Re: Packard Club vs. Packards International Club

Posted by HH56 On 2023/9/29 11:44:55

I think membership preference depends more on what you want from your Packard. Here is my take on the differences while I was still active but for reasons mentioned below, may be different now. Am sure there will be other opinions. I was a member of both for many years but let them both go as I got older.

It may have changed over the last few years as a lot of the old timers and founding members of both clubs have aged or passed on. They both have somewhat new direction but I believe at the beginning up until maybe 10 years ago PI was more "keep the car on the road to drive and tour" oriented while PAC was more into the show and stay pure to the way Packard built them no matter the cost or difficulty.

I believe PI was started in the early 60s when a group based in Southern California fell out with the PAC leadership of the time over the club direction. As long as it was done decently and halfway discreetly PI was always more forgiving of mods and the use of brand X or aftermarket parts to keep the car on the road. At PAC, up until maybe 10-15 years ago modification was a bad word and even a mention or thoughts of a brand X part in a Packard let alone any how to instructions in a forum post at the PAC site would get the post deleted. As an aside, that action along with some also overly aggressive moderation at the AACA Packard site was one of the reasons Kev started this site.

As to mods, one of the PI members developed the first Ultramatic replacement by figuring out how to install a TorqueFlite. The club embraced and heavily promoted that change and even built and sold kits thru the club. They then went on to support and develop one of the first V8 oil pump conversions as well as sponsored and directly made a lot of other repro parts. As we know now the pump mod was not the absolute fix but it did become popular. They also published several interchange catalogs listing known brand X items that would fit in Packards. Have heard but can not say as fact they also monetarily supported some regions efforts to make repro parts as well. With the changes in leadership that club sponsored repro parts direction seems to have gone away.

To the best of my knowledge, PAC has mostly stayed away from directly getting involved with repro parts but does support their regions endeavors. They do have good repro literature availability but only for hard copies.

PI has their yearly membership meet in Southern California and usually sponsors a long driving tour although with all the personnel changes, not sure how often those are still held. I believe PAC only does the annual meet in conjunction with the various regions but not sure if they do yearly tours as a club sponsored event or if those are left to the regions too.