"Body by Speedwell"
👍👍👍👍

The precursor to the After Eight?

https://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/this-italian-bodied-packard-ran-in-the-mexican-road-race/

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Leeedy wrote:
"Yanking the engine and trans to essentially morph-rod it just tossed all the value and interest in the dumpster. Sad. I am always amazed when low production cars with rare features are trashed instead of restored. Once everything is yanked out and brand-X stuff is in or half-way there (and thus un-sellable to someone who would otherwise love it), these things are usually, mysteriously put up for sale. Why not sell it unmolested? With the engine, trans and factory A/C intact, it would at least have potential."

AMEN! PREACH, BROTHER!

Guscha - you are a continuing source of amazement at the things you find!


McLean, TX is in the Texas Panhandle east of Amarillo. Pampa, where the news clipping you found was printed is north and slightly west of McLean. The legendary old Route 66 went through McLean. Its replacement, Interstate 40 goes just south of the town.

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Today we see renderings by Carl Evers of his ideas for the first Post War Packard

https://56packardman.com/2020/04/21/gear-head-tuesday-proposals-for-the-first-postwar-packard/

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Packard really should have had a V-8 no later than 1953. Had Nance arrived at Packard in 1949 when Packard first approached him, this might have happened. I've long had a theory - and I've never found anything to either prove it or disprove it - that Christopher, because he had worked at Buick and was trying to shape Packard as Buick's chief rival rather than Cadillac's chief rival, that Christopher stuck with the straight eight because Buick was sticking with the straight eight. In the same vein because Buick was developing Dynaflow, Christopher had Packard develop Ultramatic. Thus no V-8 was in the pipeline for Packard. This was one of the major nails Christopher hammered into what would become Packard's coffin.

1955 was really a watershed year for the industry. With major restyles/new bodies at GM and Chrysler and the handsome '55 Mercurys, Packard HAD to have the refresh that it got for '55. Had they gone into '55 with warmed-over '54s, they wouldn't have had the volume they had, Conner quality issues aside.

I think the ideas you post here for '55 would better fit '54, even though I understand your rationale of preparing for the all-new '56s by saving tooling costs in '55.

The wrap-around windshield was a have-to-have feature in the mid'50s. I think Teague's solution for '55 on the '51 body shell was the correct one. A step toward that for '54 could have been a Studebaker-like tilt to the front door vent wing while leaving the windshield alone:

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Last October, "BHappy" posted a series of "Light Paintings" of a '56 Executive.
We show these fine photos, linking back to PackardInfo, as the topic of today's "Gear Head Tuesday":

https://56packardman.com/2020/04/14/gear-head-tuesday-light-painting-a-packard-executive/

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https://disaffectedmusings.com/2020/01/20/monday-mishegas/

https://disaffectedmusings.com/2019/05/22/ultimate-garage-2-0-honorable-mention-car-number-one/

I'm encouraging the man in Sacramento who owns the white '58 Packard Hawk to register it here. He has his Hawk listed at Studebaker Drivers Club.

Photos of it here:
https://56packardman.com/2019/10/01/gear-head-tuesday-studebakers-at-mcclellan-park/

The mylar on the fins shows silver in these photos but it is the correct gold. The silver appearance is a function of the available light and some fading - it is an older restoration.