Re: '58 Packard custom at SEMA

Posted by Packard5687 On 2017/12/24 10:10:51

"This one decision was but one indication of the clueless management mindset with which Packard would have to deal when the merger was consummated."

AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!
This is the same mindset that led them to market the Hawk only in the C-body pillared coupe configuration rather than the much better looking K-body hardtop version from 1959-1961. While aging, the hardtop was still a very handsome car and they tried to sell the ungainly coupe version for those three model years right at the peak of the hardtop craze. The "B" pillars in the C-body were too thick and ruined the look of Bourke's otherwise stellar design. It was probably that same retarded thinking by Vance and Co. that forced the C-body when they should have offered the Bourke coupe as a hardtop and convertible.

Bourke wanted the 53 sedans to be based on his coupe. It would have been a spectacular car - but Vance and the other retards at the top forced Bourke to stuff his design intended for a 120" wheelbase onto the 116.5" wheelbase and the result was the dumpy looking sedans that were rejected by the customers. When Nance arrived, he called the Studebaker sedan styling "the drooping penis look".

Here's the story:https://56packardman.com/2015/09/22/gear-head-tuesday-studebakers-lost-opportunity-in-1953/