Packard Forum Index » General

For those of you who are Packard Club members and get the monthly Cormorant News Bulletin, the photo on the back page (cited from the Erwin Weiss collection....so I won't try and post it without permission) shows two men with a 22nd Series Convertible. What is striking is that the car appears to be standing level with the right front wheel removed.

In the current concern over Fake News and Photoshopped pictures, my curiousity is getting the better of me. Without the wheel and tire, the brake drum doesn't appear to be hanging as you might expect, nor is the car tipping down. Considering the massive weight of the engine and transmission on the front end, why is this?

The photo caption mentions the "inherent stability" of the 22/23 Series cars, but somehow I cannot believe that my 23rd would do the same if I removed a front wheel.

Perhaps the man in the hat is unusually strong and he's pushing down on the rear end to compensate for the 900 pounds of engine and transmission. I have also heard that the pre-1951 Packards had strong and sturdy frames (even more so for the convertibles) that permitted dealers to routinely raise these cars on single pole lifts in the service bays by pushing up on the middle of the X braces on the frames. Ouch, but that was before OSHA was around to protect Packard mechanics.

Perhaps this issue was a bit early to show the photo before April Fools Day. Or, can it be possible?

Packard had done this stunt at least once before with a prewar car. I'll see if I can find the photograph. Now will someone with a 2279 or 2379 please try to duplicate this and let us know what happens?

The raising of cars by the center X is not something most of us or probably many modern service people would want to do but apparently service guys were made of sterner stuff back then. As this bulletin from 1950 mentions, for the later models Packard frowned on the practice.

Attach file:

---

  (77.63 KB)