Re: 55 Caribbean, early design?

Posted by Kevin On 2012/4/22 21:35:17

Let me say this about that...

First of all, those are very astute observations! The best we can probably do is make educated conjecture, but when it's 57 years after the fact and most of the people who were present at the creation are now dead, well, you just do the best you can.

Anyway, it's indeed very possible and highly probable that what we're looking at is a styling fiberglass model of the 1955 Caribbean, as we know from the Kimes Automobile Quarterly book that the Caribbean was the latest of the late 1955 Packards. Production of the 1955's began about three or four months later than usual model years. and the first production Caribbean was not ready until April 1955.

HOWEVER... These promotional photographs for the entire 1955 Packard and Clipper line-up were all taken at the same time, as we can tell from other photographs in this series at the National Automotive History Collection at the Detroit Public Library. Those pictures showed the photogrpahers setting up their ladders and lighting, etc., and you could see all the cars gathered together in the background. It seems from the coats being worn that this was likely done in the fall before the snows, just as perhaps the first early-build prototypes were becomng available. In the case of the Caribbean, though, it makes perfect sense that could have been just a styling model.

We'll have to look at the other angles of the Caribbean photos that were taken that day to see if there are any signs of a powertrain in the vehicle, and of course we'll continue our investigation of the location to see if we can determine where the pictures were taken.