The elegant legends powered by the straight eight engine

The straight eight, so named because its eight cylinders are lined up in a single row, is a rare exception. Introduced just after the First World War, it was widely adopted for both road-going and competition cars throughout Europe and North America, but fell out of favour in the 1950s and has hardly been heard of since.

That’s unfair, though there were various reasons for this, including packaging problems – the engines were inherently long - and the difficulty of reliably fuelling all the cylinders equally effectively, but we have reason to regret the way things worked out, since few engines sound much better than a straight eight.

In this tribute to one of the grandest of all engine layouts, we present, in chronological order, 29 examples of production cars fitted with straight eights, followed by a much later concept - and most of them look splendid:

By general agreement, the Tipo 8 was the first car sold to the public with a straight eight engine. The Italian Isotta Frachini company devised a 5.9-litre unit which helped make its first post-war vehicle a credible alternative to those being produced by rival luxury makers Rolls-Royce and Hispano-Suiza.

The engine was later enlarged to 7.4 litres for the Tipo 8A and 8B, the latter proving to be exactly the kind of car the world didn’t need during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Isotta Fraschini was soon faced with a European straight eight rival in the luxury class when Leyland launched its new model. Created when Leyland’s chief engineer was John Parry-Thomas (1884-1927), who would later hold the Land Speed Record – and was killed in an accident while trying to get it back – the Eight initially had a 6.9-litre engine, and was praised for being both remarkably quick and equally remarkably quiet by the standards of the early 1920s.

Like Isotta Fraschini, Leyland felt the need for more capacity, and took its engine out to 7.3 litres in 1921, but abandoned production two years later.

Originally known simply as the Straight Eight, what is now known as the Model A was America’s first car with an engine of this type. The 4.3-litre unit had an overhead camshaft driving two valves per cylinder, but Duesenberg went well beyond this with the 7.0-litre eight it devised for the later Model J, which had two cams and four valves per cylinder.

Eclipsed by its successor, the Model A was nevertheless highly esteemed in its day as a fast luxury car.

The first of many straight eight Bugattis was the Type 29 Grand Prix car of 1921. Its 2.0-litre engine was used in a production model for the first time the following year when it powered the Type 30, which was also the first Bugatti with brakes on all four wheels.

A high-performance car rather than a luxury one in the manner of the Leyland and the Isotta Fraschini, the Type 30 was manufactured until 1926, when it was replaced by the similar Type 38. Other straight eight Bugattis, one of which will be mentioned separately, were produced for several more years before the original company faded away in the 1950s.

Having inspired a brief fad among US manufacturers for V12 engines, and then seen it fade to nothing, Packard changed tack in 1924. Its range-topping model of that year, replacing the Twin Six, was the Single-Eight (a name which would later be revised), and although there were nine different body styles the engine was always the new straight eight, initially measuring 5.9 litres.

Packard would remain faithful to the layout longer than any other US maker except Pontiac. It was still offering a straight eight as late as 1954, a year before it finally introduced a V8 and three years before the last Packard was built.

Auburn’s straight eight was built by Lycoming, which in 1927 would join the car manufacturer as part of the business empire owned by Errett Lobban Cord (1894-1974). The engine was used first in the 8-63 and later in several other models, including most versions of the Speedster (pictured).

With a capacity of either 4.6 or 4.9 litres, the eight powered Auburns right up until the failure of the company in 1937.

The Series E was an unusually upmarket car for the Hupp Motor Company to produce, and at the same time an unusually inexpensive one considering it had a 4.0-litre straight eight engine. With prices starting at $1795 (approximately $31,000 today), the Series E made the layout affordable to people who could not even have thought of paying well over double that for a Duesenberg.

More straight eight Hupmobiles would follow, but the company did not survive into the 1940s, and is not well known today.

The new straight eight in the ‘26 Stutz was described in promotional literature, with perhaps excessive confidence as “a motor from which vibration has been eliminated”. It was also claimed to produce ‘over 90’ horsepower from 4.7 litres.

Seeking more power, Stutz later raised the capacity to 5.3 litres and, like Duesenberg, increased the number of overhead camshafts and valves from two and 16 to four and 32 respectively. Introduced in 1931, this version of the engine had a formidable output of 156 horsepower.

Five years after introducing a straight eight of modest size, Bugatti went in completely the other direction and created the largest engine of this layout ever used in a production car. The 12.8-litre behemoth powered the Type 41, or Royale, itself one of the longest cars in history, and certainly the longest Bugatti.

It was also exceptionally expensive, which proved to be unfortunate during the Depression-hit 1930s. Very few Royales were ever built, but the engine had a happier fate, being used in French railway trains well into the 1950s.

The first Mercedes straight eight was a 4.6-litre unit fitted to the Nürburg, whose name reflected the fact that it had been tested extensively at the recently completed Nürburgring race circuit. Unfashionably tall even for 1928, the car was redesigned to look lower and more elegant before the end of the following year.

In 1931, the engine’s capacity was increased to 4.9 litres, which, along with a change of carburettor, raised the maximum power figure from 80bhp to 100bhp. By the end of the decade, supercharged Mercedes straight eights with over five times that output were being used in some of the most formidable Grand Prix cars ever built.

The President was launched in 1926 with a 5.8-litre six-cylinder engine, but a straight eight seemed more appropriate for Studebaker’s most prestigious model. Sure enough, a smaller, yet undoubtedly more fashionable, 5.1-litre engine of that type, produced 100 horsepower, replaced the six for 1928.

In July and August of that year, four Presidents powered by the eight (two roadsters and two sedans) were driven for 19 days at the Atlantic City Speedway, averaging between 63.99mph and 68.37mph for 30,000 miles.

The 21/60 was unusual in being available with straight six and straight eight engines of almost exactly the same size, both measuring 2.7 litres in roundish figures. Wolseley had demonstrated that an eight could be used in a not particularly expensive model, but it turned out to be a step too far in a world plummeting into financial crisis.

The six-cylinder 21/60 survived until 1935, but the less popular eight was dropped at the end of 1931, after only 536 had been sold.

The first model from the short-lived brand named after Errett Lobban Cord was powered by a 4.9-litre Lycoming straight eight – an obvious choice, since both Lycoming and Auburn, which used the same engine, were owned by Cord.

While the engine was familiar, the L-29’s front-wheel drive layout was startlingly innovative, but it did little to help sales, which had reached only around 4400 when the car was discontinued after 1932.

Having created a very successful 1.5-litre supercharged straight eight for its Grand Prix cars in 1926, Delage introduced a 4.1-litre naturally-aspirated engine of the same layout, but otherwise unrelated, for its luxurious D8.

The D8 remained in production until 1940, by which time Delage had been taken over by Delahaye. The car was also fitted with a straight eight of some sort, but for various reasons (including extra performance and fitting into a favourable tax bracket) the capacities ranged widely from 2.6 to 4.7 litres.

The 2.6-litre Hillman was a plausible rival to the eight-cylinder version of the Wolseley 21/60, but it was more expensive and very quickly developed a reputation for bearing failure. With all that going against it, sales were, understandably, terrible.

An update, accompanied by a change of name to Vortic, didn’t help much. Straight Eights were still being offered for sale in 1932, but this was a case of trying to get rid of old stock, since production had already stopped by then.

Lanchester’s only straight eight was a 4.4-litre overhead-camshaft unit fitted to the splendid 30hp. Fast and luxurious, it was, like so many others of its time, not the sort of car people wanted to buy during the Great Depression, and not much more than 100 were ever built.

Production did, however, continue beyond 1930, the year Lanchester had to be saved by the BSA group, which partnered it with the British (as opposed to the German) Daimler company.

The reasonable assumption that any car with a straight eight engine had to be expensive, or at the very least mid-price, was blown apart by the introduction of the 3.3-litre Roosevelt. It was the only model in a sub-brand created by Marmon, which had been producing this type of engine for two years.

What made it special was that, while a Marmon 68 cost $1465 and a Marmon 78 $1965, the Roosevelt was priced at just $995. In today’s money, this is the equivalent of around $18,000, which is approximately the base MSRP for a Mitsubishi Mirage, one of the cheapest car currently on sale in America.

Aimed at customers who could afford something far more upmarket than the exactly contemporary Roosevelt, the Model 125 (pictured) and 126 were the first straight eight cars produced by Pierce-Arrow, which had only recently been taken over by Studebaker.

The engine in each case measured 6.0 litres, though it would be expanded to 6.3 litres in the early 1930s. The main difference between the two cars was one of wheelbase, that of the Model 125 being 133 inches compared with 143 inches for the 126.

Difficult though it might be to imagine now, Renault was famous for its luxury cars before the Second World War, so it was almost inevitable that a straight eight model would be introduced sooner or later. Sure enough, the 7.1-litre Renahuit was unveiled to the public at the Paris Show in 1928, and went on sale the following year after being renamed Reinastella.

As well as being the company’s first eight-cylinder car, it was the first Renault of any sort with a radiator mounted in front of the engine rather than behind it.

Along with the short-lived Dodge Series DC, the DeSoto was one of the first cars fitted with a new Chrysler flathead straight six, Chrysler having created the DeSoto marque in 1928 and acquired Dodge the following year.

Originally with a capacity of 3.4 litres, but later available in much larger forms, the engine was first used in a Chrysler-branded car in 1931. It was still around, now measuring 5.3 litres, in the Saratoga and New Yorker as late as 1950, the year before it was finally replaced by the FirePower V8.

Hudson entered the straight eight game in 1930 with a 3.5-litre engine fitted to a model known as the Great Eight. It was enlarged to 3.8 litres in 1931 (one of several updates which led to that car being called the Greater Eight) and again to 4.1 litres in 1932.

Hudson also used the straight eight in its slightly later Terraplane, and the same unit powered the early Hudson-based models produced in the UK by Railton.

Previously powered by a straight six, the Ambassador became the first Nash fitted with a straight eight in 1930. This 4.9-litre overhead-valve unit was unlike almost any other in the world in that it had two spark plugs per cylinder (the intention being to burn the fuel-air mixture more efficiently), which led to the car being known briefly as the Twin Ignition.

Nash produced several more straight eights in the following years, including a much more downmarket 3.7-litre flathead, but abandoned the layout after the Second World War.

Straight eight Alfas were very successful in motor racing in the 1920s, but the first road-going model with to use the layout did not appear until 1931. The 8C, a four-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours, had an advanced 2.3-litre unit with twin overhead camshafts, a supercharger and drive taken from the centre of the crankshaft.

The eight could be taken out to 3.8 litres, but for road-going purposes it never went beyond 2.9 litres, in which form it was still available in 1939.

Buick introduced its overhead-valve straight eight for the 1931 model year, and immediately fitted it to every car in its range, including the Series 50 (pictured). Different applications required different power outputs, and therefore different engine sizes, so the eight was available with a wide range of capacities from 3.6 to 5.6 litres.

Buick’s first V8, known officially as the Fireball and colloquially as the Nailhead, arrived in 1953, and technically replaced the straight eight. In fact, the old engine survived for one more year, now in 4.3-litre form, in the Buick Super, before disappearing from the catalogues entirely.

Described as “the most fabulous Reo of all”, the Royale was powered by a 5.8-litre straight eight and available with two wheelbase lengths and several body styles. On the market from 1931 to 1934, it is the only Reo on the Approved Full Classics list maintained by the Classic Car Club of America.

Impressive though it was, it did little to help the company, which abandoned car production in 1936 to concentrate on building heavy trucks.

The only straight eight in the 107-year history of Oldsmobile became an alternative to the company’s straight six in 1932. At that time, it had a capacity of 3.9 litres and a claimed power output of 87 horsepower, though the latter figure was raised to 90 horsepower in 1933 and 100 horsepower in 1935.

By means of reducing the stroke length but increasing the bore, Oldsmobile expanded the capacity to 4.2 litres in 1937. Maximum power rose accordingly to 110 horsepower.

Pontiac introduced its straight eight one model year later than fellow General Motors brand Oldsmobile. As fitted to a 1933 model known as the Economy Eight, it measured 3.7 litres and produced 77 horsepower, but those figures soon rose to 3.8 litres and 87 horsepower.

Pontiac persevered with the layout longer than any other GM brand, and as long as Packard. A 127 horsepower 4.4-litre version was still available in the Chieftain (pictured) in 1954, after which it was eclipsed by the new, larger and at – 180 horsepower – much stronger Strato-Streak V8.

Known as the V 26, the British Daimler company’s 3.8-litre straight eight was fitted to the Twenty-Five luxury model, and to the Hooper-bodied limousine delivered to King George V in autumn 1935. Its capacity was soon raised to 4.6 litres, and a new 3.4-litre engine was developed for the sporty Light Straight Eight.

Daimler was one of the few manufacturers to maintain an interest in the layout after the Second World War, eventually abandoning it shortly before Packard and Pontiac in 1953.

The first Phantom IV was ordered as a personal car for the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and became a state car when the former acceded to the throne. A further 17 were subsequently built (the last in 1956), and supplied only to people whose day jobs consisted of running their countries.

The engine was the only straight eight ever fitted to a Rolls-Royce car, and was part of a family otherwise used to power military vehicles.

The straight eight was very much a thing of the past in 1995, but in that year Chrysler nevertheless decided to create one for its Atlantic concept – an appropriate choice, since that car was strongly influenced by the luxurious machines produced by coachbuilders in the 1930s, many of which were powered by engines of this type.

The 4.0-litre united devised for the Atlantic had humble origins. In simple terms, it essentially consisted of two 2.0-litre Dodge Neon units mounted front to back.