Re: More on the Facel-Packard . . .

Posted by su8overdrive On 2013/6/9 17:39:20

'37 seniors are nice because they got the Saft-t-fleX IFS introduced in the '35 120, a fine suspension copied nut for bolt after the war in R-R/Bentley, and as rear suspension, in the W.O. Bentley-designed postwar Lagonda. The later big Healey (100-6, 3000) had a version of it, as did recent Ford F-series pickup.

Stick to your guns, buy only what really sings to you. I've seen some '37 Su8s in nice, solid shape for reasonable sums lately, one or two right here on PI. Robert Cumberford, writing in a glowing profile of a '37 Packard Twelve club sedan in Automobile magazine a dozen years ago, suggested, as did Maurice Hendry and other knowledgeable souls long before, that the '30s Packard Twelve was overall the finest luxury car of that decade from either side of the Atlantic, bar none.

My aforementioned Delahaye/Bugatti friend once owned an Hispano-Suiza J12, one of only 120 built, a supercar that made a Duesenberg look like the overrated, overhyped, overpriced, twin cam glitzmobile it was. Quintuple the price of the lovelier, 95mph (4.06 std. cog) 1931-33 Chrysler Imperial.... Really?
Yet even the lavishly engineered V-12 Hisso suffered from too tall a first gear, a juddering clutch.

The upshot is that such would never have happened in a Packard, East Grand always getting it right across the board and the o n l y quality glitch i ever heard of in prewar Packards, the occasionally recalcitrant Handishift in 1940-42 old body-style models notwithstanding, was some of the 1938 319-ci Super Eight blocks having a casting irregularity, the concise truth of which i still have yet to hear.

But a Twelve is, to me, more of a silky fire truck than automobile, 1,300 lbs. engine/clutch, but then i'm just a sports car guy who got sidetracked by the more reasonably sized '40s Packards, and so also appreciate the solid, thoroughly engineered juniors.

Since from the advent of the ohv V-8s over 60 years ago
through today's slick, efficient marvels, few cars have, for me, a vestige of prewar charm, i'm the wrong person to ask what engine shoulda been used in any Packard "Parisian," tho' i think Facel Vega got it right since Chrysler had the day's best drivetrain.

Having a few too many at the press conference unveiling
of their new V-8 in the Silver Cloud II/Bentley S-II, autumn, 1959, its chief engineer blurted out, "It's bloody near as good as the Chrysler."

I'm also the wrong person to query about the proper placement of rear door hinges, believing two doors enough for any but livery car. I make exceptions for a very few barouches, like a coupla Railton saloons and my '47 Super,
merely as i like its lines better than the two-door club sedan, which looks better on paper from front 3/4 view, a mite humpy from the rear, one place GM's '40s "sedanettes," and the '52 R-Type, '56 S-Type Bentley Continentals got it right.
That, and elegance is a subset of an understated road car for me, not the main event, but then '60s Continentals are monstrous if clean limbed tuna boats to me.

Can't quarrel with Tim Cole's recent post that he prefers the junior Clippers, which, trimmed with restraint, low key, have plenty of presence, warm up faster, are less of a handful to drive than my gas hog Super locomotive.

Again, IMHO, if you "need" an engine larger than 390 ci,
you should be building trucks, vans, busses, not automobiles.

G'luck. Faith and begorrah, why not find a Facel Vega Excellence with needs and retrim it as the Packard you saw as a lad? Tail lights, interior, etc.

Lotta insight from the gents above and here in general to guide you regardless what you wind up with.