Found this in the "letters to the editor" page of the November, 1952 issue of Hop Up magazine. Thought it was interesting.
QuoteWhen are we going to get overhead camshafts on US car?
Great Neck, LI, NY. Ted Powell
I seriously doubt if we'll ever see ohc engines in production American cars...and for two very good reasons: One is that it obviously costs a great deal more money, and don't ever forget that the manufacturer really squeezes the pennies. As one wit said "every so-called mechanical improvement is actually the sales department's excuse for some cost-saving idea devised by engineering. Secondly, American car engine speeds are gradually going down, not up. By this, I mean revolutions per mile and not peaking speeds. The point here is that rocker arms are OK in an average size engine, so long as speeds do not exceed 4500 rpm. -- Tech. Ed.
Dan, Great find! I wonder in what year they said something like that about electronic fuel injection.
Dale
It did take the American car industry a long time to try an OHC engine. I had a 1968 Firdbird Sprint with the OHC inline six and 4 barrel. Was that the first?
For the 1966 model year, the Pontiac Tempest replaced the Chevy-derived 215 six with a new Pontiac-built 230 cubic-inch overhead cam six, the only such engine found in an American production car at that time.
Leave it to Jeep, to have one earlier. When Kaiser bought Jeep the introduced an OHC inline 6 in 1962. Didn't last long, about a couple of years then Kaiser sold Jeep and the engine was dropped. Problems with the aluminum head cracking around the centerally located spark plug as I remember. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeep_Tornado_engine
And don't forget the Crosley in 1946 with a OHC 4.