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Quote from an email sent to me by a guy in the Hudson-AMC Club here in Oz:

"Mal,

Here a some pix of a ?SHED? Andrew Lidden once had! He has moved his collection to his farm now I believe. We did a tour of the shed during my President's Weekend back in 2005. Maybe this will whet your appetite!!!!!!!!!! ALL of the cars along the left side of the shed (DSC04242) are Packard's?.. all along the back wall & some of the right hand side wall is pallet racking for ?some' of his Motor Bike collection. He has ?the disease' (old cars, bikes, trucks & tractors) really bad!"

NOTE - Click on a pic to enlarge it(one at a time)

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All I can say is Wow what a collection.

That not a collection that is a Gold Mine

If thats his shed would like to see his garage and any cars he took really good care of nice collection Bet his FARM is something to see Appearshe has quite a few bikes on the wall shelfs He has the sickness pretty bad appears he has the money to treat it

Mal

Thanks for the gorgeous views from 'down under.'

Would you say that folks take better care of cars in your neighborhood than the rest of us? It sure looks that way from here.

DanL

Quote:

Dan,

I wouldn't think that Aussies take better care of their cars than anybody else. The pictures show cars from one man's collection and from what I've heard the car's he owns range in condition from whatever to great. Just might have been lucky that the pic's Tony sent me were mostly of well restored or well looked after cars.

And Tony sent me this message today "I guess you like the Lidden collection! Andrew is a Barrister (he was mine for a case that ended three or so years ago) so I guess that is why he can afford to ?feed the habit'."

Mal,
I guess I was thinking that by the time a Packard auto gets shipped to your turf, it is a much bigger investment than it is for folks closer to the factory.
Today, I suppose, most cars sold in Australia are made in Australia.
Are historic and antique classics still bringing solid prices down under?

DanL

Quote:

Dan,

You're right about shipping adding to the cost of anything we import down-under. While there are representative cars of most makes and models here we have quite a small pool from which to draw on. The US on the other hand has a much bigger and broader base of automobiles and these are accessed to meet the demand from Oz very regularly now. In fact the shipper who brought in the '41 for me reckons there are now more Mustangs here than in California, seems we as a nation of 20 million have an obsession for Mustangs in particular.

As to home based manufacturing, I think there are only 3 going now since Mitsubishi shut down it's plant here(I may stand correction here). These are Toyota (Corolla & Camry) Ford (Falcon) and Holden(Local GM brand with the Commodore). With about 1 million new vehicles sold each year volumes are small and the effect of high petrol prices and the import price squeeze from cars built in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, etc is being felt by our manufacturing base. It's interesting to note that Holden re-badges Commodores as Chevy Luminas for the Middle East and as Buicks for China!

As to historic and antique classics holding prices, I really don't know so someone better versed than me may wish to comment. But my guess would be that generally they are.

I am puzzled by one of the photos of the Australian "shed"'s cars.

There is a '38 - 39" "Senior" Packard - the alternately painted radiator shutters, if orig., would make it a '39, and thus with that body, it would HAVE to be a V-12 (I have seen people paint the radiator shutters on '38 "Super Eights" to make them APPEAR to be '39 Twelves from a distance..)

That's what puzzles me - a V-12 in Australia ? Who can straighten me out on this ?

To my knowledge, there was never a "kit" to convert Twelves to right hand drive ( would have required a different exhaust manifold to "clear" the steering gear). And, it is my understanding is that any car licensed in Australia HAS to be RIGHT hand drive.

Perhaps I can add a bit. I've seen many Packards in factory RHD, including quite a few Full Classics. While I don't know of any "kits" to convert to RHD, Packard made RHD cars (though I'm not sure about the TWelves) from scratch both in Detroit and in Canada, the latter especially for export to South Africa, Sweden, and of course England and Australia. I believe the Canadian plant opened about 1931 or 32 and closed just before WW II, and as late as 1954 the parts manual shows the various parts for the RHD cars which were available only in certain chassis (only the Clipper DeLuxe, Special and Super for 1954)and the Service Counselor shows the finished cars so available. So while perhaps never many in number, Packard had a very long history of manufacturing RHD cars. After 1954, Packard relied on their London Distributor, Leonard Williams, to do the conversions. You'll find a test report on a 1955 RHD Clipper so converted somewhere on this website, and you'll also find a photo of a 1934 Eight or Super Eight RHD chassis under restoration. I believe there is an original photo of a Classic-Era RHD chassis on the Michigan University archive site. So an Twelve in RHD wouldn't suprise me in the least. What I'd like to see if the Patent Plate (VN plate) picture.

Quote:

To address your last question first, the licensing of only RHD cars in Australia. Originally here in Oz most states, except for South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, would only license RHD cars. However LHD cars can be licensed fairly freely now.

For your other query, concerning the specific Packard pictured being a V-12, I will endeavour to find out what I can from other members of the Packard Club here as I haven't seen the car in question. Stay tuned, there is a large 1800 car display in about 3 weeks time and one club member who will be there should know. I'll let you know then.

And for your info, Wade the guy who's helping me with my '41 Coupe, is restoring a '34 and the photo of the RHD chassis Owen_Dyneto refers to could well be his. I have some photos of it but nothing detailed enough to display here. I'll take some more photo's of the chassis today when I'm at the workshop and post them here later.