I was picking up my daily from an old shop out in the country recently and was looking around. The owner had a '50 (I believe) Imperial that he was fixing up. Looked nice. I checked out under the hood and at first glance, thought I saw a flathead six. When I mentioned it, he corrected me. "That's a straight 8" he said. I looked again and counted... well I'll be. It was! I've never heard of a Chrysler straight 8, have you? So that makes, Pontiac, Buick, and Chrysler straight 8's. Anybody else? r
Pretty sure Lincoln never made one. Henry Ford swore off anything more than 4 cylinders long, for quite a while, after his early experimental 6-cylinders had trouble. Don't forget that Studebaker, Duesenberg, and Bugatti used to run straight 8s as well.
In 1930, Dodge Bros did..All so Auburn, Cord, Desoto, Duesenburg, Dupont, Elcar, Gardner, Graham, Hudson, Stude, Hupmobile, Windsor, Jordan, Kissel, Marmon-Rosenvelt, Nash, Oakland, Packard, Peerless, Pierce Arrow, Roamer, Stutz, Viking...Twenty four in all, abount four or five were OHV, rest were LH..
wow, I never knew there were so many choices for straight 8's. Any pics of the various ones (other than the ones already shown)? r
I had no clue there were as many either until I looked in my Motor Services Automotive Encyclopedia!!! If you google each brand I'm sure some pics would come up..
You might be interested in this: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=384289 A friend of mine built the exhaust for Dave and Ed, the coolest sound!! I believe Mike Hagerty still has the car, Ed also passed away not too long ago.
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