Straight Eight
We had a car show in our town yesterday and one of the cars I noticed was a pale yellow Buick convertable, I think a 1952. It was beautifully restored and I had forgotten how really BIG those cars were. It got me remembering that Buick put a straight eight engine in some of those cars. One of my high school teachers had one, a 1954(?). (I graduated in 1955.) Did any other car manufacturers use straight eights? Maybe Hudson or Packard?
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Packard for sure had a straight 8 and I believe GM had them in most all their labels not Chevy and maybe not Cadillac
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Hudson had a straight -8 in the "Commodore-Eight" We (I was 12 at the time) drove one from Arkansas to Washington state when we emigrated in 1952. It was a rather smallish flat head 8. The car was worn out, but made the trip with no problem, and lost an encounter with a Cadillac in the middle of Lilliwaup, Christmas Eve 1952. It was replaced with a 1947 6-cylinder (I don't remember the displacement). This was later replaced with a 1952 "Hudson Hornet" with a 308 cu. in. flathead 6 with dual carburetors ("Twin H-Power!). That was the car I drove as a teenager, to much ridicule from Ford and Chevvy classmates. It had a 4 speed Hydramatic, and the largest 6 cylinder engine available at the time. As I recall, with the big 6 and the "step-down" chassis design, it won numerous races in the early 1950's.
The 308 engine had a problem with head gaskets. The combination of cast iron block, aluminum head, and copper or brass head gaskets resulted in frequent blown gaskets. I remember we had the head planed on several occasions.
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Buick had straight eight thru 1952 (Special only), Chrysler thru '50, Olds thru '48, Packard & Pontiac thru '54.
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One night someone abandoned a 31 Dodge in one of our pastures that had a straight 8 in it. Never did find out who owned that car my grandfather just pushed it into a corner of the field and it sat there for years just rusting away dad finally sold it for scrap
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Was it Lincoln who did a straight 12?? My dad's grandfather owned a junk yard and would buy a lot of cars that still ran. My Dad and his friends were always riding around in some exotic car. I remember him telling me about how long the hood was on the straight 12!!
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Had a friend in Miles City MN. In 1962 restoring an old Buick 32 or 33
That had a straight 8. Came from back east some place.
Found a loaded S&W 38 special under the back seat.
Interesting. would have liked to know the history of that.
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dreher: 30069344674587/comments/30069344909083
Was it Lincoln who did a straight 12?? My dad's grandfather owned a junk yard and would buy a lot of cars that still ran. My Dad and his friends were always riding around in some exotic car. I remember him telling me about how long the hood was on the straight 12!!
The Lincoln Zephyr had a V-12.
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Dodge used a straight eight from 1930-33. Buick 1932-52. Lincoln had V-8s and V-12s from early 20s thru 1948 when a new L-head V-8 came out. I don't think anyone used a straight 12 in production cars as it was just too long and supplying fuel equally was problematic without multiple carb setups. BTW, Duesenberg used straight eight from 1921thru '37. There were quite a few others including Hudson, most before 1940.
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Merlinnv12, thank you!! I was trying to remember a story my Dad probably told me 60+ years ago!! 60 years ago and my memory was a Lincoln. Thrilled to know my memory was correct!!
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