Re: 1940 Packard 180 petronix

Posted by su8overdrive On 2022/5/10 20:30:27

Good points, both. Re: Christopher, seemingly a decent gent, but when your first order of business is casting about for your own replacement, perhaps you're out of your league. Nance had good intentions, but he was first a money man, more attuned to push button kitchens.

Only wanted to give an overview, perspective of Packard going back to their earlier, happier years. I'll leave the postmortems and Monday morning quarterbacking to others.

On balance, i liked, like all three of my Packards, and various of my friends over these many decades. My '40 120 was wonderful. When i told Bob Turnquist early on (1974) that i was rebuilding one, he exclaimed "they climb hills like a goat." It felt like a poetic meld of early MG and pick up truck, albeit silken. Once 22.5 mpg, most of that at 60-65 mph running Denman bias plies. Had i painted it Blackhawk Gray luminescent instead of Packard Blue, mighta kept it longer than nine years.

My '51 200 was a 48,414-mile little old Scotswoman's from Hawthorne (not Pasadena...) local ride. Good road car, but kept wishing it'd shift again (3.9 axle, they changed later in the year to 3.54). Ultramatic understandable because Packard's byword was always smoothness, but HydraMatic was sufficient for Hudson, Lincoln and from '52 on, Rolls-Royce & Bentley.
Mechanix Illustrated's Uncle Tom McCahill preferred it over the '51 400, but the 200's interior was chintzy drab more than understated. Was it Bob Lutz who suggested it smarter and not costing that much more to put your best upholstery in all your lines?

Packards spoil us for other rides.
We had a wonderful thread here on Kevin's splendid PI several years ago as to what we'd have if we weren't owned by our Packards.

For me, some 1938, '40, '42 Centuries/Roadmasters but too many caveats.
No LHD Railton 8s, only a few of the last had overdrive, lovely illustrations aside, most saloons looked like ordnance vehicles. And Jag ue were Mark VII saloons, lovely, the cars the XK engine designed for remember, but replacing the clutch a j o b and a half, adjusting the valves means shims, an afternoon even for an experienced bloke, many of our hoofed friends perished for their interiors and i'm vegan. It's always something.
Further afield, but some of us always thought it comical leather upholstery upscale, it used in carriages and then automobiles simply as it was plentiful and cheap. Before the war, Buick, Cad, Packard convertibles had a whipcord option; wore like iron, much more comfortable in summer heat and winter cold.

Packards were really good cars for half a century. But no one exists in a vacuum.