Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

I had a packard friend forward me this video of 1958 Chrysler products with Torsion Suspension. It compares their suspension to Ford & GM products. The famed Tom Cahill is the narrating it. I can't help but think if Packard had survived long enough to have these tests it would have blown every other car away!!

I especially like the Buick & Cadillac test (Packards competition) as the Buick's Air bag suspension explodes, and the cadillac's door and trunk actually open violently!

I have never driven my Packard, or ridden inside a '55-'56 with the torison suspension so I am excited to feel the difference. I had a '58 T-bird with 4 coil suspension, it was rough seas with the boucing, You could get sea sick!

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Also, here is a Packard Proving ground test for the 1956 Packard.

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In the Packard test, click on the third pic on the lower 13. The voiceover talks of an automatic overdrive transmission. Baffle 'em with BS??

Very nice. You'd really get a kick out of the piece I've been trying to find showing Packard, and covered with a camouflage cover, Cadillac and I think Lincoln going a good fast clip through a very rough railroad crossing in Detroit. There is something similar on the Allison T-L DVD Motor City sells, but not not the funny one shown at the PAC national in Oakland many yrs ago.

The Packard sails over with wheels jumping up and down but car smooth & level, one of the other cars goes airborne, comes down hard with sparks flying as it hits the pavement and bounces almost losing control and the other comes down essentially the same but with hub cap and a large something flying off the car.

Bill Allison told me the story of working at Packard on the Torsion-Level suspension (under loan from Hudson, whom Allison actually worked for), that some pre-production photos or drawings of Chrysler's new torsion bar suspension were brought to Erwin Weiss at Packard. In all of the drawings at Packard the 1955-'56 suspension was termed the "A" suspension, there were some changes planned for the '57 (unbuilt) Detroit Packards that would have been the "B" design. Weiss looked at the documents, pointed to the fact that the torsion bars only ran from the front axles to the location on the frame at the firewall and smiled and said "I see Chrysler's is a "half-A" design."

Dear Randy, What they were talking about was the 2.89 rear differential, new for 1956. The 2.89 was standard on the Clipper Deluxe and the Super hardtop and available on all Clippers and Packards. A Packard Patrician with the 2.89 rearend vice the standard 3.54 gave the same effect as being in overdrive.

Minor point but actually it was 2.87 (43-15), not 2.89. Quite an array of rear axle ratios available on all 56 Packards, 2.87, 3.07, 3.31, 3.54 and 4.09, the last for standard shift cars I presume.

I had a Twin Traction 2.87 Clipper rear complete with housing but no axles which I lugged from flea market to flea market, to Packard meets, advertised it in PAC publications etc. for decades, and couldn't even give it away.

I'd like to have a good 2.87 for my 56 Executive. Does not have to be Twin Track or it can be. Probably all i need is the crown and pinion and convert mine. But i'll take a 2.87 any way it happens to come.

If Chrysler had the "Half A design", being half the suspension of the '55-'56 Packard, and seeing Chrysler totally out performing the GMC/Ford, Packard would have been completely superior to ALL domestic cars. I bet Packard would have been a killer on the NASCAR/ Stock Car circuit with the V-8 perfected by '56 or '57 & torsion bar suspension. They might have dominated the circuit like the Hudson Hornets did with the low center of gravity.

Chuck, I think you have assumed something not in evidence. The voiceover said that Packard had "the new economy of overdrive in our automatic transmissions". There was no mention of gearing or alternate rear-end ratios at all. Go listen again and if you hear aanything said of gear ratios or different rear-ends let me know. I listened carefully several times and never heard him speak of any rear-end gearing. And - changing gear ratios still does not imply overdrive or is any substitute for it.

Randy -

I heard similar mention in the factory film, The Safe Road Ahead.

I believe their point was that, with the Ultramatic's unique Direct-Drive clutch, the result of locking-up the converter (thus, eliminating slippage of a fluid coupling) was to reduce the engine RPM at any given speed - similar, in effect, to an overdrive unit used with a standard transmission.