Buick Straight Eight Lore: The engine we are writing about was first used in the 1936 Buick Roadmaster. There were earlier Buick Straight Eights, IIRC. The last year for the 1936-derived engine was the 1953 Series 40 Buick Special. Other series had the new for 1953 "nailhead" V8.
In 1953 I was one of a group that traveled from Central Texas to the Big Bend National Park and points nearby in a 1941 Buick Super Club Coupe. The club coupe was packed with people and stuff. The Buick had what was called compound carburetion. It had two carburetors, one of which functioned all the time, and the second when the driver stepped on it. I remember several times seeing the speedometer vault from about 60 mph to about 90 mph when he stepped on it. The straight eight was not underpowered in the least. As I remember the car had three little square or rectangular holes in the chrome trim in the vicinity of the hood release (on the side of the hood near the back) that might have been the first tentative ventiports, although the story is that they came after the War, not before. Those were the days. > 5. Re: more holes (Dieselhead) > >Message: 5 >Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 22:47:22 -0600 >From: Dieselhead <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: [MBZ] more holes > >"The buick straight 8 was produced from 1931 to 1953" A guy I knew >in HS had a 30something buick straight 8. It was a phenomenal car. >The only buick I ever wanted was a big old Buick straight 8 like that >one. Unfortunately, being a dumb HS kid, he over revved it too much >and snapped the crank. It had a sound all its own. > >> > ...Beg pardon, weren't those holes originally where the exhaust come out >>> of the hood? Sure was a straight eight in there for a long time in >>> the 30's & 40's! >>> >>> All the holes were on one side in those days, and had an exhaust >>> header going through them, eh?.. >>> >>You are thinking of my friend CB's Bugatti 35B. >> >>Looks like the Buick holes appeared in 1949. >> >>RLE >>> _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
