Re: Concept drawings

Posted by BH On 2010/1/30 20:13:14

Gerd -

I believe the image you provided is of the proposed '57 Packard Four Hundred, but executed as a 3/8 scale model. It matches a factory photo that I have, which was described as such in a club publication some years ago.

The pic that I attached earlier in this thread (and previously submitted to the "Show and Concept Cars folder of our Photo Archive) shows a full-size clay model of the same styling, sitting on a turntable in a styling/design area of what I believe is in the East Grand Blvd. facility. (I have since gone back and edited the correspondng post a bit for clarity.)

The pics that John Shireman provided show the one-and-only "Black Bess". It was a last-ditch effort to get financing by showing lenders they had more than jst rednerings and models.

On further inspection, IMHO, "Black Bess" looks like it was cobbled from a 1956 shell - a bit rounder than the crisp lines of the proposed '57 Four Hundred.

In comparison, some of the body lines of those clays are remind me of the '58-60 Lincolns. Even the Predictor has a few lines that remind me of the '58-'60 T-birds. Then, some of the lines of the front-end of the Predictor seem to have found their way onto the '63 Corvette.