We can trace this straight-six love affair back to 1936.

For decades, the gold standard brand for a straight-six-cylinder-powered sport sedan has been BMW. But the gold standard doesn't necessarily mean being the only general game in town worth considering.

As for Chrysler, they went to great lengths to avoid the V8 fad at first, ensuring their much-beloved straight-eight engines lasted past the end of the war, even into the very early 1950s. This is the ...