Re: Peter Wherrett's 1956 Packard Review

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2010/2/3 9:37:09

Peter, thanks for your observations and insight into the RHD V8s, its valuable information. I can only ask, where were you about 8 years ago when I was advertising widely for information on the RHD cars? I had committed to researching and publishing an article on them, but the lack of sufficient response led me to abandon the project.

You may very well be correct about the V8 RHD cars being done in Detroit, after all they did them there from 1939 when the Canadian plant closed thru 1954. The only fly in the proverbial ointment is why then did they also commission Leonard Williams to do them in London? The 48-54 parts books does list various RHD parts, but I've never found such a list for the 1955/56 cars which led me to believe that they weren't done in Detroit - perhaps it was a separate listing that just hasn't come to light. In 1954 Service Counsellor Vol 28, #4, only shows the Clipper models available in RHD, and this seems to also be consistent with what we know to date about the 55/56 models.

If you come up with any further information along these lines, I remain interested and still think its very fertile ground for some research and publication, but this time by someone else.