Re: What if S-P had more money in 1957?

Posted by HH56 On 2012/1/4 16:09:58

I don't know how serious this idea was and don't remember reading it anywhere else. On page 8 in the latest issue of Turning Wheels, in a column written by Andrew Beckman there is a brief paragraph on the Packard Hawk. Briefly stated highlights, he says the the Hawk initially began as a one off for Roy Hurley who had requested styling create a Hawk with a Ferrari-esque front end treatment. Hurley was impressed enough to order the car into production and despite dealer requests for the return of Packard's Caribbean name it was dubbed the Packard Hawk.

I don't really see that close a Ferrari connection since Ferrari had a much narrower opening and more swoops than the Hawk but beauty is in the eye of the purchaser. Also don't know if dealers clamored for the Caribbean name in general or for naming that car specifically but to my mind, naming that particular car a Caribbean would not have been a good move. As was mentioned in another thread a Packard treatment of the Avanti styling might have been interesting and maybe Caribbean material--but would have been several years too late.

In the Autumn issue of the Packard Cormorant there was an article with a custom conversion of the writers 57 Hawk and a treatment that looks Packard with the vertical grill. A few more refinements and that might have been worthy of the name.