In a message dated 07/27/2000 6:15:03 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
landspeedracer@email.msn.com writes:
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OK, any of you vintage engine guys ever try a Packard flathead straight
eight? Looks like a Behemoth but weight ain't the issue. Could run XO/ or
XXO/ depending on which block you had to start with.
From what little I know about flathead design the inline would have some
advantage on the exhaust side, but then again it wouldn't be running against
a Ford-V8 anyway. Not Crazy about the Siamesed intakes however.
Then there's the Buick straight or the Hudson 6. Hey and they actually
used to race Hudson's fifty years ago.
John Beckett, LSR #79, E/GCC
>>
I don't know why no one has tried the Packard straight 8. They produced
them into the 50's I believe.
The Buick straight 8 has been used very successfully. Mel Tull from
Atascadero, CA (40 miles up the road from the "Big Ditch") ran one a few
years ago in a street roadster at Bonneville. His best one-way was somewhere
around 176 and the average (record) stands at about 169. Mel (an old Buick
guru from LA in the 50's) worked the stock head over considerably and had the
displacement above 325 ci, putting him into XXO engine class.I don't believe
any vintage engine street roadster has ever gone that fast, not even Jimmy
Stevens in his Flatty.
Mel most recently started work on a Buick Straight 8 block with a
welded-on deck to accept 2-Toyota cammer 2000cc 4-cyl heads grown together.
He did a billet crank for it and then stopped the project.
He's a welder at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near Morro Bay Ca.
and the work is somewhat seasonal and spotty, especially for a guy in his
late 60's who is employed as an outside contractor.
I thought the new engine was a great idea when he offered it to me. I
just couldn't see changing horses and starting a whole new engine concept in
my 60's.
Doug King
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