Mine is #109 (5588-1109) and I do believe that I have that brace, so they probably made the decision to add it within the first hundred cars.

I agree, there's something about visors that don't look spot-on, but I'm not close enough to my car to check right now. Is that boot correct also? White with the contrasting piping?

Godspeed, Mr. Neal. This is sad news indeed. I had just started reading his book on the 1951-1954 Packards, and was shocked and saddened to discover in the foreword that he was basically racing against a diagnosis of terminal cancer to try and complete the book. He has truly left behind a great body of work that is a valuable and enduring legacy to all Packard enthusiasts.

Agreed. Semi-gloss or satin black.

Sorry for the run 'n gun posts here, trying to post during lunchtime while juggling a few other things...

To find the feature in The Packard Cormorant magazine on the Howard Hughes/Jean Peters Caribbean, you can search the index of The Cormorant/The Packard Comorant over athttp://www.packardclub.org/download/PAC_Cormorant_Index_through_issue_153.pdf

It's in Issue 18 (I think that's Spring 1980), Page 22. Again, this article was written by Leeedy for The Packard Club.

You might be able to buy old issues from the Club, but if not, if you are a Packard Club member, you probably have other members close to you who have these past issues and will let you borrow them.

It's reasons like these -- mutual interest, mutual support, and support of original research -- that make it pay to belong to old car clubs, and The Packard Club in particular.

Some of Leeedy's original photography of the Jean Peters Caribbean can be seen athttp://www.packardclub.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=686&start=30

The Motor Trend article on the Howard Hughes/Jean Peters Caribbean was from the 1973 to 1975 era, IIRC. Issues of that magazine pop up on eBay and at swap meets regularly.

If you don't get a reply from anyone else, I do have a pair for my '55, but I don't know if I have them with the car or in the workshop. Where are you located?

I received an email from Starbucks about the grand opening of their new flagship store, which will be the home of their premium Starbucks Reserve label.

Since I enjoy coffee, I was interested enough to click on the link to see a video of the idea behind the new Roastery, and to take a virtual tour of the building.

Something about the architecture said "former auto dealership" to me, so I Googled the address along with the word "dealership," and BINGO! Up popped this website from the City of Seattle. The Starbucks Roastery is occupying the former Packard Seattle dealership!

Here is the site survey from the City:
http://web6.seattle.gov/DPD/HistoricalSite/QueryResult.aspx?ID=489

And here is the site for the Roastery:
http://roastery.starbucks.com/#home

Wow, it looks like he was running the race with an upwing 1951 pelican hood ornament! Wonder what the aerodynamic drag was on that?

IIRC, in 1947 when the convertibles first were built, Packard had a twin assembly line that was intended to accommodate the 200,000 cars a year that George Christopher had promised the dealers. So, it was easy to start building the new snazzy convertible while the older style 1947 sedans and coupes were still being built as well.

I think they timed it like that because Packard had previously always sold a higher percentage of convertibles in their model mix than their competitors, and a drop-top had been missing from the product line for 5 years. It was supposed to add excitement to the brand and increase the traffic in the dealerships.

From a production standpoint, it also gave you a lower volume model to work out your bugs before full production began on the entire 22nd Series.

Too bad Packard couldn't have worked the bugs out somewhere before commencing the production of the V8s!