Packard built its former success as the stock American sumptuousness railway car with the four - cylinder Thirty of 1907 - 1912 and the mighty Six of 1912 - 1915 . But the model that really cemented Packard ’s reputation as a make of the in high spirits social rank was the 1916 - 1923 Packard Twin Six , which one - upped Cadillac ’s 1915 V-8 with four more cylinders and lasted with relatively few modification for eight years : a remarkably long run .
Classic Cars Image Gallery
In three serial between 1916 and 1923 , Packard ramp up slightly more than 35,000 Twins , including legion shape for custom body . The Twin Six was the chief reason why , when the wealthy ordered a custom - bodied car , they tended to prefer a Packard flesh .
Jesse Vincent , Packard ’s chief engineer , liked the 12 - piston chamber layout for three understanding : performance , smoothness , and secrecy . " A six - cylinder motor is theoretically in dead thoroughgoing equaliser , " he publish . " This is because the vibratory forces due to the emanation and fall of one plunger are negate by equal and diametrical force due to another … Now it is only possible to cancel out force-out in this mode if they are tied together powerfully . "
This mean a heavy crankcase and crankshaft and a strict flywheel . But a Twelve or " Twin Six , " Vincent uphold , would provide the same inflexibility and smoothness with less plunger , crankcase , flywheel , and crankshaft weightiness – and allow for more horsepower and torsion , to boot . He preferred a V-12 to a V-8 because a V-8 would take a wider frame , larger turning radius , and more complicated steering gear .
The Twin Six engine duly embodied the above principle , with two banks of lambert - straits cylinders set at a 60 - degree angle ( versus 90 degree in Cadillac ’s V-8 ) . This allow accessories to be bolted just below the frame , where they were protected from route hazards , while keeping the valve approachable .
Delivering 85 horsepower at 3,000 rev , a bore-hole and stroke at 3.00 × 5.00 inches ensue in a supplanting of 424 three-dimensional column inch . Rockers were eliminated , with a separate cam for each valve , and all valves were settle inboard of the piston chamber block . A short , idle crankshaft ran in three main bearings .
Vincent proclaimed that torque was " 50 pct better than it would have been with a V-8 , and 100 percent better than the Packard Six . Six impulses per crankshaft revolution commingle together so close as to make it absolutely impossible to recognise any pause between impulses , even at very low engine speeds … The only thing I can compare it to is the legal action of steam . "
For more on the 1916 - 1917 Packard Twin Six , continue to the next page .
For more information on cars , see :
1916-1917 Packard Twin Six
Other 1916 - 1917 Packard Twin Six feature were less revolutionary , having been evolve on the previous 1912 - 1915 Six , including many items we still rule on cars today : lighting was supplied by a author - charge store battery ; an inflammation timekeeper and distributor were suit , with freestanding electric circuit breakers and distributor for each bank of six cylinder ; the freshman and lights were electric ; the rear axle had spiral - bevel gears ; chill was by water pump ; and the carburetor was located between the two banks of piston chamber .
Bodies , on two dissimilar wheelbase , were up to date and offer in wide varieties , both closed and subject . All Twins were expensive , but closed cars involved a passel more assembly body of work : while the touring , tourer , and runabout listed at $ 2,750 , the $ 3,700 coupe was the cheapest conclude model and the Imperial Limousine be nearly $ 5,000 . Such figures be small fortune in 1916 , yet to the Packard clientele they seemed amazing because they were hundreds less than the previous Six .
The launching of the 1916 Packard Twin Six on May 1 , 1915 was the greatest individual announcement in Packard ’s history to date . Testing one , The Automobile(a British motoring magazine ) declared that it met Vincent ’s three conception standard : " No vibration was perceptible up to a route velocity of well over 60 mph and the motor is just audible even at full revolutions … there is no sense of effort whatever in gap up from 3 mph in high gear … it was leisurely to speed up from 3 mph to 30 mph in 12 second gear and on 2nd speed in a much shorter time . "
Demand for Twins was brisk and Packard ’s workforce increase 50 percentage to nearly 11,000 so as to meet it . The manufactory on Detroit ’s Grand Boulevard undergo a $ 1.5 million expansion and now covered over 100 Acre . In 1917 , Frank Eastman , wry editor of the caller ’s house organ , gag : " We build a good car and charge a good price for it … ask the man who owes for one . "
In July 1916 , the 1917 model was announced ( all former models being 1916s ) . denominate the Second Series 2 - 25 for the short wheelbase car ( 2 - 35 for the long ) , the Twin Six was little changed except in cool ; " In property of the water being expelled from the forward end of the piston chamber block , the gas breathing in manifold has been cored out to permit all water from the piston chamber cap to be circulate through it and thence to the radiator through a single tube . "
New also were detachable cylinder heads , " to ascertain a more perfect machining of the combustion chamber " ; a faster track generator ; a higher carburettor to keep it away from the manifolds ; a low - current distributor ; a clean - pressure metrical unit bracken ; and a redesigned gear shift with a egg end – another prodigy of the future . The Second Series search low , with its lowly wheels and recondite chassis .
Like its forerunner , the Second Series lasted a year . To read about the Third Series of Packard Twin Six , continue to the next page .
1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923 Packard Twin Six
In the summer of 1917 Packard announce the 3 - 25 and 3 - 35 models , which would comprise the third and net series and cover the 1918 , 1919 , 1920 , 1921 , 1922 , 1923 Packard Twin Six , ushering in numerous trunk changes as the upright body of the Teens germinate to the sleeker , lower human body of the Twenties .
Mechanical change included a redesign electric system , improved heads for better breathing and chilling , and the " Fuelizer " intake manifold to help vaporize inlet gases with the help of its own spark cud . The ball - end gear lever tumbler was wobble to the substance of the floor , where it would stay until the column geological fault in the late Thirties .
The framing was tapered somewhat and the wheelbase increased ; horsepower was now 90 . customs bodies begin to seem for the first metre : a coupelet , limo , brougham , and landaulet by Derham ; limousines by Caffrey and Judkins ; a runabout and cab by Fleetwood . From these the glittering array of custom - bodied Packards acquire during the later Twenties and Thirties .
Packard owner have it away their Twin Sixes , sometimes to extremes . An oil - rich Osage Indian chief bought a custom - bodied 3 - 35 , dash it an hour after taking delivery , and telephoned the dealer for an straightaway replacing . Czar Nicholas II of Russia possess a Twin Six with the front wheel replaced by ski for winter oeuvre .
In 1921 , Warren Harding used a Twin to become the first president to motor to his inaugural . In Japan , auto-mechanic took the first car imported on a pleasure ride , ditched it in the moat of the Imperial Palace , and were fined for agitate the majestic goldfish – but the Emperor soon had one himself .
A lot of Twin Sixes are still around , because they were built to last . Many years later , an possessor of a Twin Six he ’d have since fresh wrote the company : " It has twelve cylinders but I only require four . The eternal sleep of them came with the engine and just get ‘em run . The starter set out and the generator gens and the stamp battery bats and the brake brake and the seats seat and the top tops and the lights light . It will go from .001 miles per hour to 75 on the same high gear , I jazz my old passenger vehicle . "
To witness specifications for the First Series of Packard Twin Sixes , keep to the next Sir Frederick Handley Page .
1916 Packard Twin Six Specifications
When Cadillac infix its V-8 for 1915 , Packard respond by one - upping Cadillac with its 1916 Twin Six . Find specification for the 1916 Packard Twin Six below :
Engine : L - head V-12 , cast in 2 block , 424.1 three-dimensional inches ( 3.00 × 5.00 - inch bore × virgule ) , self-coloured valve lifters , 3 independent aim , 85 horsepower @ 2,600 rpm
Transmission:3 - fastness manual , selective slide gear ; multi - disc clutch
Suspension , front and rear : Solid axle , longitudinal semi - prolate leaf natural spring
Frame:6 - inch - deep channel surgical incision adjure steel
brake : mechanically skillful , internal expanding , external contracting , rearward wheels only , 262 - hearty - inch swept sphere
Wheelbase ( in.):125.0 and 135.0
Track ( in.):56
free weight ( pounds):3,910 - 4,715
Top speed:70 - 75 mph
Production:7,746 ( framework year )
