I like your avar plym49...I'm getting more and more into these straight blocks.. @spiderdeville....lol..yes!..the great planes
Its going on a cruiser..that said I'm thinking of an automatic...this california traffic doesn't leave me wanting a stick shift..I was thinking of a chevy 450, and while there swap the rest of the drive line. I haven't put much thought to it..tho the above set up mentioned does sound nice.I think I've seen a thread regarding it some were.
I'v changed my outlook on hi revving Buick strait 8's after seeing Blakes, and Dutwielers Century's. as they sound like big block V 8's. Blake's runs 154 mph at Bonneville, and Dutweiler 117 at Fontana antique drags!
I'v changed my outlook on hi revving Buick strait 8's after seeing Blakes, and Dutwielers Century's. as they sound like big block V 8's. Blake's runs 154 mph at Bonneville, and Dutweiler 117 at Fontana antique drags!
The king of the straight eights will always the the Duesenberg, but that's another story. Of those still available in the wrecking yard, the 1954 Packard 359" straight eight with nine main bearings, factory aluminum flathead and 4-bbl made 212 horsepower, so was the last best; stock for stock the Packard would run with the 331" Cad V8.
The questions to ask was never why, it's why not. If you got drive, it it can drive it can race. AK miller ran a straight eight in a dry lake 32 stock engine and intake cam upgrade. And did good, even beat his clubs flathead, and almost got exspelt for being to unconventional. But it blew over.
Mercedes championed a straight 8 powered Gran Prix car in the 1937 and won 6 out of the 12 races entered with it. 345 ci, Supercharged and 595 Hp in race trim. Supposedly that power figure wasn't exceeded again until the big block V8 powered CAN-Am cars of the early 60's.
I'm trying to mimic the look of a Duesy straight eight with my '30s era champ car build. Many rodders believe that factory crate engines are a relatively recent phenomena, but in the thirties you could buy an OHC factory race engine from Duesenberg, and others. I recall they sold for around $700 - but back then you could buy a whole Model A Ford for half that. I'm using a disguised Ford six.
That looks like Fun FTF. Since I got busy with figuring out how to assemble my conglomeration of parts into a presentable pre WW II Indy or Grand Prix 2 seat race car style roadster I've discovered that a lot of others have similar projects going on all around the world.
Crate motors ha ha. In the twenties Miller charged a flat $5000 for an engine, $10,000 for a rear wheel drive car, $15,000 for a front drive car. This was their supercharged straight eight 1 1/2 litre Indy race car. Frank Lockhart made 171 MPH on Muroc dry lake with one in 1927. In 1928 he put 2 of them together and made 203 MPH on Daytona Beach before crashing. These were Miller 1500cc or 91 cu in racing engines. I dare say a 1500cc 171MPH car would be impressive, even today. Ya straight eights are slow all right.
In the early 1950's I helped on a pit crew of a "Hard Top" that ran in Norther California. The car was a 1936 Hudson with a straight 8. The engine builder was a old time Hudson mechanic/nut. He built engines from his stash of used Hudson parts. The car would perform as well as flathead fords. We could beat them down the straights on a 1/4 mile dirt track. Our problem was that the car kept flipping over or spinning out in the turns. It turned out that our driver was blacking out due to a head injury he got in a street accident. A Hudson 8 would be a interesting engine to use as they are rare and most folks don't have any knowledge of them. The biggest problem would be the Hudson cork clutch.
Pretty neat thread. Back in 1958 (when I was 14) my first car was a 1940 Nash....it had a straight eight OH engine that had twin ignition...yep (16) spark plugs. Two coils, and one distributor that looked like a flower pot. A real stump puller...tons of power.. Here is the only picture I have of it, when I sold it years later, as it was on it's way to PA. Wish I still had it...
Hudson straight eights were very good performers. We had a 47 Commodore Eight as a family car when I was a kid. My father said he never had a car that handled as well until he bought a Mercedes in 1971. The Hudson would beat the Fords and even the new Olds V8s. The oil bath cork lined clutch was smooth, reliable and trouble free. It was the splash lubrication that caused the problem. The engine would not stand up to sustained high speeds and the old man was a lead foot from way back. He wore out the motor after 3 or 4 years and it was going to cost $320 for a rebuild, more than twice as much as a Ford or Chev. He traded for a new 51 Chev hardtop and nearly rolled it on the way home lol. A Chev would not take a curve at 50, that he used to take at 70 in the Hudson.
The biggest deal is weight Buick maxed out at 320 inches and weighed 750 lbs most in line 8 were very heavy.
Been learning to appreciate the inline eights. My 41 Buick Super convertible has a dual carb eight and I've been looking for another to use in the Pierce Arrow pickup project. Smoooooth--- Thanks Rusty for the interesting facts.
Exactly. The 327 and 359 Packard I-8's come in just over a 1000 lbs fully assembled. Now your talking Detroit Diesel territory.
In the '30s, when stock blocks were encouraged at Indy, the Studebaker factory race team shop would sell ready-to-race modified Studebaker straight eights for a few hundred dollars. They regularly placed as high as third in the 500. Almost. I just weighed a fully assembled 359" Packard on a certified dynomometer at 784#. Not quite Detroit weight, but more than a hemi. Just for comparison, a 97hp 3-53 weighs 1020# and a 130hp 4-53# weighs 1220, so the 212hp Packard at 784# is pretty good by comparison. jack vines
When I started this thread, I was thinking about the straight 8 racing engines built by Miller, Alfa Romeo and Mercedes-Benz, not to mention Bugatti and Duesenberg. Each of them completely dominated their racing classes in their eras, but there hasn't been a new high performance straight 8 since the early '50s. I do understand their weight and length issues, but it seems odd that the top racing engine designers of their eras chose this layout, and now it has been completely discarded.
There is just something inherently cool about inline eights! Here's an unusual one. Dolomite Super-Charged 2-Litre Straight Eight - 1934 17.85 h.p. 1,990cc 8-cylinder overhead twin camshaft engine with 4-speed Armstrong Siddeley Wilson type Pre-selector gearbox. This Dolomite’s engine was based on Alfa Romeo’s 2.3-litre 8-cylinder, as fitted in their 8C-2300 Monza, with their full approval. It is currently thought that Triumph built 3 chassis and about 6 engines.
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