Post-war
After World War II, changes in the automobile market resulted in the decline and final extinction of the straight-8 as an automobile engine. The primary users of the straight-8 were American luxury and premium cars that were carried over from before the war. A Flxible inter-city bus used the Buick straight-8.
During World War II, improvements in the refinery technology used to produce aviation gasoline resulted in the availability of large amounts of inexpensive high octane gasoline. Engines could be designed with higher compression ratios to take advantage of high-octane gasoline. This led to more highly stressed engines which amplified the limitations of the long crankshaft and camshaft in the straight-8 engines.
Oldsmobile replaced their straight-8 with a V8 engine in 1949, at which time Cadillac also introduced their first overhead valve V8. Chrysler replaced its straight-8 with its famous Hemi V-8 for 1951. Hudson retired its straight-8 at the end of the 1952 model year. Buick introduced a 322 in³ (4.00" bore × 3.203" stroke = 5.3 L) V8 in 1953, with similar displacement as their (3.44" bore × 4.32" stroke = 5.3 L) 320 in³ straight-8, the latter being produced until the end of the 1953 model year. Pontiac maintained production on their straight-8, as well as a L-head inline six, through the end of the 1954 model year, after which a V8 became standard. Packard ended production of their signature straight-8 at the end of 1954, replacing it with an overhead valve V8.
By the end of the 1970s overhead valve V8s powered 80% of automobiles built in the US, and most of the rest had six-cylinder engines.
In Europe, many automobile factories had been destroyed during World War II, and it took many years before war-devastated economies recovered enough to make large cars popular again. The change in the design of cars from a long engine compartment between separate fenders to the modern configuration with its shorter engine compartment quickly led to the demise of the straight-8 engine. As a result, four- and six-cylinder engines powered the majority of cars in Europe, and the few eight-cylinder cars produced were in the V8 configuration.
The British Army selected Rolls Royce straight-8 engines in the Alvis FV 600 armoured vehicle family. The Saladin armoured car was a 6x6 design with the engine compartment in the rear, a 76.2mm low pressure gun turret in the centre and the driver in front. The Saracen armoured personnel carrier had the engine in front with the driver in the centre and space for a 'few' troops in the rear. The Stalwart amphibious logistics carrier has the driver's compartment over the front wheels, the engine in the rear and a large load compartment over the middle and rear. The Salamander firefighting vehicle was unarmoured, and resembled the Stalwart with a conventional fire engine superstructure.
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Famous quotes containing the word post-war:
“Much of what Mr. Wallace calls his global thinking is, no matter how you slice it, still “globaloney.” Mr. Wallace’s warp of sense and his woof of nonsense is very tricky cloth out of which to cut the pattern of a post-war world.”
—Clare Boothe Luce (1903–1987)