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Sept 12th & 13th 2009 Fairfield County Concours d' Elegance.

Packard - Concept Vehicles
Six Packard concept cars from the collection of Ralph Marano will be shown together for the first time at the Sunday, September 13, Concours d'Elegance. These rare cars, created for promotional display at nationwide automobile shows, served as prototypes for future models that were put into production or featured elements that appeared in later years.

Marano's "Dream Cars" which include:
The 1948 Vignale
The 1952 Pan American
The 1952 Macauley Coupe
The 1953 Balboa
The 1954 Panther
The 1955 Request

include all but one of the Packard experimental models. They represent the company's efforts to keep pace with the Big Three automakers in the postwar years and to celebrate the high standards of excellence and creative innovation that epitomized the Packard Motor Car Company.

Packard was an American luxury automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899 and the last in 1958.

On October 1, 1954, Packard purchased Studebaker, creating the Studebaker-Packard Corporation.

Studebaker-Packard pulled the Packard nameplate from the marketplace in 1959.


**Also, the Studebaker National Museum has agreed to deliver the Predictor.

For the first time ever, all 7 Packard concept vehicles will be at one location and displayed together.-(Hemmings Classic Car September '09 edition)

http://www.fairfieldcountyconcours.com/exhibits.html

Could be a once in a lifetime experience!!!

Whose going to get some great pics??

Thanks Don for reviving this topic as it gets closer, I had reported it on this site some time ago. This will the first time I'll miss the Fairfield Concours and feel badly about it but will be on the Henry Joy tour, so I've asked PAC to send a good photographer and I have a few friends going with cameras as well, so we should get some pictures to post. Ralph Marano lives just a short distance from here so I can get to see his cars regularly, but seeing them on the field with the Predictor is an event anyone within driving distance should try very hard to make. I believe this will be the first time he's shown the Request.

You are so Lucky Owen, to be so close to major concours in the US (and the major swap meets for that matter). I would LOVE to go to this one, as seeing all the concept cars together for the first time is unprecedented.

I am sure they will arrange them in a great way to maximize the effect of having them all together. They will display well I am sure.

So the Request has been in seclusion for a while? It should be nice to see it.

Don, the Request had been owned for perhaps the last 25-30 years by Larry Dobb or Dobbs from the Pacific-Northwest area who located and restored it some years back, his story was told in a nice article in PAC's Cormorant at that time. Most of the concept cars were at the Warren Centennial (all 4 Panthers for example, the front-wheel drive V12, Predictor, Pan Americans, etc.) but as I remember Larry at the time had some health issues and couln't make the trip with the Request and I think it's been pretty much out of circulation in recent years. It required a re-restoration for Ralph Marano's high standards - among other things I recall Ralph mentioning that the two front half-bumpers which were originally made up from multiple welded pieces required completely new fabrication from scratch. I had occasion to see one of Ralph's 2 Balboas under restoration a while back.

Yes, you're right, I am fortunate. Not only is AACA's center (Hershey) only 3 hours away, but North Jersey is the birthplace of the CCCA and we've been lucky to have many of the founders and their wonderful cars (like Bob Turnquist) at most of our local region's events. And within 15 miles or so of me there are probably 100 Packards so the local PAC, CCCA and AACA regions are very active. Also proximity to the Burn Foundation, Greenwich, and Fairfield Concours. My 34 Packard isn't really a Concours car but was invited and I drove it to Fairfield last year because it has a historic connection to Fairfield - it's a lovely event.

Ralph Marano is active in both our local PAC and CCCA clubs, and has established a spectacular showroom for his collection - and he's an extremely generous individual who has opened his doors to both clubs on multiple occasions. Likewise Dan Kanter has allowed us into see their collection several times.

Drawbacks to NJ - highest property taxes in the nation - by a long shot!!

My friend and I took vacation days to go to Meadowbrook before specifically because they were supposed to have the Packard concept cars there. We got there and there were no Packard concept cars and no one knew anything about it. We were most definitely not happy. Is anyone sure that they are actually going to be there this time?

If you would have followed the link it states they will be there Sunday September 13, 2009.


John F. Shireman

LINC400 -

I don't recall ever hearing that Packard concepts cars were supposed to be at Meadowbrook, but I don't really follow that event.

This Fairfield Concours is the only event I know of that will feature all those concept cars. PackardInfo is the first and only place I heard about it, but I don't circulate much in hobby circles anymore.

The last time I ever heard of any attempt to round-up many Packard concepts for a specific event was the 1999 Centennial show at Warren. The Predictor was there (in a rare appearance outside of South Bend), along with all four surviving Panthers, and (IIRC) at least one Pan American, but the Request was not (due to Mr. Dopps health, from what I've heard).

The first time I heard Ralph Marano's name in conjunction with Packard, was several years ago (but after the Centennial), when I saw his PanAm on the show field at Fall Hershey. I believe it has only been in recent years that he acquired the other five cars. In collecting and restoring these cars, he has been able to achieve what many enthusiasts could only dream about.

I'm kicking around the idea of making the 8-hour drive for that once-in-a-lifetime event, but don't know if I can get out from under the load between work and home (or if my back will take it in a lame old Brand X car).

There was a write up about it in the Chicago Tribune. It never happened. Checking a map I see this Fairfield show is too far for me to go to. Too bad, I would have liked to have seen the Balboa and Request.

LINC400 -

I can appreciate your dissapointment with no Packard concepts at Meadow Brook after reading that there would be.

A couple decades ago, a new public display of Packards in the Detroit area was reported in a hobby publication (which shall remain nameless). I made plans with a friend to go check it out, but when we got there, we were told it would not be open for months. We made the best of it by taking in other auto-related attractions in the area and on the "long way" home, but never returned for that one.

Quote:

It's not like it's the first time the Chicago Tribune has ever been wrong. Seems like there was an embarrassing little problem in that regard in 1948 as well.