Synopsis of forces and events leading to '48-'50 styling

Posted by 58L8134 On 2020/3/17 10:04:27
Hi

Not infrequently on collector car forums other than those devoted to Packard, when the subject is the 1948-1950 Packards, the comments largely deal with the styling more than any other topic. As might be expected, not all are taken with or understand the forces that brought these cars to their appearance. To dispel some of the misconceptions and provide some perspective, I've written the following to broaden the understanding of the era and situation.

A synopsis of the forces and events that replaced the Clipper styling with the Free-Flow-Styled 22nd-23rd Series:

In planning for their return to production, management realized the pre-war non-Clipper design was old and out-of-date enough to be uncompetitive in the postwar market. Damaged tooling from poor storage may also been a factor. Clipper was their newest tooling available, had had its initial success short-circuited by the wartime curtailment, its tooling not fully amortized. Its important to remember at this point that whereas the older 1938-'42 bodies were an in-house build, the Briggs Body Company was the supplier of the Clipper bodies. This would continue through the 1948-'50 Free-Flow-Styled and 1951-'54 Contours until events resulted in the Chrysler purchase of all Briggs body operations. Packard was forced to take control of the body construction by leasing the Connor Avenue body plant from Chrysler who would no longer be supplying the bodies.

As framework to the development of what would become the 1948 Packards, all manufacturers were working on their new postwar cars during the war as time and staffing permitted. For the independent makers, it was viewed as a opportunity to get a jump on the all-new Big Three models projected for 1949. Time was of the essence, but Packard had only a tiny styling department headed by Ed Macauley with a staff of perhaps six-eight people. To augment this very limited source, since the development of the Clipper during 1940, they had been working closely with Briggs in-house styling department which was much larger, providing styling for all Briggs customers, the largest then being Chrysler. Dutch Darrin was not involved with Packard's design process at this time. He had returned to California to develop postwar design concepts he hoped to bring to production. Many of the themes and features seen on those prototypes were employed when Kaiser-Frazer came seeking a quick concept to present to prospective financial backers of their intended entry into the postwar seller's market.

In terms of styling, that transition period from the separate fender and body era to fully integrated envelop configuration was a stylistic mine field. How well each company navigated it, varies greatly dependent upon subjective taste. Cadillac did so very adroitly as did all of GM, which was to be expected given the fully-developed styling powerhouse that Harley Earl l had built. Packard had only a small, nascent styling department which depended heavily on input from the in-house Briggs Body Company styling department. Briggs, by the postwar, was building all Packard bodies except the commercial and lwb sedan/limousines by Henney.

George Christopher, the notoriously pinch-penny company president since 1942, embraced the perceived need and potential benefits of presenting new postwar styling as quickly as possible but wasn't about to write off and discard the unamortized Clipper tooling. Briggs, of course, intended to retain Packard's body building business if possible, was glad to assist in updating the Clipper shell to the current vision of future styling trends. Those, as seen on wartime 'blue-sky' styling exercises of "The Cars of The Future", were characterized by low, horizontal grilles and fully-enveloping, through-fender, slab-sided, tear-drop shapes, even transparent bubble-tops.

Throw into this heady brew Packard styling director Ed Macauley's Brown Bomber, his continually-customized 1941 Darrin coupe de ville 'idea' car which was literally subjected to each new styling sop presented by Al Prance, Briggs Styling Director and his capable staff as well as his own staff for Ed's enjoyment. As he drove around Detroit in his customized Packard previewing future styling ideas to his contemporaries including Harley Earl, a production Clipper body served as armature for clay styling studies in those same themes in the Briggs studio. Its appeal or lack thereof is left to individual subjective judgment. That said, for the times, it looked fresh, modern and contemporary.

The results were that each principle player got what he wanted. For Christopher further amortization of body tooling. For Ed Macauley, his conception of futuristic styling and modernization of their cars intending to would garner greater sales than ever before versus the warmed-over 1942 models the Big Three would be peddling. For Briggs and Prance, a grip on Packard's body business and demonstration of their styling prowess. That the result gave Packard only a restyled 1941 car, would be more and more obvious the longer it stayed in production. Well, it was too early to worry about that in 1946. In the near term, there was massive pent-up demand expected to take through 1949-'50 to satisfy.

Notwithstanding the styling, the cars themselves are mechanically very robust, well crafted and accessible. They represent one of the best values in collector cars now owing to the high numbers built, overall durability and continued popularity among Packard collectors who appreciate their intrinsic qualities beyond their styling. Taken in the context of their times, they were as modern as their contemporary competitors. Viewed in that context, they're as attractive as any and cars to fully appreciate for their many fine visible and intrinsic qualities.

To fully understand the saga of the "Free-Flow Styled" 1948-'50 22nd and 23rd Series Packards, there is no better source than the book Packard 1948-1950 by Robert J. Neal. The individual and forces that shaped these, to some modern day eyes, unfortunate-looking but modern-at-the-times cars, is a fascinating episode of automotive history.

Thanks for reading my latest diatribe. Your comments welcomed.
Steve

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