Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

I love everything my 48 Custom Club sedan offers, but though I haven't gotten it driveable yet, I already know it lacks some more modern features that can make touring a little easier and dare I say it, pleasurable. Power brakes, power steering, power windows, A/T, air conditioning.

Always thought that I might eventually own two Packards (what a novel idea), and though that day is likely farther down the road for me, I do wonder which model of Packard from these years might give me what I wish for?

The '54 models jump out at me because they still used the L8's, because I like the interiors and exteriors, and because they came with some desirable "modern" options I like. But I'm asking these questions to get more familiar with some goodness I might be overlooking about the 51-56 models.

The dashboard for 54 look classy to me. Is this the only year for the half-round speedo? On that subject, which models in 54 (or other years) used the half-moon speedo with the turned silver backing, vs. the grey?

I like both taillight treatments from 54, but I wonder what senior cars came with the tail "fin lights"?

Are power steering and power windows easily-found options for '54?

And now, about Ultramatics...

I've been curious how driving an Ultramatic A/T works for some time.

I read that the first iteration of Ultramatic starting with the 23rd series did NOT shift through its two gears from Low to High (Drive) without the driver manually moving the column shift lever from Low to High range every time the car started moving from stop...is that correct? I feel like I misunderstood what I read, for that wouldn't be a full A/T.

Is the Ultramatic tranny in 49-50 different than the Ultra for 51-53?

I have been reading up on the "Gear Start" Ultramatic for 54, but I can't find a good description of why it's called "Gear Start". Was the Gear Start Ultra for '54 and up still a 2-speed transmission? Did any Ultramatic-equipped cars come with (either as a standard feature or optional equipment), Overdrive? What years was that feature available?

And now, air conditioning....

Is factory-installed air conditioning for 54 a highly unusual option that is nearly impossible to find when looking for a a 54?

I'm curious if all cars equipped with factory AC from 54-56 used trunk mounted condensing units with rear-deck mounted vent tubes? Was there any in-dash integration for AC during its available years?

And last, for 55-56 questions and general driving...

How do 55 and 56 V8 models drive as touring cars, in comparison to the 54's?

Is Torsion-level suspension a game-changer for how comfortable the cars ride?

Did Packard transition to electric windows for 55-56? Or did both years still use hydraulic lifts for power windows?

Was power steering a more common feature for these years?

Thanks, in advance for any responses to my multitude of random questions.

Wow, lots of questions! Over nearly 65 years of Packarding, I've driven tens of thousands of miles in both a 22nd and 23rd series Custom 8, a '54 Patrician, and a '56 Caribbean. But to give you a real feel for the driving and touring differences and cover your questions would take pages and pages. I'll watch what others have to say and if you want to go further, send me a a PM and we can find time to chat by phone.

The air conditioning was trunk mounted in '53&'54, mounted in the dash on '55 & '56.
I think you got bad intel on the early Ultrmatic, it's a two speed "wee- -Waa" automatic transmission, and it's.............automatic.
Power steering and windows are for sure on the top models of '54 like the Patrician.
The '54's are great driving cars, their straight 8 engine was a work of art, Packard had made those for so long by this point that there was little to go wrong, unless you have an aluminum head and the thing has sat for a long time.
'55 & '56 models have electric window lifts, and are relatively trouble free for their time. They are now over a half century old, and could probably use some new lubricant sooner or later.
Power steering was an option on the 400 and Patrician, but most cars were equipped with them from the factory. Certain upper Clipper models could be found with power steering and brakes, but they were, like the 400 and Patrician--optional.
Torsion-Level is awesome, nothing that big, that old rides that nice. Having said that, the '51-'54s have a really nice boulevard ride, nothing to turn down when the right buy comes along.
Some V8 engines can have oiling issues, we know what to do about that these days.

The 50-54 Ultramatic is a two speed unit with direct drive. Having said that, in normal as designed operation for want of a better description it effectively is a single speed trans with direct drive. Saying it is single speed is a bit simplistic because of the unique design of the torque converter. That has a multiplication factor of approx 2.3:1 when starting out which is kind of a lower gear but the gears themselves do not change or shift as one expects in an automatic transmission.

When you select H it starts and stays in high range. Depending on throttle opening it goes into direct drive anywhere from approx 20 to 40 mph but it is still in high range. If the unit is working as designed there will be a barely perceptible change when direct drive is engaged. The sensation was more a change in engine noise than a feeling of a shift. Of course by now the direct drive clutches are hard and glazed or not the original soft cork facings so there is a bit more of a shift feel and sometimes even a bit of noise as the clutch grabs. If the car is going below approx 50 downshift back to converter operation is possible but over that and it will stay in direct drive still staying in high range.

The operation when L is selected is exactly the same except the speeds are all lower because it starts and stays in low range. Direct drive still comes in but at lower speeds.

For better acceleration you can manually select L to start out and then shift to H as speed is increased but the trans was not designed for this operation. There is no synchronization between band release in low and clutch engagement in high so there could be instances when both are engaged at once or neither is engaged for a brief period. Doing this under acceleration and high engine power can result in damage to the trans if not done carefully.

By late 53 Packard realized the Ultra was somewhat uncompetitive compared to offerings coming from other mfgs so they introduced a timing kit for the 54 regular Ultras to help with the synchronization. That was not really the solution since the operator still had to manually change gears. They started revising the valving and some of the mechanical aspects to have the automatic shift from L to H to direct drive. The first model to offer this operation was the late 54 introduction of the Gearstart. Not sure why they chose that name but I believe I read it was because it could start in a lower gear if desired as well as have the regular operation customers were used to. Essentially the identical unit was offered in 55 but rechristened the Twin Ultramatic. Because of the relatively short testing period and the high horsepower engine there were some issues. Packard issued field changes for many of the problems and redesigned others having to do with shifting speeds in the 56 unit. That is a much more refined trans than the 54 and 55 units.

Packard never had an overdrive with an automatic. The best they had was the direct drive lockout of the converter which did increase gas mileage and cut down engine speed by not having the typical inefficiencies and power loss of going thru the converter.

Thanks for the quick responses and great information! I realize what I'm asking could likely write a small novella and probably is better suited to a conversation.

By "wee--wa"and "it's.......automatic", you mean verrrrry slow? I have heard early Ultras had 'leisurely' acceleration. Was this issue because of the lack of multiple gears to allow the engine to operate at its greatest torque?

Appreciate all the tidbits of knowledge here.

"Leisurely" is a good way to describe the typical low speed acceleration with the Ultramatics behind the in-line 8 engines, Gear-start excluded. Of course once they shifted into direct drive their acceleration was the same as any other similarly powered standard shift car in high gear. With the Twin Ultramatics, you not only had the option of using the "D" range with it's 3-speed option, you also had a heck of a lot more power and torque available. Performance with the V8s and Twin Ultramatic could be quite impressive, even exhilarating for the era, and enough if you did it regularly to tear the transmission apart, as often happened.

Was this issue because of the lack of multiple gears to allow the engine to operate at its greatest torque?

Packard was all about smoothness and refined operation so I suspect that is one of the reasons they chose to do the torque converter multiplication rather than a discreet gear change. When you think about it the Ultra was quite an accomplishment since it was developed by the comparatively tiny Packard company engineers and built entirely in house. Buick's Dynaflow was another that worked in a similar fashion although theirs did not have the direct drive. The joint Borg-Warner and Studebaker developed Automatic Drive was the only other that had a direct drive but I don't remember if it had a shift or was also a "single" speed operation.. Dynaflow stuck around until the early 60s with all kinds of refinements such as multiple stage turbines and variable reactor vanes developed to better utilize the torque converter multiplication but they too finally went away in favor of the Hydramatic and discreet gear changes.

Hydramatics were the first successful automatics and had the gear change but not the same torque converter operation. They were more like a fluid drive application and I remember some ad material comparing the Ultra to Hydramatics. There was a chart showing distinct "jumps" in speed for the Hydramatic car as it went thru the gears vs the Ultramatic's smooth steady curve. Copy was something to the effect that the Ultramatic would never subject the occupants to "harsh" and noticeable changes in speed when pulling away from a stop as other cars did. Of course the later Ultras kind of made a joke of that ad because some of the teething problems meant rides were not that smooth. By 53 with Chrysler and Ford also getting automatics which started in a lower gear and automatically shifted for better acceleration Packard realized they needed to do something so the rush to get the Twin Ultra operational came into action.

On one of your other questions not sure which you are calling the "fin light" but in 54 the Clippers had the large single red lens on top of the fender -- commonly called a sore thumb in less polite circles. If the car had reverse lights there was a thin clear lens separated by a chrome bar under them.

The Packards all had the horizontal double red lens located lower down with the vertical reverse light integrated and under them. Nance's description of those for the less politically correct set was "bulls nuts" lights.

The dash on Packard models had the semi circle speedo in a sort of gunmetal gray shade. Clippers had a more horizontal layout and a much larger font. The rest of the day layout was similar on both but Packards had a more refined and upscale look.

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for the expanded info! That's sound reasoning that the first Ultramatic sacrificed accelerating performance to be a smooth and refined as possible. But it also makes sense that they'd realized they needed to increase performance by the mid 50's.

I'm glad I was wrong about the actual operation of the transmission: it didn't make sense to me that the first gen Ultra would make you shift the column lever while driving! Would have defeated the purpose of it being an auto trans



Regarding the rear taillights of the 54 models, I was referring to the Clipper taillights as "fin lights", those which you say are impolitely called 'sore thumb' lights. In poking around, it looks as though this style of light was intro'd in 54 with the optional round white reverse lights mounted separately down near the license plate on either side. I see how Packard began integrating the reverse light within the sore thumb style light in '55. My original question was about senior models using this style of taillight. It seems none of them did...


In researching dashboard design between '54 models , I see how the Clippers used the more horizontal grey-backed dash, and the senior Packards used the half-round silver dash, but confusingly, I also notice the Clipper Super Panama HT (5467), used the 51-53 dash design. Weird to have that design overlap

Thanks for answering my question about the availability of Overdrive with the Ultras. I guess that's one reason to like the three-speed manual trans...

If anyone else wants to chime in with additional information about some of my other nit-picky questions about optional equipment like power steering or air conditioning, please do. All ears.

Power steering and brakes were introduced in 1952 while A/C was introduced in 1953 only on closed models although it was often added by dealers to earlier models. Since it was trunk-mounted through 1954, it could not be added to convertibles due to the folded down top utilizing that area. Also, even though the 1955-1956 models had factory in-dash A/C, it is common to find some that had it added after-market in the trunk, made by third-party manufacturers and installed by dealers or specialty shops.

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This is not quite correct. The backup lights, especially for 1955 Clipper with the "sore thumb" design, had the backup lights wrapped around under the taillights in a rather pleasing way. Maybe in 1954 they were beside the license plate but I don't recall for sure.