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If you get a chance, pickup the July 2014 issue of Hemmings Classic Car.
There is a good article about Ralph Marano of New Jersey and his automobiles, primarily his Packards. Hemmings has written a very good article about the man and his passion for exotic automobiles, especially Packard. It is a good read and very informative. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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Hello,

A quick comment here. Very nice profile on Mr. Marano... and well deserved. A great gentleman and incredible cars.

However, some captions regarding the Packards in this Hemmings Classic Car piece are quite a bit misleading...

? Page 60: Caption states ..."...open car, second from the left, is the Henney-bodied Pan American of 1952, with its disappearing convertible top..." Since there were six Pan Americans, there is no such thing as "the" Pan American... and the particular one shown here was one of the later ones made-not the original. And gotta grin since the last time this same car was featured in a car magazine, they swore it was the original Panther #1 and said it never had a top! Then got upset when I corrected them (I know... it does indeed have a top).

? Page 61: Caption states..."...Packard in the center is the Request concept car of 1955, the last such vehicle that Packard ever designed. To its right is one of four 1954 1/2 Panther design studies..." First, the Request was certainly NOT the last Packard concept car designed. It was followed by the Predictor....all designed in-house. A friend of mine was one of the people who constructed the original scale model of this car...at Packard on East Grand Blvd. in Detroit.

As for the 1954-1/2 Panthers there were only two... and they are both in this photo and both now owned by Mr. Marano. While there were a total of four Panthers, there were only two 1954-1/2 versions. No one would know this better than I-especially since I knew these cars since new. And I was the very first to accurately chronicle their history exactly thirty years ago. I did this for the Packard Club in their Spring, 1984 issue of The Packard Cormorant magazine.

Likewise, I knew the Request since it was first built and knew people who built it for Packard in Detroit. Other friends of mine restored it in the 1970's. (see attached photo of me with the Request back in the 1970's in Yakima, WA when it was first reassembled). I supplied some of the parts used in the original restoration.

Offered in the spirit of Packard automotive historical accuracy,

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No surprise about the errors, unfortunately that publication suffers from very poor (or perhaps no) proofreading for accuracy and has for a long time - blatant errors and certainly not a magazine to rely on for facts though I enjoy some of the writers and the photography. The publication is a far cry from the excellent "Special Interest Autos" that it replaced.

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+1

Sad is the kindest thing I can say about the mess that is Hemming's "Editorial" material. Too easy to fit in the internet age of fact checking.

I get the Jennings motor news and there's nothing in there

It's in Hemmings Classic Car

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Yesss, agreed, Owen. But the errors (even the critiques) when involving Packard somehow tend to be so severe. Mystery.

My favorite was the pictorial write-up on a Packard that was supposedly specially prepared and sold to a celebrity owner via Earle C. Anthony dealership in California. So... they show this nice, shiny data plate for the car. And there... very proudly stamped into the metal plate of this special car, sold by a special dealer, to a special customer are the words: "Earl C. Anthony"... wow.

I can assure you that Mr. Anthony spelled his name "Earle" (with an "E" on the end) not "Earl" and no Packard for a special customer would have EVER been allowed to leave ECA, Inc. with the boss's name misspelled for all to see on the data plate. That one is hard to swallow. Even harder to understand is why the magazine bought into it. Harder still is the amazing thing that they didn't seem to like the correction. If it was a simple mistake made when repopping the data plate (and this is certainly possible-even if weird), then why proudly display a photo without even noticing the glaring error?

The car magazine biz today is an odd one... still a great one, but odd now. The magazines have one foot into the internet (which is a good thing in many ways) and the other into the auction world. And everybody running things is infallible. Unlike in years of old, they now proudly acknowledge info supplied by auction companies as if it is the pinnacle of accuracy.

This is what happened with the car hobby handed over the reins of being "historians" to auction companies... who continue to give us gems like the gray Packard Panther with the outrageously convoluted "history"...STILL amazed over that one and the magazines and internet "sources" that were only too eager to repeat the "history" of this car. Wow.

This issue was a treat, my '60 Edsel and friend Bob's were the featured cars. The Packard article was a great bonus!