Re: Comparing Packards

Posted by Wat_Tyler On 2023/3/14 19:57:05

The Clipper was a winner, period. Not a fan of the name, but they could have named it Fred and sold some. It's a spiffy design and put Packard in a great position after the war when everyone had to put their five-year-old designs back out there. Best looking girl at the homecoming dance.


That said, the Clipper was Gilman's baby. But he dipped his pen into company ink, and got caught and railroaded when Father Alvan showed the world his puritanicalism. One wonders what he, Gilman, might have come up with post-war if he'd had the chance. Instead, Packard got George Peter-Principle Christopher, a production guy with virtually no other redeeming features.


Christopher, in all of his cluelessness, built the Hell out of sixes after the war when a monkey could sell cars, squandering the luxury car customers and the company name. Then the bathtub facelift for '48, while mechanically adequate for the era, was a nausea-inducing styling cluster%$#@. But his biggest disaster was in his celebrating Packard's 50th with another "re-styling" of the tub. His towering home run would have been an all new V8 in an all new car, but instead he acted on every fear he owned and fumbled the opportunity and then kicked the ball out of bounds. And the dottering old fools on the Packard board allowed this. As long as the dividend checks kept rolling in . . . . It hurts my mind.


I'm with the CCCA. The last classic Packard was the last super/custom Clipper. Speaking of, there's an article in their latest rag on the Darrin Packards. All seven paragraphs and five pictures. :rolleyes: