Thank Tim, that helps a lot.

Getting ready to work on the 39 twelve. Anyone know the answer to the tire size question?

In May there was a fly over in DC for about 60 WWII vintage air planes, it was the same time as the Frederick Packard meet. Dad was invited to be the guest of honor and sit on a rooftop in DC to watch the flyover.

Guess what he chose to do? His first passion

Here's a photo of the P40 he is talking about

Thank you Clipper47, you are right that kind of history does need to be preserved. I grew up my whole life knowing scant details about his war experience for a couple of reasons.

One was that it is painful for him to talk about and he wouldn't until about fifteen years ago. Two was he said they were just doing their job so there really wasn't much to talk about.

I scanned his entire scrapbook from the war and sat down with him and asked him about each photo. I wanted to know who was in it, where they were and what they were doing.

About ten years ago, I built a website burmabanshees.com and posted all 240 photos I had. I really had no idea what was about to happen but things kind of took off. I won't go into all the details but one of the most important things to happen was other family members who also didn't know details about their father or uncle or grandfather began contacting me. It seems they also went through the experience of their family member not discussing what they did during the war and saw photos of their service member they had't seen before. That was very cool to be able to have them download photos for themselves.

Lately I've been collecting hours and hours of video when i can get him talking and posting clips on Facebook. Those are also finding family members.

It sees dear old dad is fairly well know in the P40 and P47 circles and a few of the Packard folks know him really well like Ross Miller and Dwight H. Dwight took him to Warren a couple years ago to do a presentation on Packard Merlin engines, maybe I can get him to find a copy if they made a video.

Anyway, here's another little snippet you might like. Packards and Planes have been intermingled for years with him

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JWMpDtFzA5I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

"Seemed pretty firm on $5000. Nice PAC owned 400's can be had for $15,000 to $25,000, making a $5000 starting price tough to swallow but it is fair, compared to what project 56 Cadillac Coupe deVilles are bringing in similar condition and at much higher production.""

I should be getting dad's 56 400 back Thursday. I had a mechanical refresh done on it to make it drivable. According to my mechanic he thinks i'll be in for a surprise. He says that 374 engine is unbelievable in power, it's like driving a muscle car. He's been driving it for a month and fixing little things that keep popping up on it. He's put $150 worth of gas through it, says it'll pass anything but the gas station.

He and I both drove my 55 400 and the 55 Constallation, which were nice but I wouldn't jump up and down on their performance. They were like driving big soft pillows down the road.

It'll be interesting seeing what the 56 is like.

I have been capturing some of our resident Packard expert's escapades
on video and I thought you might enjoy this one where he discusses the Packard Merlin engine:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w8soszoMtek?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

He's the only person I know that has both flown a Packard and driven a Packard.

There are a few more stories on this Facebook page
www.facebook.com/BurmaBanshees

You are welcome, I'll post trim codes and engine numbers whenI take better photographs. Oh yeah, is there a way to change the pics or add more later. Four of them will be receiving some long needed shop time and it would be nice to update the photos. I can only seem to ever upload one.

Yes my dad had/has quite an affinity for collecting cars. I recently printed some enlargements of dad and I hunting Packards and hung them in the garage. They are interesting to look at



Here's one from the mid ninety nine's, We were at the Roaring Twenties museum and they had a handful of cars for sale. One was the 49 Golden Anniversary Club Sedan if I remember correctly. The interior, while rather worn was that beautiful gold colored pin stripe. Looking back i wish i would have purchased this car for the asking price of $500. Here's dad, head shoved in as usual

The Alvis was an Offord body. I believe it's the only one, at least in a 2 door drop head coupe.

I scanned in some copies of the correspondence between dad and Vintage Racing Cars of North Hampton. It's an interesting read. You can see dad picking out the colors and them sketching out the different positions of the top. If you flip that letter over you can see the race results for Silverstone Saturday May 17th 1969

Alvis letters

I also included some ads for Auburns dad was looking at, kind of fun to read

Ok, I have a couple questions here.



In looking at my father's 39 twelve you can see two brackets here for holding the tire

My 39 Super Eight doesn't have those...wondering if it is supposed to.

Also, on my dad's car, it has 16 inch by 7.5 tires and 16 by 8.25 tires. It looks like the spec calls for 8.25 tires but they don't look like they will fit in the side mount covers. I am wondering if folks ran the 8.25's on the car and 7.5's in the side mount covers.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Tinpan