I am sure that the bridge collapse left many of us feeling devastated. For those of you who subscribe to Amazon Prime, the brand new series of the Grand Tour (Jeremy Clarkson et al) first episode for 2019 is a painfully snarky tour of derelict Detroit with several glimpses of the PMCC and bridge. I am sad with the portrayal they gave viewers of Detroit but glad that they filmed in time while the bridge was up. They also mistakenly said that the Clark Street (Fleetwood) Cadillac plant was on Connor.

This is a fine example of getting unexpected advice, just when you needed it.

As you may know, I have two 1956 hardtops and had both BTVs exchanged with rebuilt units last year. One came from Max and the other from Kanter. I have been happy with the rebuilds from both, but the Esquire has the external glass jar reservoir and the Executive does not. Neither car is driven nearly as much or as regularly as the 1950 Eight Touring Sedan (with beautiful Wilwood dual master and front disc brakes), so watching the brake fluid slowly drain down without much driving made me think that I was going to have to take out the rebuilt BTV unit to see if the top master cylinder cover was somewhat loose on the Esquire with the remote filler jar. The hard to see master cylinder did seem to have some brake fluid crystallized underneath it, so I wiped it to see if the leak continued. It has. Now, all I plan on doing is taking out the remote unit and check for leaks in the line and also see if the cap may simply need tightening; As I recall, both BTV units came with new washers on the caps. This will save me a lot of grief if it proves this simple.

It is "The Big Sleep". It is four stars in my opinion and is available on streaming. A 1938 Super Eight is mentioned four times as "a big Packard" in the dialogue.

Not quite the movies, but a part of a 23rd series Packard just appeared in a TV commercial. That doesn't happen that often, these days.

It's in a Keytruda commercial for their cancer drug: a middle aged guy is playing with his Olds 442 and his sons/grandsons. A bit later on, the hood ornament ("donut pusher") from a Packard briefly appears. If I have gotten the Series wrong, I apologize.

I cannot tell you how happy I am that another guy, half-way around the world, is having 1950 Packard Eight adventures similar to mine. After seeing my two nice 1956 hardtops, people seem surprised that I say that the rather plain Eight sedan is my second favorite Packard. Even I don't know why that is, but for a car that is sixty eight years old and still with less than 60,000 miles, somewhere somebody must have also felt the same charm to keep her around. Mine still runs well so all the advice to do compression checks and other things will just have to wait until I am really bored with the other two and have nothing else better to do. I hope that you are as equally pleased and lucky.

My daughter has also had her own fit when she discovered that I had taken several grandkids out for a neighborhood ride in the Eight, minus back seat belts. For once, I refrained from giving the speech as to how I survived my youth standing on the back seat of my parent's cars about the same time this Packard was new. I cannot imagine a time when my daughter has ever ridden in a moving car without a belt fastened. I would not have it any other way.

If the engine is original, it is a 288. From the photos, it appears to be painted in Egyptian Sand, just like my 1950 Touring Sedan. I hope you have as much fun with your new purchase as I have been. I am constantly amazed how many heads get turned by it in Atlanta traffic.

I note that you have an Aussie-comfortable RHD version. Is the gear change lever pointing to the left and the turn signal to the right of the steering wheel? If so, is first gear towards the driver and down and second away and up?

I am planning on a 50 mile trip to a show with the 1956 Esquire this coming weekend. For the past year, my fuel gauge hasn't worked and I have been doing the old fashioned way of keeping the tank topped up whenever any trip is contemplated. Today, just for safety's sake, I topped up the tank and the darn thing took almost 17 gallons! It's been a while, but I don't think I have driven it much more than a 120 miles this year. I'm now going to keep better records of miles driven until that guage get fixed or starts working again.

Has anyone else seen 10% ethanol gasoline disappear or evaporate during periods of non use? My 1967 Corvette might have the same issue. No noted gas smell in the garage with either and certainly no leakage has been spotted. The Corvette has a brand new tank and fittings. I no longer have teen drivers in the house who know how to siphon gas, so I will rule that one out. I do wonder, since similar things don't seem to happen with our more modern cars with non-vented and emission controls with charcoal canister breathers, if the gas is simply evaporating from the little used cars with vented systems. Over the winter months, I do use Stabil in cars when I don't expect to drive them much, but this kind of loss has me wondering. Or is this another symptom of old guy logic going amiss?

FWIW, in the past year I have purchased and installed two BTV units, one from KAP and the other from MM. Both are working well and I am pleased with both. Similarly priced with a $200 core charge. One of my units was nearly concours quality in the external finishing so I almost hated to install it in a hidden position under the car (but I cannot remember where that beauty came from). The other unit was probably more authentic with a typical mass production look with orange peel and roughness in the paint.

Since both of my units were destined for a late production 1956 cars, I requested that my new units be replaced by a similar late production aluminum master cylinder to keep the cars authentic.

This has been suggested before in this forum, but it may bear repeating. Tractor Supply Corp stores, if you have one near you, sells a long 6 volt Exide brand battery for around a hundred bucks. After a year's experience in my 1950 Eight, I am well satisfied. Previously, I had two 6 volt parallel wired Optimas. One of them went bad after a short time. I'm keeping the good Optima as a charged spare, just in case.

Per O-D's comment, I knew that I had read the brief account of the development of tetraethyl in Alfred Sloan's My Years with General Motors. I went back and found some more history: "In August of 1924, a corporation was formed called the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation for the purpose of marketing tetraethyl lead as an antiknock compound. This company was a fifty-fifty partnership between General Motors and Standard Oil of New Jersey. Initially, the Ethyl fluid was manufactured by du Pont under a contract and it was not until 1948 that Ethyl began producing all of its own requirements."

So, this quote doesn't quite answer the question of when motorists could say "Fill er up with Ethyl", but it appears that marketing might have begun in earnest by the mid to late 1920s. I remember ads from magazines promoting spending more to get all the performance from your car by using a few cents more for gas with Ethyl or "High Test". However, the days of its use really drew to an end when GM started making all its valve guides of hardened materials, no longer requiring any lead as a lubricant, beginning in 1971. This was in advance of the industry-wide adoption of catalytic converters in 1975 where lead would be a contaminant.

I also remember Standard Oil affiliated companies promoting the advantages of "white gas" but don't know if that meant no lead was present. After a forty year career in public health, seeing the effects of lead poisoning in children and adults, I won't bemoan the absence of it in motor fuels, paints or plumbing.