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I posted some photos under "parking assistant". They are of a 1953 Packard Cavalier? This was touted as a boon to those people who could never learn to parallel park. It was written up extensively in Popular Mechanics or Mechanics Illustrated in the early 50's. The car is currently on display at the Frick car museum in Point Breeze, Pittsburgh. Point Breeze is adjacent to Wilkinsburg.
As a side note two of the stainless Fords, a 67 Lincoln and a 58 Tbird are also on display there. They don't rust out the way a normal Ford does.

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Speaking of such things - see my post in the General Forum from last year, link below.

packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=399&forum=4

Mal, that has to be the same car - powder blue 53 Packard. Someone in Pa must own it.

Randy: The color of the 53 Cavalier is the same color as my 53. The color is called Polaris Blue which I think is a very pretty color. However when a car such as mine came from the factory painted completely in Polaris Blue is to much of the same color. I had the roof of my 53 painted in a very deep dark metallic blue. This is my favorite color combination.

John F. Shireman

I'm not seeing any Cavalier - just a stainless Lincoln and TBird. How do I bring up the Packard?

Click on Packard Pictures, then click on 1953 in the Gallery and look for Parking Assistant.

Old thread but a goodie and found it again after this car came up on YouTube Facebook, see this link. Don't know if the link will work and, just in case, here are the photo's and some relevant comments from the link.

"This was the creation of an independent inventor. He put one on a C___ac, too, and there's a YT of that one. The Packard lives somewhere in the Pittsburgh area - it was at the Pittsburgh Gran Prix a few yrs ago. I crawled under it to figure out how it works. A complicated arrangement that I suspect works great only on level ground.
From (under, I think) the dash a knob starts a typical hydraulic pump (same as on convertibles) on the firewall that powers the hydraulic cylinder seen in the pic, which moves the framework holding the spare down, lifting the rear end up. At the same time that the rear wheels both lift off the ground (I suspect that getting both off the ground is the wrinkle). a drum engages against the right rear wheel. That drum is tied to the spare by an enormous long fan belt. Now, with the rear wheels off the ground, and the spare tied to a rear wheel, you put the Packard either in D or R, depending on whether you want the rear end to move L or R, and you can stop the movement with the foot brake and throw it into N. Then reverse action on the hydraulic pump to get the rear end back on the ground."

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