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Yes, but he moved to Florida and a friend of his, Anthony Cavana, drove the Darrin to Florida for Louis. On the way the driver's door flew open so Tony Drove the remainder of the trip with the window open and his arm holding the door closed. He must have not been watching his speed because I never had that problem with the car, but I always kept the speed at 50-55 mph.

" As well I think the (180) car is better proportioned."

Both the 120 and 180 are on a 127" chassis,, have the same hoods and thus the bodies are of identical length. What makes the 120 more appealing to you?

The Darrin in question is one of the 25(#22) 1940 Darrin Victorias built in 1939/40 in Connersville In. by Dutch Darrin. We, at Just Packards Inc. did all of the machinical work on this car in 1995/96, and than made some adjustments and a tune up prior to the Pebble Beach show.The Louis Johnson car is #12 (1801-2012),and is still on the east coast...

There, fixed it for you.

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That's a repro plate! What happened to the real one?

If you park the 120 Darrin next to the 180 Darrin they are not the same car.

I've never done that comparison but the stock 120/160/180 all use the same front unwelled fenders and the same hood top panels. All the Darrin victorias are on the same 127 wheelbase. Can you explain what the apparent major /minor external differences are. I'm not aware of any.

thank you

The 120 motor is lower so the body and cowl can be cut down more. According to the history books when Packard contracted with Darrin they stipulated the 180 chassis. The 120s being built in Los Angeles were different cars.

I'm far from knowledgeable on Darrins, one thing I've always wondered about are the '180' Darrins. As far as I know the differences between a 160 and 180 production cars besides the emblems are the use of foam in the seats and higher grade fabrics. But Darrins did not use the Packard seats or fabrics so what's the real difference??

Darrin started with a coupe body in '40 and converted it into a Victoria. Coupes were produced in 110-1800/120-1801/160-1803 series but not in the 180 -1806 . So how can you make a 180 Darrin if there were no 180 coupes??

I will look at photos of 1940 120 vs senior Darrins to see the difference. The 41-42 Indiana cars are more "production" than the 38-40's, will look at them too.

All info appreciated.

All 1940 Darrin victorias (120/180)are on the 127" wheelbase, and use the same frame,suspension parts are different. The front fenders, grill shell,five hood pieces,and the three cast aluminum pieces are the same.The center grill,hood side louvers,bumpers&guards are different for each series. The 180 uses the dash and interior hardware from this series, and the 120 uses the 120 dash and hardware.The 160/1803 and the 180/1806 chassis are the same. Packard decided to market the Darrin as a 180 as a top of the line custom because they could..........