Owen Nacker (November 7, 1883 in

Highland Township, Oakland County, Michigan Highland Township, officially the Charter Township of Highland, is a charter township of west Oakland County, Michigan. The population was 19,202 at the time of the 2010 census. Highland Township is a western suburb of Metro Detroit and is loc ...

– May 4, 1959 in

Pleasant Ridge, Michigan Pleasant Ridge is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,526 at the 2010 census. Located along the Woodward Corridor and Interstate 696, Pleasant Ridge is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is about ...

) was an American automotive engineer.

Early Automotive Career

Nacker was a consultant to Alanson Partridge Brush (February 10, 1878 – March 6, 1952 in Michigan) of the

Brush Motor Car Company Brush Motor Car Company (1907-1909), later the Brush Runabout Company (1909-1913), was based in Highland Park, Michigan. History The company was founded by Alanson Partridge Brush (February 10, 1878, Michigan – March 6, 1952, Michigan). He ...

, makers of light car, the Runabout. As such he worked on the V-16 project at the

Marmon Motor Car Company Marmon Motor Car Company was an American automobile manufacturer founded by Howard Carpenter Marmon and owned by Nordyke Marmon & Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, US. It produced luxury automobiles from 1902 to 1933. It was established in 190 ...

with Howard Marmon. This project was newly begun before Nacker left Marmon.

Cadillac engine development

He was recruited in 1926 by

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

general manager Lawrence P. Fisher (October 19, 1888 in

Norwalk, Ohio Norwalk is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Huron County, Ohio, Huron County. The population was 17,012 at the United States Census 2010, 2010 census. The city is the center of the Norwalk, OH μSA, Norwalk Micropolitan Stat ...

– September 3, 1961 in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

) to work at the Cadillac Division of

General Motors Corporation The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

(GM). Nacker became head of engine development. He designed a 45 degree

Overhead valve An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located be ...

V-8 with an

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

crankcase In a piston engine, the crankcase is the housing that surrounds the crankshaft. In most modern engines, the crankcase is integrated into the engine block. Two-stroke engines typically use a crankcase-compression design, resulting in the fuel/a ...

, five

main bearing Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

s, counterweighted

crankshaft A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating shaft containing one or more crankpins, that are driven by the pistons via the connecting ...

with a front vibration damper and

timing chain In a piston engine, either a timing belt (also called a ''cambelt'') or timing chain or set of timing gears is used to synchronize the rotation of the crankshaft and the camshaft. This synchronisation ensures that the engine's valves open and cl ...

driving the generator. Cylinder blocks included cast

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

liners extending into the crankcase with cast iron heads. This was the engine for Cadillac Division's new 1927 LaSalle companion model. Nacker was lead development engineer of the

Cadillac V-16 engine The Cadillac V16 engine was a type of automobile engine produced in the 1930s. Cadillac produced two of only three production, gasoline-fueled V16 engine models in history. Both were used in the Cadillac V-16 automobile, the first from 1930 unti ...

project. This was probably the first car engine to be styled for

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

as well as function. Finned aluminum valve covers were used and wiring and piping were hidden under covers and panels and enamel was used on some engine surfaces. Nacker also developed Cadillac's V-12 that shared tooling and many components with the V-16. Nacker also was the leader of the 1936 monobloc Cadillac V-8 engine development with John E "Jack" Gordon also in the later stages. This new V-8 was so smooth and powerful it rendered the V-12 obsolete. Therefore, the V-12 was dropped from production after the 1937 model year.

Hydramatic transmission

Nacker was also part of the team of engineers that developed the

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

Hydramatic Hydramatic (also known as Hydra-Matic) is an automatic transmission developed by both General Motors' Cadillac and Oldsmobile divisions. Introduced in 1939 for the 1940 model year vehicles, the ''Hydramatic'' was the first mass-produced fully-a ...

automatic transmission An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving c ...

. Both the monobloc Cadillac V-8 and Hydramatic transmission were used in the M5 version of the Stuart tank during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Family

Owen Milton Nacker was the son of Harmon Nacker (September 30, 1857 in

Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976. Dearborn is the seventh most-populated city in Michigan and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States pe ...

– November 17, 1913 in

Milford, Michigan Milford is a village in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,175 at the time of the 2010 census. The village is located within Milford Township. The village is known for being the home of the Milford General Motors ...

) and Dora Law (June 24, 1864 – Jun 28, 1918 in Highland, Michigan). They were married on November 22, 1882. Owen married Pearl Leonard (March 18, 1887 in

Novi, Michigan Novi ( ) is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the population was 66,243, an increase of 20% from the 2010 census. A northern suburb of Metro Detroit, Novi is located about northwest of the city of D ...

– January 29, 1979) on November 23, 1904 in Highland, Michigan.

References

GM Next

External links

American Heritage "The Return of the V-16"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nacker, Owen 1883 births 1959 deaths American automotive engineers People in the automobile industry People from Highland, Oakland County, Michigan General Motors former executives