Re: How many remaining?

Posted by Dave Brownell On 2013/12/19 18:05:53

As the story goes, my 56 400 Esquire hardtop was fairly complete when the restoration was started in Virginia in1968-9. At that time, it was mostly unused, sitting in a barn minus a trunk lid and with a couple of broken windows. More "put away and forgotten", it eventually ended up in an estate where no one knew what to do with it or what it was worth. Almost accidentally discovered, it took parts from two 56s (a wrecked 400 and a Patrician) and possibly a 55 cousin to make it whole. Luckily, all my big numbered parts are matching the car, but the parts cars live on in it. This fellow kept and drove it for another 44 years, and during that time he came across and bought some more 55-56s, including a few Clippers. It's a good thing that car archeologists cannot carbon date or trace where everything came from. But having looked at the PI roster for a coupe of months, counting all the varieties of 1956 Packards and Clippers shown, I still think we're in the hundreds of the twenty-eight thousand that came out of the Connor Avenue plant in that short production year. The more expensive cars might have survived better because a Caribbean might catch the eye of a preserver more than a Clipper Deluxe sedan. My hat is off to anyone who keeps a 55-56 alive, in spite of the odds and difficulties involved. The reward comes in the form of appreciative comments and thumbs up when I drive it. The reality is that it gets harder and harder To Ask The Man Who Owns One because they're fewer and farther between.