Packard Forum Index » Studebaker Built Packards (1957 - 58)

I do not own any Packards, but I am interested in the late 40s thru 58 Packards. Has anybody ever heard of someone trying to put a Packard V8 into a 57 or 58 Packard?,instead of the 289 Stude?, just curious. How about putting Packard V8's in hot rods of that era,was it ever done ?, what were the Packard V8's known for, I mean did they have alot of torque, top end power?, etc. I hope my questions are not too stupid, but I find the last years of Packard interesting, thanks for your help.

You might find these contemporary articles interesting, which includes a couple of hot rodded V-8s:

1956packardpanther.com/PV8C_Pressroom.html

You also might enjoy reading, from about page 84 onwards, from Robert J. Neal's "Packards at Speed" about the escapades of Peter Sukalac from Oregon with a 56 Clipper and Tom DeLon also of Oregon. DeLon's best in a T-bucket with a 374 bored to 421 cubic inch putting out an estimated 475 hp was 10.90 sec. and 136.93 mph in the quarter mile.

The book also contains a fair amount of coverage of the Mexican Road Race in the straight-era of Packard, and also most noteworthy Packard-powered race events back to the Gray Wolf running in the Vanderbilt Cup races on Long Island.

PS - also much information on Packard's exploits with marine and aircraft engines.

Don't forget that a Packard V-8 was used in the 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk. Similar chassis to the one used in the '57 and '58 Packards? It seems to me that the supercharged 275 h.p. Stude 289 would be a better choice for these cars.

(o{I}o)

FWIW, you may be interested in knowing the 275hp 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk was the quickest, fastest US-built car sold that year. According to contemporary magazine road tests, it was accelerated quicker and had a higher top speed than the Chevrolet Corvette, Ford Thunderbird and Chrysler 300.

Just imagine how dangerous the '56J would have been if S-P had used the 305hp 374" '56 Caribbean engine. On top of that, the proposed-but-never-sold Jet Stream kit, with the Iskenderian solid lifter camshaft and dual point distributor would have made it a rocket ship. The TwinTraction limited slip would have insured it broke both axle shafts instead of only the right side, as did most GHs which were drag-raced.

Bottom line, the Packard V8 was the largest displacement, highest rated horsepower engine for sale in the US in 1956.

As far as the '57-58 275hp McCulloch-supercharged Studebaker V8 being a better choice, not in my experience. The Packard V8 has much better low speed torque in normal driving and is long-gone and far out of sight by the time the smaller Stude V8 gets wound up and making boost.

thnx, jack vines

Thanks so much for the articles, very interesting reading. How common are V8 Packards motors to find today, pretty rare? I forgot about Packard supplying V8s to Nash also. I have another question, I saw a 58 Packard at a Rat Rod car show in Dewey, OK recently, I was under the impression that the 58 Stude had single headlights and for the 58 Packard they grafted dual fiberglass headlights to make the cars different, but then I saw a 58 Stude, realized it had dual headlights too. I guess the grill was changed to make the cars look a little different? Thanks again for the info, I would love to order a Packard V8 t shirt, but they only come in xl, too small for me.

1958 started out as a mixed year for dual headlights as not every state had enacted the required legislation allowing them before car production began. Thus most 1958 cars were initially available in either configuration depending on the date and state to which they would be delivered.

Quote:
Learn something every day. Can anyone furnish a photo of a '58 US-built car with single headlights? Never seen one in any of the fifty states. Not saying they weren't built that way, just surprised to learn about it at this late date.

thnx, jack vines

The guys who have done some mechanical work on my Packard have (or had) for sale a 1958 Studebaker Champion with two headlights instead of four. It has the pod for two headlights similar to the 1958 Packard but they put the one headlight in the middle of the pod and a chrome plate taking up the rest of the space of the pod. I guess since Champion was the bottom of the Studebaker line, to cut costs, they just used one headlight per side. Some folks think Champion was the best looking of the Studebaker line in 58 because they went a little lighter on the chrome. Personally, I concur. But to each his own. Afraid I do not have a picture handy, though.
Ken

I think there were some Chrysler products and AMC ramblers made in 58 with only dual headlights.