Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

I was at the Ypsilanti Orphan Car Show Sunday, and had a couple of guys ask me what the hood ornament on Clipper represented and if it had a name. Honestly, I've often wondered this my self. They were familiar with the Goddess and the Cormorant but not this one.

Does anyone know?

I'd guess a comet making a turn around a planet, but in all probability I'd guess its really just a chrome thingy to ornament the nose of the car--rather like the standard ornament on the cheaper bathtubs.

Did see one at Williamsburg where the ball was plated gold and the wing was chrome--looked really cool.

about the only clipper i think warrants that hood ornament is the constellation, considering that is outerspace related and the ornament looks like that.

the other clippers, im not sure what it would relate too, other then clipper is a ship and maybe that is a ship going around a plant. idk

personally i think that sould have been a constellation only ornament.

Hank

Perhaps it was just an exercise in streamlining so no need for a name. More than one piece of literature mentions the sweeping lines and chrome accents to accentuate the design incorporated in the new V8 cars. That certainly fits in the category of chrome accent.

It wasn't the first time something odd with not much of a theme appeared on a Packard. The basic postwar Clipper ornament which resembles mostly a blob of chrome or the Egyptian ornament which doesn't seem to fit any past Packard styling cue for example.

In the 30's there were a few ornaments that one could even call strange. The one that was actually a radio antenna for example.

I wonder if this is a highly streamlined version of the "donut pusher" ornament, which - itself- was a streamlined version of the goddess of speed.

On the other hand, I suppose it could also be interpreted as a ship creating a bow wave/wake, as it plows through the open water.

Ding!

Brian, I think you have it. There was at least one posted reply that said it was the "doughnut" when I asked this same question on another thread topic somewhere. Don't remember who it was, but he seemed pretty sure of himself.

Henry, your comment is great. I'd stick to that story if I was you. Now if I could just figure out what kind of airplane is on the hood of my '54 Clipper. Looks like a jet, but probably meant to be a real sleek bird of the Cormorant family.