MECHANIX ILLUSTRATE tests the new 1952 300 PackardInfo.com H FAVORITE MAGAZINE OF MOTOR-MINDED MEN Ml Tests the '52 Packard 300 PackardInfo.com Midway in price between the 200 and 400 models, the Packard 300 when equipped with Ultramatic drive is powered with a 155-hp Thunderbolt engine which can whip it over the highways at better than 100 mph. fast going in any league. lot more has been added to the 1952 A Packards than meets the eye. At a quick glance the line looks pretty much as it did in 1951. But when you start to analyze it, bolt by bolt, a whole laboratory full of changes jumps out at you—and Power brakes, luxury and thereby hangs a tale. speed distinguish this Like all other car manufacturers, Pack- ard is harried by the JS-factor, stand- year's bearers of a fine ing for Joe Stalin, and by its corollary, WTAGTDN, meaning What's The Admin- old name in American cars. istration Going To Do Next? Nobody in Detroit seems to know from today to to- morrow what to expect in the way of By Tom McCahill regulations from Washington. The latest order is that all automobile models will be frozen, as of February 1, 1952, for sev- eral years. PackardInfo.com Diagram at top shows how Packard's new Easa- Emphasis on greater luxury has been made through matic power brakes work off engine vacuum. They the entire Packard line this year, as top and reduce pedal pressure by 40 per cent and "reaction bottom photos show. Insulation and sound-proofing lag" by 29 per cent, Packard engineers claim. Bot- material has been doubled. Even door and trunk tom shot shows smaller size of the new brake pedal. locks were redesigned to make them rattle-proof. Even before this new ruling was an- a new problem. Few people realize just nounced, the uncertainty about future how much horsepower it takes to turn a restrictions on auto production, and' the fan at cruising speeds. On one popular- scarcity of strategic defense materials priced car which I saw tested right after which is going to get worse before it gets the war, the standard fan took approxi- better, had already had their effect on mately ten horsepower away from the rear new cars. Copper is at the acute stage, wheels at 60 miles an hour. (With fans for instance. This means redesigned cool- getting bigger the horsepower robbery will ing systems because automobile radiator naturally increase, so this should be the cores require a lot of copper tubings and time to bring back fan governors to cut this fins. robber out at speeds above 45 to 50, which Recently I inspected five brand new 1952 is where a fan stops being useful and just models of various makes and found that gets in the way. At the lower speeds where all of them, including Packard, have cut a fan is needed it would cut back in again.) down the size of their cooling cores, then Packard is also introducing in the 1952 increased the fan size and pitch to com- models some molded nylon gears to take pensate. This move may very well become the place of former brass and copper units. universal in the industry and if so it poses As the material pinch from Washington gets PackardInfo.com Barreling through a driving rainstorm at the Following the sequence, 1 through 4, gives you famed Packard proving ground track. Uncle Tom seme idea of how it feels to head into a banked gave the fleet 300 sedan a real workout, as turn at far better than 90 miles an hour with shown in this series of photos taken en route. an expert test-driver like McCahill at the wheel. tougher, more and more substitutions and can passenger cars, are old hat on other changes are inevitable. Fortunately for us, shores. In 1929 I owned a Belgian Minerva America produces the world's greatest bale convertible sedan that had vacuum booster wire, or seat-of-the-pants, engineers and brakes. This big job from across the sea these boys should be able to keep us going weighed 6,000 pounds and you could stop for some time with improvisations that in it on a nickel at high speeds. This big to- some instances may prove even better than mato had 23-inch spider wire wheels and the original. one day I was cruising along in New York While Cadillac, with its new 190-horse- City at about 25 mph when a little girl power engine hop-up, and Chrysler have darted right out in front of me from behind elected to fight it out on the horsepower a parked car. With no time to swerve, I ac- and performance line for '52, Packard has tually stood on the brakes and the car selected the luxury and silent ride tack. stopped in its own length—just about two Not that the new Packards are backwards inches from the child. As the Minerva and in performance, as the tests will show, but my pulse came to a halt, simultaneously, I their main pitch this year is more de luxe, heard a strange tinkle of breaking metal less noise and a set of brand-new vacuum and then the whole car slowly settled to the power brakes that make stopping at high pavement. Every spoke in all four wheels speeds as easy as cracking a peanut with a had snapped from the sudden application paratrooper's boot. of those vacuum brakes! Vacuum booster brakes, new to Ameri- That incident of 23 years ago left a warm (Continued on next On his two-way runs through the rain, McCahill averaged slightly higher than 99 mph. On a hard, dry surface he believes the powerful new Packard can probably average between 101-102 mph. PackardInfo.comSPECIFICATIONS MODEL TESTED: 1952 Packard 300 four-door sedan (with Ultramatic transmission) ENGINE: spot in my heart for power brakes in spite 8 cylinder, L-head; bore 3'/i inches, stroke 4'/4 inchts; piston displacement 327 cubic of the bill for new wheels. ^They saved a inches; maximum torque 270 foot pounds child's life when no other conventional (?) 2000 rpm; brake horsepower 155 @ 3400 brake could have halted that monster so rpm; compression ratio 7.8 to I DIMENSIONS: fast. Besides,- when the wheels stayed on, Wheelbase 127 inches; overall length 217 driving was much easier. At times when inches; tread 60 inches front, 61 7/32 rear; width 77 11/16 inches; height 62 29/32 the engine stalled and the vacuum went inches; weight 3,875 pounds; standard tire out I was forced to realize how much work size 8.00x15; gas tank 20 gals those brakes did. (All booster brakes today PERFORMANCE: (using Low and shifting to Drive) are rigged so that if the vacuum should fail 0 to 30 mph. 4.3 seconds you still have mechanical or hydraulic 0 to 50 mph, 9.8 seconds 0 to 60 mph, 13.8 seconds braking at your disposal.) The 1952 Pack- 0 to 70 mph, 18.3 seconds ard's vacuum brakes, called Easamatic, are 0 to 80 mph, 24.5 seconds Half-mile from standing start, 32 seconds one type of "matic" stuff I'll buy. They're Top speed, 101-102 mph, estimated a tremendous improvement, long overdue SPEEDOMETER ERROR: on all American luxury cars. At 60 mph on speedometer, actual speed 56.60 mph Bill Graves, engineering chief, and Ed- At 90 mph on speedometer, actual speed ward Macauley, stylist boss, took a stand 84.90 mph that I liked when I asked about transmis- sions. They told me that even though nearly 80 per cent of (Continued on next page) last year's buyers ordered Ultramatic, their unit this job undoubtedly would top 100 with cars would still be offered with a choice of ease. On a hard, dry surface it probably would overdrive or conventional transmission, as show a clean 101 or 102 for the two-way av- desired. Macauley said Packard doesn't feel erage. that it has the right to tell its customers what I found that acceleration could be speeded up they should or should not have. If you ask a considerably by starting the Ultramatic out in Packard dealer for standard transmission, he the low range and shifting to high or drive just doesn't treat you as though you had gone out before the rpm's peaked. Zero to 60 in high all of your mind. Quite a refreshing switch from the way, for example, took 17.1 seconds but zero another major manufacturer who forces buy- to 60 starting in low and shifting to high aver- e»..5 >to take the clutchless shift or nothing and aged 13.8 seconds. After speedometer corrections, *hiii reports that 99 per cent of the customers one half mile from zero took 34.4 in high all demand" automatic transmission. the way and 32 flat using low and drive. These Packard is also making the big 155-horse- times are fractionally slower than those made ;l power engine available in its smallest model, in 1950 with the big Packard 400, except for the the 200, if desired instead of the regular 135- half-mile from standing start. This is possibly horsepower job. This company believes in due to the added weight of the car and the wet- treating its customers like free thinking ness of the track. Americans, not like a bunch of prestige buying The 1952 Packard is an extremely fast stooges who will take what they get because American car and must be rated among the they are told to.