Re: Packard Panthers

Posted by Rusty O\'Toole On 2009/2/8 17:39:23

Packard carried out experiments with the McCulloch supercharger. On the Panther and possibly on some stock sedans. I say "possibly" because I have seen under hood pictures that I took for a test sedan but it might have been the "special" in your pictures.

The VS57 was offered to the public as an accessory in 1953. The first cars to offer it as factory or dealer equipment were Kaiser in 1954, and Ford Thunderbird and Studebaker in 1957.

Since Packard had their new V8 in 1955, it is obvious why they did not follow up on the supercharger.

By the way I have 3 VS57's in my garage. For various technical reasons I believe they are a perfect match for a flathead engine. I mean to test this theory on my 1951 DeSoto.