward ave, about a mile and a half from the Chrysler Highland Park headquarters, and for a sum of cash borrowed the parlor's relatively new Cadillac hearse, took it to the engineering garage, pulled the engine, mic'ed everything and put it back together, in about three hectic days. If you take to the two blocks, stripped bare and measure they are the same length, the deck height from the crank CL is the same, the machined land surface where the head mates is the same dimension. Compare the bore, stroke, compression ratio and journal diameters from these two charts: The Cadillac: secondchancegarage.com/public/492.cfm The Chrysler: secondchancegarage.com/public/595.cfm The manufacture of the Hemi head was a very costly enterprise, and management was not for it because of that cost, but it was a very successful red herring to take GMs eyes off of the base short block numbers, which had been cobbed from the Cadillac OHV V-8. * as told to me by a retired Chrysler engineer during my days at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum. I can't speak for the Studebaker V-8, I have heard rubes insist that "it's a Ford engine" because of the discplacement, like a company can own a particular cubic inch displacement.
Posted on: 2013/9/17 15:02
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Re: Confidential Information for Cadillac Retail Salesmen
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Quite a regular
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With regard to the make I would own if it were not a Packard, hands down it would be Imperial. Exclusive and very well built, they also had IMHO the best trimmed interiors. Yes, they were stodgy, but if I wanted flamboyance there was always Buick.
Posted on: 2013/9/17 15:57
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Re: Confidential Information for Cadillac Retail Salesmen
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Home away from home
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Why Chrysler wouldn't just buy a whole car doesn't make any sense, but then neither does a lot of what Chrysler does. I always thought it curious that the displacement was coincidentally the same. Given the Cadillac motor came out in 49 and the Chrysler 51 doesn't leave much of a window to get from prototype to production. I'll wager if they did get a funeral car they actually pulled the OHV V-8 and put in a flathead. What does a funeral home care if the motor isn't the most powerful?
Posted on: 2013/9/17 17:46
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Re: Confidential Information for Cadillac Retail Salesmen
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Home away from home
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Just in time 56executive delivers another comparison chart of the same competitors.
[picture source: www.transpak-berlin.de]
Posted on: 2013/9/17 21:11
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The story of ZIS-110, ZIS-115, ZIL-111 & Chaika GAZ-13 on www.guscha.de
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