Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

I have now added my 1940 Club Coupe to the register. Thanks for your help with the 'click by click' addition tutorial!

Thom for including your '40 One-Twenty Club Coupe in the Registry.

I see the figure 0f 28,158 was published by Packard. Interestingly, I just received a reply from the Roster Keeper athttp://www.packardclub.org/ as below:

"My Roster database for the 1940 Packard 120 shows 22 I395 club coupes, 1 of which is listed as a Deluxe model. Others may have been Deluxe models but failed to show the DE body style prefix on the VIN number. We know that at least 2,584 I395 club coupes were made for the year 1940 120 model and that the DE's were mixed in with the standard I395's.
J.P. McVicker
Roster Keeper '40 Packard 120"

It looks to me like his roster database is incorrect. Just before I advise him of same, I thought it wise to get confirmation! Thanks.

-Thom

I'm curious, just what do you see wrong with the data he supplied?

I don't have the data he has, but that the club coupes were less than 10% of 1940 "120" production total is entirely consistent with other analyses, for other years and models, that try to project production totals of individual body styles. These analyses are done by using the highest known production sequence portion of the vehicle number for each body style and then reconciling them against the total production.

Of the 28,158 1940 "120" models, other researchers have deduced from such analyses that at least 20,281 were the 4-door touring sedan and that leaves about 8000 to be distributed over the remaining 8 or so body styles.

Also, another researcher, Charles Blackman, has also estimated the Club Coupe at about 2584 units produced. He probably had access to the same raw data.

Whoops, I miss read his figure of 22 as 22k. It looks like the estimate necessarily has to very as no precise records were kept. Thanks for the heads up (and wake up! call) I'll have to pay more attention!

I get dyslexia sometimes too, glad you found your error before you responded to McVicker.

For those with an interest, the attached shows exactly how these analyses are done. First, you must have at least one vehicle number (the more the better) for each body style offering. The column "highest # known" is obtained by taking the highest know sequential portion of the vehicle number (the second set of digits) and subtracting the starting number which for 1934 was 10. By totaling that column we can thus account for 4763 of the 5120 cars produced. Then take the percentages of the 4763 cars and project it for the total of 5120.

PS: I still lack enough data to do a similar analysis for the 1934 Super Eights and Twelves; hopefully someday I will and it will be interesting see how preferences for one body style or another varied as one moves up the ladder to the more exclusive cars.

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