Re: Parts Book Questions: Mayfair 300 and Henney

Posted by 58L8134 On 2016/2/7 9:10:47

Hi Don

Not a programmer here, but you'll have to write some code that accommodates the anomalies that arose as their model programs unfolded, not to neat plan, of course.

The overarching story for the 22nd-23rd Series car is massive overproduction seemingly without regard to actual sales or market demand. The station sedans are a case in point, which management had great hopes for but turned out to be a slow sellers so much so that nearly a third of the cars were still in zone and dealer inventory at the time of the 1949 22nd Series model changeover, then the renumbering began. This situation continued even when the 23rd Series model changeover took place for the last 550 some cars.
The other niche models that were handled the same way were the LWB 7-passenger sedans and limousine which were renumbered in the same manner. In both cases production of additional cars was curtailed rather than added to the inventory problem.

As far as the Henney cars go, the kits Packard supplied were a mix-'n-match variety of components to arrive at a suitable specification without adding unnecessary cost for the intended functionality. The chassis for the Henney Junior was 127" of a 300/Cavalier for the longer body space, powered by the base 288 engine as it didn't need to be a race car. The Clipper spec items likely were simply the lower-cost, which was the primary reason that model came to be. The ambulance market then was becoming dominated by lower-cost makes such as the Pontiac Superior models which put the higher cost Henneys at a disadvantage. Ultimately, the Henney Juniors weren't cheap enough to affectively compete, helped cause Henney's failure.

For access to the Neal books, you should be able to borrow those by inter-library loan from your local library. If not, check with PAC and PI region members, someone should be kind enough to lend you those for a time. Give yourself a good six months to absorb all the information in them, they're great books.

Hope some of this perspective helps.

Steve