Re: New "What Ifs?"

Posted by Leeedy On 2014/8/19 10:46:28

A lot of this is selling Packard very short on their really BIG dreams and some of the direction based on their expertise in building jet engines and advancing that technology.

As I mention in my Packard Concept Car Presentation, JJN and Packard were not planning on standing still with engines and future technologies. The unveiling of the beautiful new 1955 Packards with all of their stunning technology (and it WAS stunning in 1955-no matter what people say today in retro-judgements) was just the opening salvo. The Torsion-Level suspension alone was such a stunning masterpiece that to this very day, car companies have yet to surpass it. They STILL talk about anti-dive, anti-squat, and electronic leveling as if these concepts are something completely new! And people (even in Packard groups) continue to badmouth the Twin Ultramatic... but an electronic push-button aluminum transmission with a lock-up converter in 1956? THAT was way out there. Had these technologies and systems had more time and funding for development the possibilities were endless.

Of course, talk of a new twelve... plans to go to fuel injection for 1957... and by the 1960s there were plans to go to gas turbine engines. I can tell you that some former Packard people indeed ended up doing this very thing... for Chrysler under George Huebner. Assure you that personnel and Packard jet engine building facilities and experience would have blended right into this direction.

Utica would have played a valuable part here. Yes, there is a lot of woulda-coulda-shoulda here... but it was all very possible had not so many factors led the company to demise.

Of course, automotive gas turbines were shot in the foot every direction they turned... despite their many advantages. There is much more to this story than anyone knows-or will ever know. But had Packard survived-and this is NEVER mentioned in histories referencing the company-they would have played an important role in this technology as well.