I used to go over to Warren for the Museum's annual Packard weekend, as a spectator, but (for a variety of reasons) I began losing interest in that event. I stopped going after they did away with the all-Packard car show, on Saturday, and merged it with their all-makes car show, held on Sunday.
Still, I took a look at the Donor Letter and couldn't help but notice mention of the 55 Caribbean that Howard Hughes bought for Jean Peters. So. I did a little Googling and found this article on the acquisition:
https://www.tribtoday.com/news/local-news/2019/10/national-packard-museum-gets-1955-caribbean-bought-by-howard-hughes/ I'm confused by the statement that "Hughes souped up the vehicle with two four-barrel carburetors". (There's a later mention of "some under-the-hood modifications" as well.) It's been my understanding that the 2x4 setup was factory install on all V8 Caribbeans, and I've never seen factory documentation to the contrary. Conversely, I have seen a few of these cars that were refitted with a single 4-barrel carb, intake, and air cleaner.
My recollection from a
Retrospective article in an issue of
Motor Trend, back in the early '70s, was that Hughes was dissatisfied with way the car ran, but could never get the 4-barrels adjusted right. So the car just sat, and that's why there were so few miles on it when Stan Zimmerman was finally able to buy it.
If this COVID mess ever passes, I'd like to go back to check that car out.
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