Re: 1953/4 Caribbean 4-door hardtop sedan exploration
Posted by Mahoning63 On 2020/4/1 14:15:38
The Clipper Sportster sedan needed work so I cleaned it up and worked out a fixed pillar coupe as companion. Couldn't share the Caribbean's rear door window frame, was too upright. Front doors and B-pillar on both sedans would have been shared. Rear door dogleg would have been changed per 122 Patrician sedan, now cut like 127 sedans. The '53 dogleg was a holdover from '51-52 when there was a speedline on the fender that the dogleg had to wrap around.
Took cost out of the Sportster base models shown by forgoing chrome fins and reducing part count on the side trim. Interior would have been fairly austere but not embarrassingly so. 288 Eight would have been standard in '54, 320 V8 in '55, both with many displacement and horsepower upgrades available. Same with interior and exterior trim. Base price would have been no more than $100 over what the '54 Clipper Deluxe Club Sedan and Sedan had stickered at.
Here's what the '54/55 showroom would have looked like. The last one in Caribbean line-up would have been 2-3 special show cars made by Ionia, owned and maintained by Packard and made available to cities for parades, political campaigns, etc. similar to what Chrysler did with its 1952 parade cars. It would have been important for Packard to show that it still had that old magic.
Clipper Sportster
122 2D Pillared Hardtop Coupe
122 4D Pillared Hardtop Sedan
Patrician
122 4D Sedan
127 4D Touring Sedan
149 4D Executive Sedan (8-Pass)
Caribbean
122 2D Convertible Coupe
122 2D Hardtop Coupe
127 4D Pillared Hardtop Touring Sedan
149 4D Dual-Cowl Phaeton (8-Pass with cowl removed)
Does the strategy make sense? It would have potentially saved '54 and been modestly competitive in '55 without spending money on styling that year, competed with Cadillac at the high end and allowed the company to get an all-new car out in 1956 - in a fully sorted and cost-efficient Conner plant and with a sorted V8, Twin-Ultramatic and Torsion-Level. We know 1956 was the year the wheels came off on Packard and it wasn't just because of poor quality the previous year. The new Lincolns and Sedan DeVille made the cars uncompetitive. Nance, for all his strengths, blew '54 and '56... and '55 because of the quality issues. Throw in the Studebaker merger instead of a growing relationship with AMC and it was a quadruple whammy. The external factors - loss of defense contracts, Ford-Chevy battle, Independent stigma - might have been weathered had the internal factors been better managed.
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Took cost out of the Sportster base models shown by forgoing chrome fins and reducing part count on the side trim. Interior would have been fairly austere but not embarrassingly so. 288 Eight would have been standard in '54, 320 V8 in '55, both with many displacement and horsepower upgrades available. Same with interior and exterior trim. Base price would have been no more than $100 over what the '54 Clipper Deluxe Club Sedan and Sedan had stickered at.
Here's what the '54/55 showroom would have looked like. The last one in Caribbean line-up would have been 2-3 special show cars made by Ionia, owned and maintained by Packard and made available to cities for parades, political campaigns, etc. similar to what Chrysler did with its 1952 parade cars. It would have been important for Packard to show that it still had that old magic.
Clipper Sportster
122 2D Pillared Hardtop Coupe
122 4D Pillared Hardtop Sedan
Patrician
122 4D Sedan
127 4D Touring Sedan
149 4D Executive Sedan (8-Pass)
Caribbean
122 2D Convertible Coupe
122 2D Hardtop Coupe
127 4D Pillared Hardtop Touring Sedan
149 4D Dual-Cowl Phaeton (8-Pass with cowl removed)
Does the strategy make sense? It would have potentially saved '54 and been modestly competitive in '55 without spending money on styling that year, competed with Cadillac at the high end and allowed the company to get an all-new car out in 1956 - in a fully sorted and cost-efficient Conner plant and with a sorted V8, Twin-Ultramatic and Torsion-Level. We know 1956 was the year the wheels came off on Packard and it wasn't just because of poor quality the previous year. The new Lincolns and Sedan DeVille made the cars uncompetitive. Nance, for all his strengths, blew '54 and '56... and '55 because of the quality issues. Throw in the Studebaker merger instead of a growing relationship with AMC and it was a quadruple whammy. The external factors - loss of defense contracts, Ford-Chevy battle, Independent stigma - might have been weathered had the internal factors been better managed.
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