Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

In the thread on the 7th Series Speedsters, I made mention of the 4 Panthers being at Warren in 1999. For those that may have an interest, here's photos of 3 of them; the gray one was never transferred to Packard ownership and was at the time still owned by the makers, Mitchell Bentley and you can see Mitchell script on it. The white one is often called a 54-1/2 model due to the upgrade to some 1955 features. Hope you enjoy.

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Owen -

Isn't the car in the last of your three pix a rework of one of the PanAmerican special jobs - not a Panther?

The other two Panthers that I'm aware of were a yellow/brown two-tone with a (removable?) hardtop roof and the black/white two-tone - both modified to include the 55th-56th Senior taillights.

Even before the Centennial meet, I had seen the yellow/brown Panther on diplsay in the early 1990s, maybe even the late 1980s, at the Stude museum.

I found the black/white Panther one year, IIRC, in the White field at Fall Hershey back in the early 1980s, but the paint was in terrible shape - cracked and peeling. Kanter must have had it refinished as it looked much nicer at the Centennial.

Oops! You're right, the white car is a Pan American with upgrade. Wow, looked too quickly, what a mistake!!! One of the 2 Panthers not pictured is the one owned (at least at the time) by the Kanter Bros., not sure if they still have it. Also here in NJ Ralph Marano has a Pan American, spectacularly restored, and he also has the Packard Request which I believe is still undergoing restoration. Ralph also has one or both of the Balboas. Boy, we sure are lucky here in NJ to have all of these so close by and accessible.

Here's some pictures of the Marano Pan American at a club member's home a few years back.

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Although I have heard some derogatory remarks about the Pan-American pictured here, I think it is a beautful automobile and I like the upgrades done to it. It also looks, to my untrained eye, as the basis for the Chrysler grilles that came a year or two later.

Owen -

With so many concept cars appearing in that time frame (even just from Packard), and so many of them surviving, mistakes like that can happen.

I had never seen (or heard) of that updated PanAm until it popped up at the Warren Museum.

I seem to recall Kanter's name on the show card of the black/white Panther at the Centennial; perhaps they rescued it shortly after I saw it at Hershey, so many years ago.

I saw Ralph Marano's PanAm on the show field at Fall Hershey several years ago (before I had a digital camera), and it was spectacular. As I recall, the actual paint color was a little darker and a bit more green than what shows in your pix.

I was glad to hear that he has also since acquired the Request. I'd heard it is in need of some TLC, which is not unusual, considering it's been some 30 years since it was restored. Some may consider the front-end styling exercise a bit heavy and awkward, but I love it.

Whenever I see this car,



I think of this car:



Must be the grille.....

Randy -

I'm one of those people who don't really like the car much, but there are those who do. In fact, the first time that he came out for the July meet in Warren, John Shireman snapped many photos of that car from all sorts of angles.

Aesthetics aside, one thing that bothers me about this particular car is that some people consider its updgrades to foreshadow 55th Series styling. Yet, I believe the car was purchased from PMCC by McCauley a couple of years before that; then restyled under his direction, a few years later. Was that work even done by Packard?

I think of this car as more of an update - like two of the Panthers that later got the 55th Series taillights.

The outstanding mechanical feature of these cars was the McCulloch supercharged 275HP straight eight - the same horsepower as the later 352 engine, and the same as the McCulloch supercharged Studebaker 289 used in the last Packards.

One of these Panthers made 131 MPH on Daytona Beach in 1954. Pretty speedy for a street legal flathead.

Have seen pictures and magazine articles on these cars but all had the hood closed, or the supercharger removed.

Do any survive with the original supercharged engine intact and functional?

The Panther that did the 131 mph was the only one of the 4 with standard shift and OD, and only two were supercharged. There are plenty of pictures and data on the 4 Panthers in an old volume of PAC's The Packard Cormorant ,Spring 1984 issue, article by Leon Dixon. The article is profusely illustrated and detailed, about 12 pages. At the risk of violating copyright, here's a small excerpt from that article with the details on the 4 cars, as of 1984. For those that have more interest, back issues of many of PAC's publications are still available.

The car was originally to be called the Gray Wolf II.

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I'm just refreshing this topic, I was certain that posting the data on the 4 Panthers would provoke some comment. But PLEASE, no comments on the relative performance of the Panthers to the Rolls Royces of the same era.