In today's automotive market, when eight cylinders is considered the ante for most serious luxury cars, it may be disconcerting to think that a hundred years ago, four cylinders was considered a luxury. Packard's earliest cars had one-cylinder engines, as did early Cadillacs. The development of Packard's first four, the 1903 Model K, was a matter of some internal controversy; some Packard executives felt the company should concentrate on cheaper one-cylinder runabouts. By 1906, however, Packard had dropped its one- and two-cylinder engines in favor of a T-head inline four of mammoth displacement, initially 350 cu. in. (5.7 L), soon increased to 432 cu. in. (7.1 L). This was supplemented in 1909 by the cheaper Model 18, powered by a 266 cu. in. (4.4 L) four.

Packard apparently contemplated an inline six as early as 1905, although it didn't go on sale until April 1911. Dubbed "Six" (later "48," from its taxable horsepower rating), it was again a T-head engine of gargantuan dimensions, some 525 cu. in. (8.6 L), developing 74 hp (55 kW). A smaller and somewhat cheaper six, the "38," followed a year and a half later. This was an L-head (flathead) engine, making 60 hp (45 kW) from 415 cu. in. (6.8 L); it sold for about $600 less than its larger brother. (It's notable as the first Packard engine with an electric starter, which Cadillac had pioneered a year earlier.)


The engine that preceded Packard's first sixes was this massive T-head four, seen here in a 1910 Model 30 Gentleman's Runabout. With a 5-inch (127-mm) bore and 5.5-inch (139.7-mm) stroke, it displaced 432 cu. in. (7.1 L) and developed about 30 hp (22 kW). The cheaper Model 18, introduced in 1908, was 266 cu. in. (4.4 L), rated at 18 hp (13 kW).

Both sixes were adequately powerful, but Jesse Vincent, who became Packard's chief engineer in 1912 and VP of engineering in 1915, was not satisfied. Both of Packard's sixes were huge, and to make them bigger -- the surest way to produce more power -- would make them prohibitive heavy. As it was, their wide bore (4.0 in/101.2 mm for the 38, 4.5 in/114.3 mm for the 48) required a long, heavy crankshaft and a massive flywheel. Vincent wanted an engine with a shorter, lighter crankshaft that would allow a large displacement, while keeping the swept volume of each cylinder relatively modest, for greater smoothness.

Smoothness was a particular concern. In those days, automobile engines were generally bolted directly to the frame; vibration-damping engine mounts were years in the future. One of the attractions of the straight six is its inherent balance -- the forces exerted by the pistons and connecting rods cancel each other out, so there's none of the shake that afflicts inline two-, three-, four-, and five-cylinder engines. Vincent was loathe to sacrifice that balance, which led him to eschew the V8 layout that Cadillac adopted in 1914. A straight eight, meanwhile, would have the same problems of weight and crankshaft size as a bigger six.

The solution, which Vincent pitched to the Packard board in early 1913, was a V-12. Since the V-12 was, as Vincent explained, essentially two straight sixes with a common crankcase, it preserved the six's inherent balance and smoothness. It also provided comparable displacement, while keeping the swept volume of each cylinder modest.

That first Packard V-12, dubbed "Twin Six," displaced 424 cu. in. (7.0 L). Its cylinder banks were set at a 60-degree angle, providing even firing intervals and making it narrower than a 90-degree V8. Like the smaller six of the "38," it was an L-head engine, but it had two camshafts, avoiding the need for rocker arms. In the mode of European high-performance engines of its day, it had a narrow bore, 3.0 in (76.2 mm), and a long stroke, 5.0 in (127 mm), allowing the crankshaft to be shorter, more rigid, and considerably lighter than the six; Packard claimed the Twin Six weighed 400 lb (181 kg) less than the six-cylinder "48." Despite its smaller displacement, the V-12 was slightly more powerful than the six -- 85 hp (63 kW) at 3,000 rpm, compared to 82 hp (61 kW) at 1,720 rpm for the "48" -- with twice the torque.


The grille badge of a 1917 Second Series (2-25) Packard Twin Six coupe. The Second Series, introduced in August 1916, added removable cylinder heads and a revised cooling system, along with various chassis refinements. A coupe like this one originally cost $4,265; it rode a 126.5-inch (3,213-mm) wheelbase, and weighed around 4,500 lb (2,045 kg). (Photo © 2008 Infrogmation, cropped and slightly retouched by the author; used and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license)

The Twin Six was introduced in May 1915 as a 1916 model, and immediately became a sensation. Although Packards were too big and too heavy to be considered true performance cars, in July 1915, race car driver Ralph De Palma lapped the Chicago Speedway in a Twin Six touring car at an average speed of 72.7 mph (117.1 kph), a formidable showing. The V-12 was also adept at that favorite test of prewar motoring, pulling from 3 mph (5 kph) to top speed in high gear.

The V-12 sold quite well, doing wonders for Packard's bottom line. Between 1917 and 1919, the company's net profits were around $5.5 million a year. The Twin Six completely overshadowed the six-cylinder cars, which were discontinued in September 1915.

The Twin Six remained in production through June 1923, with various minor refinements along the way. Packard sold 35,102 of them in all, a remarkable total for such an expensive car. It also inspired, at least in part, the 12-cylinder "Liberty Engine" used in many Allied aircraft and tanks; Jesse Vincent helped to design the Liberty, along with Elbert John Hall of the Hall-Scott Motor Company.

The end of World War 1 left the European economies in ruins, and led to a severe recession in the U.S. Even before the Armistice, Packard president Alvan Macauley decided it would be prudent to offer a smaller, cheaper model. This emerged in September 1920 as the Single Six, powered by a new 242 cu. in. (4.0 L) L-head six with 52 hp (39 kW). Although the Single Six was a sales disappointment -- in part because it still cost a lot more than a V8 Cadillac -- it outsold the costlier Twin Six, whose sales fell from over 5,000 in 1920 to a bit over 1,300 in 1921. By 1922, it was clear the V-12 had run its course.


A 1919 Packard Twin Six seven-passenger touring car. Even for luxury cars, open bodies were far more common than closed models during this period, largely because of price: this car originally cost $3,850, compared to $5,400 for the closed 3-35 Limousine. The 1917-1923 models, known as the Third Series (a designation Packard subsequently reused a few years later), were the final iteration of the Twin Six, which now had 90 hp (67 kW). (Photo © 2008 cliff1066™; used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license)

Packard considered developing a new Twin Six, but opted instead for a straight eight, essentially the Single Six engine with two more cylinders and a heavier, nine-bearing crankshaft. The eight initially displaced 358 cu. in. (5.9 L), but it made 85 hp (63 kW), nearly matching the 90 hp (67 kW) of the final Twin Six. Dubbed "Single Eight," the new engine replaced the V-12 in the summer of 1923. The Single Eight, renamed simply Eight in 1925, would become Packard's mainstay for the next decade.

Packard would return to the Twin Six concept seven years later, but the new V-12 was planned for a very different market and a very different configuration. If all had gone as planned, it would have become Packard's first front-wheel-drive car.


A Packard Custom Eight dual-windshield phaeton of the Fourth Series, 1927-1928. It's powered by the 385 cu. in. (6.3 L) straight eight, with 106 hp (79 kW). This car was originally priced at just under $4,000, decreased by about $100 in early 1928. Dual sidemounts were standard equipment, although in March 1928, Packard introduced a cheaper "Standard" series with rear-mounted spares. The Fourth Series was the last year for the Six, a 289 cu. in. (4.7 L) engine with 81 hp (60 kW); Packard would not offer another Six until 1937.

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