Michael

The Swiss had a very hostile attitude towards motorcars in the early twentieth century. At the time of the First World War there were few vehicles in the country. If the Swiss Army wanted to experiment with motorized transport they would have had to import a car or truck to experiment with. Rolls Royce Mercedes and others like Hispano Suiza were making munitions . Pierce was making trucks and their cars were almost tailor made anyway. Packard and Cadillac had the volume and distribution to spare a few. The Twin Six would have been attractive because of the larger engine.

The Twin Six came out in 1915, after the war started in Europe

I an interested in who did the conversions. Someone saw a niche for modifying Packards into halftracks and peddling them to European governments.

To my knowledge there have been only two other native Swiss makers, Martini and Denzel, and Denzel was putting fiberglass bodies on Volkswagens. Someone may know of others

Regards

John Harley

M

Owen Dyneto will be along shortly to chine in, I'm sure. He has a '34 1100 with dual coils. They alternate in firing, there are two sets of points. The dwell is longer which gives a nice fat spark. The car almost always starts on less than one revolution of the engine, even after sitting all winter.

The pre '35 cars are full of elegant technical features like this, they became a casualty of cost cutting

Regards

John Harley

Friends

I grew up in the North side of Indianapolis in the 60's . During the month of May little else besides the race is of any interest. Although we lived 10 or 15 miles away, the cars could be easily heard if atmospheric conditions were right.

Andy Granatelli was long suffering. The Novi cars had had other owners. They were powered by an supercharged V8 of Miller /Offenhauser lineage. As the NYT stated, they produced over 800 HP. In theory they were unbeatable. In practice they were high strung and would eat up the drive train on a regular basis if the engine stayed together long enough. All the cars were noisy, but the Novis emitted a continuous high pitch scream because of the supercharger.

The turbine cars should have won except for the hardware failures noted in the article. Granatelli showed a good humored resignation through all those years- I guess I admired him for it even then.

He was pretty funny, he sometimes wore a suite covered in STP badges. He insisted that STP stood for "Studebakers Tickled Pink"

Regards

John Harley

JF

Very plesaed to know that I will see that car back on the road soon. Stu and Stella are very good friends of mine and of the hobby

Best

john Harley

David

That car belonged to Johnny Peterson a long time member of the late Eastern Packard Club. He had that car since the early 50's. It was completely painted and reupholstered about 1953 for the princely sum of $900.

Johnny caravanned with the late Jack Behn and myself (and co drivers!) from Connecticut to Warren for Packard Centennial in 1999. Jack led the way in his '41 180 formal driving well over the speed limit, as he usually did. John was pretty funny when he bought gas, he could't understand why the car was getting only 9 mpg instead of 10

John crashed in my hotel room for a few nights, he was as excited as a little kid. A number of the classic era Packards in the Magnum Opus had belonged to him at some point.

His green '56 Patrician and cream '53 convertible had recently been on ebay. I last saw him at the final Eastern Packard Club dinner in October of 2012. He was feeling his age a little more than I would have liked. I am very pleased the sale of the Twelve is able to support him so well financially

Regards

John Harley

Dan

Good for you. That is a fairly rare car. The Executive was the last model introduced in the final 3 months of Packard production in Detroit so it is a significant auto. The 55 and 56 cars have an amount of innovations in them, it's amazing what Packard was still able to do even when they were flat on their back

Regards

John Harley

Jeff

i guess I wan't clear, I think you do have the move the generator.. I'll look at my car on Saturday


JH

Jeff

Close. It goes underneath the rear bolt head of the generator bracket on the side of the block, like it was a washer. Clear a mud?

Nice work on the car !

Regards

John Harley

Friends

There used to be an extremely original '41 120 convertible in the Eastern Packard. The late owner, John Orintas, was the chauffeur for the original owner Mrs Chase, of Watertown , Connecticut (as in Chase Brass Co.).He was with her the day it was purchased and it was willed to him. Johnny passed away around the turn of he century so he was associated with the car for about 60 years

It is the two tone green scheme used on the car in the current discussion. The dash is some sort of combination of greens and perhaps cream, but not woodgrain. I haven't seen the car for about 15 years, but found it for sale on the internet about a year ago, in Chicago

A black 180 formal sedan was purchased at the same time and was owned by the late Jack Behn, also of the Eastern Packard Club. The last I know, it was in Ohio. I had he pleasure of driving this car partway to the Packard Centennial


The 1941 Data Book, 1941 Salesman's book, parts book, and mid year Dealer's color scheme updates have minor discrepancies in the exterior and interior color/trim combinations

Regards

John Harley

Scheffner

It's intentional. There is a drain on the manifold with a check valve that opens when engine vacuum ceases e.g when the engine stops. This is to prevent raw gas that collects in the manifold washing into the cylinders on the next start up.

Clear as mud?

Regards


John Harley