Tuesday, January 26, 2016

The elegant straight-eight motor still impresses

1933 Packard Super 8 front end signaled "get out of the way."
The Fort Lauderdale Region of the Antique Automobile Association of America favored the community Saturday with a car show at the historic Sample-McDougald house in Pompano Beach, Fla.

Some of my favorite cars were there: the straight-eights. Here are some photos of the ones I spotted.

1933 Packard Super 8, long enough to be admired by a crowd.
As a child, I would read aloud from the used car ads in the morning newspaper as we neighborhood kids walked to elementary school.

"Pontiac. Nineteen-fifty-two. Straight eight. Runs."

"Buick. Nineteen-fifty-one." Straight eight. Good condition."

1948 Pontiac convertible with a straight eight motor.
The other kids would have been far more interested in the baseball scores, but I never read those.

I only read from the automobile classifieds and the only ads I read aloud were for cars with straight-eight-cylinder motors.

Pontiac "Silver 8 Streak" left no doubt what was under the hood.
I was fascinated that in my lifetime it was still possible to purchase an auto powered by that classic layout — and, at that time, for very little money.

Of course these would have been rusty relics with long obsolete motors that never had been the equal of a Duesenberg eight or even a Packard eight.

1940 Buick 8 Dynaflash touted its overhead valves.
The Pontiac motor was even a flathead, considered a lazy lump of cast iron compared to the overhead valve V8s that ruled the roads of my youth.

Didn't matter. I loved the notion of a straight eight. My Dad briefly considered letting my brother and I — still too young to drive — buy a very cherry '48 Buick. Didn't happen.

1940 Buick convertible was impressive.
But I am still thrilled to see a straight eight. And it's my early love of the newspaper classifieds that led to my listing Royal Enfield motorcycles for sale in the United States on this blog.

Other fine cars: 1954 Studebaker Champion was a wow.
Representing Britain: 1937 Alvis Speed 25.
Toy tommygun on seat of 1932 Chevrolet Confederate coupe
recalls Prohibition era and Chevy's strangest "C" model name.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous1/27/2016

    I remember as a kid, the teenage neighbor boy had a '38 Buick with a straight 8 and dual carbs. Don't know if the dual carbs were stock or what, but the word at grade school was that the old Buick could really fly

    ReplyDelete

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