Packards in Spain

Posted by Packard Newbie On 2024/3/26 14:16:37

I have been travelling in Spain for the last few weeks, ending up in Madrid and flying home from there in a couple of days. I tried to contact the Madrid chapter of the Packard Club, but both email addresses posted on the net came back as undeliverable. I did however, receive an answer from an antique car club here and their vice president advised me that they had some 20 Packards in their club. He said their club was quite small and that members, of course, kept their cars at home in their garages. He said he had 3 pre-war Packards and a pre-war Buick in his private collection and if I was willing to travel to a suburb of Madrid, he would be glad to show them to us. We agreed and after much investigation, decided to take the public transit to meet with him as a cab ride from our hotel was $80-$90 each way. The 'collection' turned out to be remarkable, numbering some 25-30 vehicles. All but 2 were complete restorations and all of them not only ran, but he said he drove them regularly. I'll keep the photos to just-Packards, but there were all makes and types of vintage European automobiles, dating from 1900 to to a 2003 Ferrari. Many of the makes I had never heard of before and there were 4 vintage Ferraris and the 2003, 2 0r 3 Porsches and, of course - the Packards. The oldest was a 1924 model year that he said was made in 1923, and a couple of late 30's, one a '37 I think, and not sure what year the convertible is. We were overwhelmed at both the quality and diversity of the collection and the most hospitable reception we were given by the owner to take of his time to meet with us and give us the provenance and detailed description of each and every vehicle. He fired several of them up and they all sprang to life with the touch of a key and ran flawlessly. We talked about Packard at length and he said he would be coming to the States in the next year or so to 'take his wife to go shopping in New York', but really under the guise of 'a trip to Hershey'!. As it was I dragged my wife along today, somewhat reluctantly, but after our afternoon at the warehouse, she too was most impressed with the collection! Chris.





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