Four-holer versus three-holer

Roadmaster.

The April 2011 issue of my Hemmings Classic-Car Magazine has a giant article about Buick’s “Roadmaster,” which was manufactured from 1936 through the 1958 model-year.
The “Roadmaster” was a really great concept: a dramatic luxury-car at a lowish price.
It also had good performance; a strong straight-eight motor at first; 320.2 cubic inches of displacement, 170 horsepower when last made (1952).
The Roadmaster was a siren-song, attractive and well-styled and fast.
Ford’s Flat-head V8 was also attractive, but the straight-eight Buick was more appealing.
Beyond that Buick’s straight-eight was overhead-valve. Ford’s Flat-head was side-valve, like a current lawnmower engine, only water-cooled.
Even my paternal grandfather was smitten, and what he wanted more than anything else was a Packard (“PAK-erd”).
He eventually got a Packard, but it was the el-cheapo six-cylinder model.
What replaced the Packard was a Buick, ’47 or so.
He’d show it off.
He took us all for a ride in it.
“Feel that? Heat into the back under the front seats.”
“We don’t feel anything, Pop-pop.”
“Shaddup and go along, kid,” my father growled.
I don’t know if my grandfather’s Buick was a Roadmaster.
It rode great, and was impressive to be seen in.
A Cadillac without all the Cadillac baggage.
Roadmaster had four side ventiports.
Those ventiports were a Buick trademark, although they’re no longer seen.
Lesser Buicks had only three per side; the Roadmaster was four.
Roadmasters were the top-of-the-line.
I once told a friend at the newspaper where I worked about my grandfather’s Buick.
“Three-holer or four?” he asked.
I couldn’t remember if my grandfather’s Buick was a Roadmaster, but if it had been, my friend would have been impressed.
Back in Spring of 1966, when I was in college, a friend had an old ’51 Buick, a straight-eight. 110 mph once, as fast as that old turkey would go. —I also don’t know if his car was a Roadmaster.
The owner of the house where I roomed during my sophomore year at college (’63-’64) had a ’55 Caddy four-door sedan. I drove it once. Impressive but heavy.
My friend’s Buick was more appealing.
In 1959 the Roadmaster was replaced by the Electra.

• A side-valve engine (like the Ford Flat-head) has the valves down in the engine-block, beside the cylinder-bores. Overhead-valve is in the combustion-chambers, atop the cylinders. —Side-vales have contorted intake and exhaust passages, so breathe poorly. Overhead-valve is more complex mechanically, but more direct, so breathes better, making more power. (The Ford Flat-head was called that because it had flat cylinder-head castings.)