Ford was weak at this time, good opportunity to cut deals with them.

Here's suggested '49 Custom Eight backlight and taillights, '51 Cosmopolitan being the starting point. These Cosmo studies demonstrate the opportunity that Packard had to do an in-house design as much as it does a Lincoln share. We get back to Steve's initial thesis about the drivers that kept the lid on Packard reaching it's full potential.

Attach file:

---

  (50.25 KB)

Ah, just realized the one carrot Packard had that Ford needed: Ultramatic.


"I can imagine a common body for the Capri and Clipper."

Yes. For 1952 a Lincoln-based Packard Custom sedan would need to use a lengthened Capri hardtop roof to better compete with Cadillac, styling becoming paramount.

That's a good point. Perhaps the Packard would have needed to be a Custom only, Super Eight Deluxe competing a bit too closely with Cosmopolitan. Here are 1949 prices from NADA. With Packard in the mix to help spread amortization, Cosmopolitan might have come down in price to Cadillac 62 level:

$3,238 Lincoln Cosmopolitan

$2,633 Packard Super Eight
$2,919 Packard Super Eight Deluxe
$3,975 Packard Custom Eight

$3,050 Cadillac 62 Sedan
$3,828 Cadillac 60 Special

The Whiz Kids were new to the industry at that early stage having joined in 1946. My impression is that the rest of the company had devolved into a neanderthal state. It had always been run by one person, so how powerful could any of the wanna be's have become? And the Lincoln and Mercury programs had their share of convulsions, ultimately ending up something less than originally envisioned. This suggests that the program financials were a problem. So enter Packard, a still reputable concern that wants to help raise all ships.

I don't know. It would have been an odd alliance to say the least, might have only lasted one product cycle before Ford began to bully. Packard would have needed to figure out how to always make Ford feel there was something important and special in it for them. But even then... let's just say we know what happened to Ferrari when his Dearborn suitor was left humiliated at the alter.

Direct comparison between Super Eights shows the difference a new body would have made.

Attach file:

---

  (71.82 KB)

Thanks and great suggestion! Have lowered the rear bumper and added side trim, now looking more Packard-like. Skirts are slightly lower as a result. Note that this and earlier version use shortened rear bumpers compared to Lincoln's forward extending version.

Looking at the situation at a higher level it seems that maybe Packard needed to strike several deals. On the high end with Lincoln, the end result being that Packard might have gotten out of body making completely unless it could have convinced FoMoCo to let it make the Cosmopolitan. Maybe it was the case that the only way for Packard and Lincoln to make a serious assault on Cadillac would have been to join forces. Such a strategy might have served both well for many years but... you just know that Ford would at some point want to gobble Packard up.

FoMoCo didn't need scale at the low end but Nash could have used it. Their fastback served them well from '49-51 and they sold quite a few of them. By 1952 a notchback was needed so they made the switch. I think there was opportunity for Packard during all these years. Mason saw it, that's why he approached Alvan Macauley in 1946 and again in 1947 that culminated in a proposal to the Board in February 1948. But like Ford, Mason was inherently a gobbler. Packard would have needed to keep an arm's length from all would-be turkeys.

Attach file:

---

  (79.56 KB)

I suppose this is what the Ambassador would have looked like in general terms, Nash shipping its big Six to EGB, Packard building all the large BoF bodies. Pricing would have been up there with Hudson Commodore.

Attach file:

---

  (75.50 KB)

Kimes' book said the U.S. government reimbursed Packard to fix damaged equipment and that the company's real problem was the extensive time spent repairing, which delayed restart of production and cost the company lost sales.

It seems to have taken Mr. Earl almost a decade to finally get the C.O. theme right, see Strato Streak.

Never saw the wisdom in spending half to two-thirds the cost of an all-new program to do a major refresh as Packard did for '48 and '55. Better to wait a year to do all-new. The '49 Cosmopolitan probably makes the best argument why.

Packard was at a cross-roads. They needed scale and the dealers needed a mix of lower and higher priced vehicles that were completely different in size, appearance, performance and comfort. Too bad Packard couldn't strike a deal with FoMoCo, the '49 Ford with longer axle-dash would have made a good Eight while Cosmo would have led to a wonderful Custom. Image below has two inches added to axle-dash to get the wheelbase up to Packard's traditional 127 and to better package the long Eights, backlight is a more private one-piece affair and taillights have more bling. Long, low, clean and a one-piece windshield. Thoroughly modern for the times.

More realistically, they might have struck a love-without-marriage deal with George Mason when he first approached them in 1946. A car like the Cosmo and a shorter-hooded version for Ambassador might have given the new platform its needed scale, with body-on-frame and panels stamped in Kenosha and shipped nested to EGB for body build, paint and final. Nash could have gone ahead with its '49 Airflyte unibody fastback, with Packard shipping the 282 Eight to Kenosha to replace what would have been the 121 wb Ambassador (now with open front wheels) and built alongside Pacemaker.

These are just examples of the type of thinking they needed. What happened to that once great and gutsy company that sat atop the industry, fueled by big thoughts and in total command of its business and the industry?

Attach file:

---

  (66.04 KB)


  (78.49 KB)


  (105.17 KB)

Not sure if this ad is old but shows the car for sale. Detailed historical account is included.

https://car-from-uk.com/sale.php?id=180027&country=us

Wonderful synopsis Steve!!! You've captured all the major forces acting on the historic situation that Packard found itself in.

John Reinhart said that he and many other designers wanted to simply refine the Clipper with a theme he referred to as needle nose. Wonder if any sketches or pictures survived.

Why didn't pinch-penny Christopher figure out how to marry Clipper's dies to Packard's pre-war stamping presses, to inexpensively bring body production back in-house in 1945? The company invested a boatload in those presses for 1938, surely the equipment hadn't become obsolete 7 short years later. Did Packard let the expensive equipment sit outside? How would it have even been moved? Its hard to imagine it doing nothing more than staying right were it had always been.

Briggs should have been a seen as nothing more than a temporary arrangement.