Re: Aluminium Pistons Who Was First?

Posted by BH On 2007/12/29 23:07:38

All -

Sorry I didn't get into this lively thread sooner, but I've been busy trying to wrap up month- and year-end crap at work and working on another article for the Cosworth club.

I suspect that whatever issues have bubbled to the surface here go back to an annoying thread from the past at the AACA's Packard DF. The author found a list of Packard firsts buried in the History section of PAC's website, under the title of "Company Genesis" - a piece credited to "Roger T. White, descendant of G. L. Weiss, Co-Founder". It seems that the only reason for presenting the matter for discussion at the AACA Packard DF was to keep adding to PAC's list; when presented with info that contradicted items already in the list, the author of that thread just danced around them. Apparently he was hoping to make some sort of inroads with PAC and or/its webmaster, when most of us were posting at the ACAA's forum to get away from clubs like PAC. Yet, I really had to wince when one of the AACA site admins copied the thread to a more public area, where the list got shot full of holes.

As such, I take it that John (Packard53) has been referring to the firsts cited by PAC at their webite. That list is obviously patchworked (and poorly so), and I strongly suspect it began as some corporate spin. Many years ago, I'd seen a similar, but much shorter list published elsewhere, but cannot recall the source (perhaps SDC's Turning Wheels. However, I distinctly remember seeing a piece offered by John Conde, in one if his list of factory Packard literature and photos for sale, that mentioned Packard firsts; I believe it was published in the early 1950s.

Although I take pride that my favorite Packard has some engineering/production firsts, it's not why I own one. It doesn't matter to me whether its PMCC or PAC, twisting words to embellish one's positions only dectracts from their credibility.