The elegant legends powered by the Straight Eight engine | Autocar

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.