Re: Ex-Packard Designers

Posted by Steve203 On 2014/7/18 17:11:37

A few tidbits:

-as I recall Gordon Buehrig of Cord and Auburn fame had a hand in the Mk II Continential.

-as far as I'm concernted, the beltline in the 51s is not "too high" but probably lower than the earlier generation Packard and certainly lower than in the Hudsons of the same year. I give Reinhart a lot of credit for the 51 design being as advanced as it was, such as having the fender tops nearly level with the center of the hood...Chevy didn't have that look until 55, Caddie not until 57. The only thing that really tags the 55s as an old design is the vestigial rear fender look, which the other companies were moving away from.

-wrt annual styling changes: I read "Built To Better The Best" a few weeks ago, about Kaiser-Frazer. Apparently, it was a requirement of the Auto Manufacturer's Association, of which all US auto manufacturers were members, that every model year of car have unique styling elements. This was a particular problem at Kaiser as their production scheduling was so far off of sales that they kept finishing a model year with thousands of cars laying on dealer's lots (a person was dispatched from Willow Run with a supply of new number plates and the 49s sitting in dealer's lots magically became 50s) and massive inventories of trim and stampings at the plant, which became "special editions" for the next model year.