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I don't know if anyone has seen this article yet, but here it is:

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2012/07/29/sia-flashback-1930-packard-734-speedster-americas-first-muscle-car/

Thanks for the link and story. I've had the pleasure of driving a couple of 734 Speedsters over the years and it's quite an experience!! One could argue at length over what was the very first "muscle car", probably depends a lot on your definition. But a contender for the title, and well before the Packard Speedster, was a very early (190?) Stanley when they placed an oversize boiler in a light body. I believe this was the concept behind the Stanley racer that said such phenonemal records.

And there were others, gasoline-powered, that did similar things in the very early years - was it Locomobile (correction - Peerless) with the "Green Dragon"? The "Blitzen Benz"? Sorry, I don't recall the specifics.

Thanks Joe for the great post.

The dictionary definition is essentially "stuffing an oversized engine into a compact powertrain". I don't remember when the term "muscle car" came into usage. That would be an interesting project. When I lived in XXXXXX the university had bound copies of the major car magazines back to WWII. They were untouched and unpillaged. Fantastic documents which all too often get vandalized by collectors armed with razor blades. The 904 Dual Cowl road test was memorable as was the Duesenberg J road test.

Anyway, that two tone green color scheme (engine green body, darker green fenders) seems to have been a Packard favorite. Hirsch's 745 had it as did Jepson's touring car (it featured dark olive green leather), as was another clean original 734 touring car. Another Packard special was two tone grey with orange accents. Both go back to the early Model 30.

The article mentions the sole surviving Speedster Victoria. Once there were two. They were both original running driving cars with weathered original lacquer paint. One is in Turnquist's book. They were owned by a guy named Hoeschbaker. One ended up at Harrah's and the other disassembled and scattered. The body is supposedly in Australia. I saw a boattail in similar shape next to a mint original 645 coupe in a Maryland warehouse.

As for performance, those headlights cost about 4-5 mph each and the windshield another 6-8 mph. So if they consulted Dietrich on design the car would have been in the Duesenberg class for top speed.