Of all cylinder layouts without balance shaft a straight eight design has very low inherent vibration, while the side-valve layout contains the moving parts of the valve train within the cast-iron block, enabling it to be very quiet compared to an overhead valve configuration (as in the contemporary Buick engines).
As with other iron block straight configurations the engine is considerably heavier than an equivalent V configuration, requiring more materials for the crank and crankcase and so increasing overall vehicle weight in even greater proportion.