Re: Identifying 1948 Custom 8 help please

Posted by BH On 2007/2/4 22:48:51

Welcome Don -

Although I'm a V8 owner, I have been doing some research for a friend and may be able to shed some light. I'm not very familiar with the details of 22nd-23rd Series cars built over the three year period from 1948-1950 and never heard of a Custom Super Eight, but I can fully appreciate the confusion.

I show the 2252 model number as a 22nd Series, Custom Eight, Touring Sedan. The "-9" indicates that this is a 1949 model (NOT 1948). I suspect the suffix was used since 22nd Series production carried over from 1948 into 1949, until some point in May. The 23rd Series cars built in 1950 have a "-5" suffix to distinguish them from 1949 production.

BTW, the 2252 body was mated to the 2206 chassis, with 127-inch wheelbase and a 160HP engine.

WRT to the "8003", these digits represent a serialized production sequence on most cars, starting with car #1001. During that period in Packard history, it appears that production totals were not tracked by specific models , but related "familes" of models - a pattern which is not obvious to me. (Maybe someone else who knows will enlighten us to the truth.)

What I can tell you is that total production for combined Custom Eight Touring Sedan (2252) and Club Sedan (2255) was 5,935 units for 1948 and 2,989 units for 1949 - for a total of 8,924 units.

So, that makes me think the subject car is #7003 out of the total combined 22nd Series production run for these two models during 1948-49.