Re: Packard Request Dreamcar Article

Posted by Leeedy On 2012/3/15 11:10:23

Regarding The Request concept dreamcar... I knew this car very well and had friends who were involved in originally building it for Packard in 1954. For many years, I was the lone person insisting that indeed it had NOT been destroyed by Packard as almost everyone claimed. This despite what books and magazine articles back then were saying. I saw the car in a hotel parking lot in Chicago in the 1960s... so it was impossible that Packard destroyed it in the 1950s as nearly everyone claimed back then.

Later the car tuned up rather forlorn and faded in the Pacific Northwest. I also knew the three owners (not one) who later ended up with the car and did the first restoration on it. I even supplied a couple of parts for the restoration.

I have photos of me standing with the car back in the 1970s.

As for the fiberglass hood not aligning properly... folks... remember this was fiberglass done in the mid-1950s! None of it was perfect back then-even the Corvette (I have a factory photo of an early one with a huge "whoop-dee-doo" wave in the right front fender). The technology was still being learned.

Furthermore, The Request's hood hinges originally were screwed into pieces of wooden 2 x 4s molded into the fiberglass. Years later, those wood anchor points were deteriorated, so it is not surprising at all to note that the hood did not align flawlessly by the time it was seen in the 1980s. Remember too that most concept dreamcars back then were intended mainly for looking (viewing)... and not for anything approaching regular usage. Thus components were rarely fabricated to a production level grade of engineering standards.

Even the original cathedral tail lights on The Request were largely hand-fabricated. The lenses were hand-made and (while they may look the same) are (or at least were) not production lenses.

As for any 1955 V-8 transmission gear selector stuck in "PARK" position, this was a very common problem that Packard indeed issued a Service Bulletin to remedy. They also issued a countermeasure linkage part to correct the problems. Furthermore, Packard changed the cast metal arm coming off of the Ultramatic for 1956 to help avoid this problem.

But I can't tell you how many V-8 Packards I have seen over the years with the transmission gear selector arm bent around in the shape of a crescent-or even a "J" shape. This is done when somebody decides they'll just macho-gorilla the durned thing into submission! All this frustration and violence can be very simply avoided by merely reaching UNDER the vehicle from the driver's side (watch for a hot exhaust pipe, etc.) and push upward on the transmission gear selector linkage. Voila!