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The wire wheels shown on this Caribbean are not factory wheels.... not even close. EEEeeeeek! Awful. Certainly not even close to being decent reproductions. How revolting.

This is what happens when authenticity no longer matters and the history is on a par with fingerpainting. Everybody wins. Everybody gets a trophy or a ribbon. Stuff like this is MADE and sold... and then presented as if– oh yeah– this is legitimate and to be taken seriously. Why? This is what we have come down to.

No...all postwar Packard wire wheels were made by Motor Wheel Corporation and the design did not change. The center cap design would have changed for 1957 and I have the only known example of a 1957 prototype center cap. I showed this center cap prototype several years ago when I gave a talk at a Packard Club National Meet.

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Heaven help us all– and our poor Packards if "resto-mods" actually "raise the value." What a ghastly notion. How does one customize "properly?"

I realize the present generation happens to find no issues with modifying and customizing vintage cars, but OMG! If customizing and "resto-mods" actually "raises the value" of a Packard, then it's all over.

I was just talking with a long-time Packard collector and he was saying that he hardly has involvement with Packards anymore beyond his own collection. "I talk to these guys today and all they wanna do is modify everything and customize stuff! What do we have to talk about if keeping the car original is meaningless?" He has a point– at least as far as I'm concerned. Modifications make it more valuable? That's frightening. I can hardly not wait to see a Tesla-ized electric Caribbean. Sorry...

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Ok, I found the details here. In STB 56T-20, it gives the current engine number in use at that time (each number starting at 1001). Double letters indicate manual transmission cars. There is no double letter for a Caribbean engine, and the Packard manual is 1001. Since they are listing the number for effective changes, they must not have built one yet at that time. This service letter went out after about 76½% of production was already completed.

So while it's virtually certain that all Caribbeans were Ultramatic equipped, theoretically some Packard could have been shipped with a manual, but it's questionable. I could believe if there was one or two made, as long as they had some paperwork on it, but it's pretty much a fact that whatever manual 56 Packards (and 55) that come up from time to time would have been some later conversion. I believe someone even mentioned dealers might have converted some back in the day, and if this is the case, then that would look very factory aside from possibly the closest inspection to look for re-used parts or mounting holes that would not have been there on a factory manual car (example: two holes for the N-R switch self-tappers on the column).

As a side note, on the engine only the flywheel and the rear engine mount are different between manual and Ultramatic for either V8 year. Obviously there are differences other places too such as rear axle ratio, and the transmission column, but off the top of my head I can't think of something that would prevent you from doing a clean swap from Ultramatic to manual assuming you have the correct parts.


packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/STB/56T-20.pdf

packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=15190&forum=3

Not sure how acurate this is, but I was told secondhand that Roscoe had factory records for all the 55/56 Carribeans produced.