Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

All I can express toward the original question is an opinion. Since Packard decided to keep their senior models through 39, it would make sense for that market to maintain the powerplants that their customer base would expect to see. They had already dropped the 384 Super 8 and re-classified the 320 as a "Super" for the 15th through 17th series cars. Once those were done it was time to develop or enlarge the 120 (288/282) into the beloved 356. Well, I love em anyways, and IMO it was a good move. The monstrous senior cars were gone, times and tastes were changing, war was looming on the horizon, cars were getting smaller and faster. I did read somewhere that the 41 160 cars were the fastest production US cars available. I read this in an issue of "MoToR" magazine, the dealer network's professional publication. I had to return the books to whom I'd borrowed them from so I can't cite the actual article, and strange enough, it was in a story of another car line and the author was extolling that line's new increased power. The statement was how it was 2nd only to the new 160, "...the fastest American production car available...".

In an effort to analyze that market place and try to put it all into our own perspectives, we need to try and remove ourselves from the topic. I personally think the 356 was perhaps the best ever. It's cousin, the 359 is just as nice but not the 1st. In one of the replies above about the 15,000 mile test, well that was a publicity move for the 36, or 14th, model year during the auto show in NY. The real test according to the big "Packard" book by Kimes was for the 12th series where they ran the new "insert" bearings in a 320ci 8 at full throttle for 25,000 miles (!!!!) with no failure, stopping only for gas, oil, driver and tire changes. Still, in light of such durability, it had to go in order to keep up with the times. Not because it was outdated or unreliable, it just didn't fit.