Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Anyone know the car well enough to know if that's a correct statement?

No, but I'll be seeing the current owner in a couple of weeks and I'll try to remember to ask him. I have no doubt it's pretty heavy up front.

Owner of the Request between about 1974 and until just a few years ago was Larry Dopps of Oregon. He found the car rotting away 1974.

EDIT: Went back and read the two articles on the Request from some 30 years back. It's a driveable car, though poor handling. The two bronze U-shaped bumper sections are cast in bronze and said to weigh about 200 lbs. each, and the grille bars between 6 and 12 lbs. each. Of course this is offset a bit by the absence of the conventional bumper and grille. Also the hood is fiberglass. It's built on an early number 400 (5587-1003), was finished in late 1954, and curiously has no thief-proof number on the cowl.

According to "PACKARD, a History" the torsion bars were beefed up because of the heavy front end, most of which was the weight of the bronze bumpers.

Thanks. That kind of bears out what he said. Maybe by that time the bars had started to sag as some others have mentioned happening with their cars. The front weight was too much so he put something in to block. Would be interesting if the fellow that has the car now finds something and has a solution for it if that is the case. Apparently the Golden Hawk wasn't the only front heavy S-P creation.

As the Request was created as a show car, I dont think they really cared about the weight on the front of the car. As long as it looked good slowly driving onto the stage and sitting under the spotlight, then mission accomplished. With all that weight on the front end I am sure it would be pretty squirrely at highway speed IMHO.

"It's built on an early number 400 (5587-1003), was finished in late 1954, and curiously has no thief-proof number on the cowl."

ok. So then, maybe that allows us to speculate that anti-theft numbers were stamped in production AFTER and independently of the finished cowl stamping???

All -

Wow! I'm glad my one little reference generated so much additional interest.

I guess I never ran across that site before, since my interests are more in postwar cars. As such, the term "coachbuilt" pretty much bounces right off of me. Really, I was just Googling for Panther info. I must admit that I didn't study the text on that page all that carefully, but I just happened across pix of several other familiar concepts and thought I'd report that for those who might want a look.

Of course, it's obvious that the Request was based on a hardtop and not a sedan. Yet, I run across a lot of people who refer to the 1955 and 1956 Senior hardtops as a "Patrician 400". Perhaps this was due, initially, to the persistence of memory from 1954 when there was a "Patrician 400" - in sedan form only. However, I've also seen more than one Four Hundred hardtop turn up at a Packard show that had a Patrician front clip installed (perhaps due to collision repair), but they left the "Patrician" script plates on the fenders, while the trunk lid had "400" or "Four Hundred" script plates on the rear.

If anyone finds errors in the text on that page, by all means, contact the webmaster and ask for correction. As we all know, anyone can make a mistake, but what counts is how they handle correcting it. Thankfully, it's a lot easier to edit in cyberspace.

Meanwhile, that page seems to indicate that the Request also had fiberglass front fenders. Is this true?

Packard probably installed the heaviest torsion bars available at the time, but I bet those massive cast bronze bumpers were too much for even those. The sag probably occurred over the period of many years, as the car was driven on the road - something it was never really meant for. Just about every "posed" pic I've seen of the car sicne it resurfaced back in the 1970s will show some sort of stand propping the front end up if you look closely.

With today's technology, they might have been able to fab lighter bumper ends from steel, but bronze was the norm for limited production and prototyping work back then. Heck, I've found some early trim pieces for the 55th Series cars on swap meet tables that were done in bronze. Even the upswept antenna moldings on the V8 Caribbeans were cast in bronze for regular production.

All things considered, I give the late Mr. Dopps a lot of credit for bringing this car back from the brink. Thanks to people like him, another piece of the history of Packard survives in tangible form.

Now, I wonder whatever happened to the Request clone that I saw advertised for sale in Cars & Parts maagazine back in the late 1970s.

The Monte Carlo 2 appeared on the cover of "CARS" magazine May 1953 edition. I'll try to post this picture even though it's not a very good one.

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Great find!

Do you happen to have the actual issue?

I suspect there'd be a corresponding article inside.

fyi, a front 3/4 picture of the predictor. I understand the original concept name was projetor but was subsequently changed to predictor. I believe Ghia built this car for Packard, but when it arrived in Detroit the electrical system shorted, caused a minor fire and Packard then involved Creative Industries to fix the electrical problems and get the car show worthy. I'll share a rear 3/4 view when I can locate in my files.

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The copy I have is missing a part of the artcicle. I recently purchased a complete magazine and currently waiting on delivery. As soon as I get it, I'll post it. Hopefully, some other folks will have pictures of the monte carlo 1 and 2 they can share with us.