Re: 1953/4 Caribbean 4-door hardtop sedan exploration
Posted by Mahoning63 On 2020/4/23 6:43:31
Let's run out a different play. What if Nance had a moment of clarity and realized, like Mason, that Studebaker was a basket case and that Hudson's large cars were hopeless and Hudson's plant was old and inefficient (which it apparently was). And let's surmise that Nance didn't like Mason driving the merger process and felt threatened by Romney. And the big one... Nance's Hotpoint wunderkinds were able to convince him that creating a stand-alone Clipper brand would be a tough row to hoe and it would be better to use Hudson to cover that market, and doubly better were Packard and Hudson dealers to dual where it made sense so that both could sell more cars.
This would mean that Packard would have to turn the '54 Clipper into a '55 Hudson. Assuming Nance wanted to keep Jet for the small car he always wanted and to compete with Rambler, what options did he have for the big Hudsons?
Here's one: lower the sedan greenhouse to remove beltline, and lower the door handles. This would lower the '55 sedan's height from 61.9 to 60.5 inches by my pixel count, which would have been only 0.2 inches higher than outgoing Hornet/Wasp. That's pretty good stuff, certainly better than what Nash did.
Let's keep the '54 windshield because it would be easier to mount it at hood and deck's surface level and because it would make the car look like a big Jet. And let's shorten the axle-dash by 3 inches because it didn't need to package a straight Eight and because it would get the wheelbase to 119 inches, identical to '54 Wasp. So it would become the new Wasp, with '54 grill melded in and a new Hudson-style hood tooled to connect it all together.
For the 124 wb Hornet let's not add 5 inches of hood length as Hudson had always done, instead add the 5 inches to the body by re-purposing Patrician's roof and melding in Clipper's backlight.
No hardtops, just a Wasp and Hornet Sedan and maybe a Wasp 2-door club sedan. Maybe the Wasp would get the 308 Six and Hornet the 320 V8. Both would get Torsion-Level because they would need a good why-buy.
Italia coupe would continue but powered by the 308 Six and marketed as its own brand.
4/24/2020 EDIT: updated images to raise seats and steering wheel to standard height, other clean-up.
Attach file:
(84.73 KB)
(84.91 KB)
This would mean that Packard would have to turn the '54 Clipper into a '55 Hudson. Assuming Nance wanted to keep Jet for the small car he always wanted and to compete with Rambler, what options did he have for the big Hudsons?
Here's one: lower the sedan greenhouse to remove beltline, and lower the door handles. This would lower the '55 sedan's height from 61.9 to 60.5 inches by my pixel count, which would have been only 0.2 inches higher than outgoing Hornet/Wasp. That's pretty good stuff, certainly better than what Nash did.
Let's keep the '54 windshield because it would be easier to mount it at hood and deck's surface level and because it would make the car look like a big Jet. And let's shorten the axle-dash by 3 inches because it didn't need to package a straight Eight and because it would get the wheelbase to 119 inches, identical to '54 Wasp. So it would become the new Wasp, with '54 grill melded in and a new Hudson-style hood tooled to connect it all together.
For the 124 wb Hornet let's not add 5 inches of hood length as Hudson had always done, instead add the 5 inches to the body by re-purposing Patrician's roof and melding in Clipper's backlight.
No hardtops, just a Wasp and Hornet Sedan and maybe a Wasp 2-door club sedan. Maybe the Wasp would get the 308 Six and Hornet the 320 V8. Both would get Torsion-Level because they would need a good why-buy.
Italia coupe would continue but powered by the 308 Six and marketed as its own brand.
4/24/2020 EDIT: updated images to raise seats and steering wheel to standard height, other clean-up.
Attach file:
(84.73 KB)
(84.91 KB)
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