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My father was born in Brussels and came to Canada as a very young child but I still have relatives there and usually spend a few days there anytime I am in Europe. The aviation wing of the military museum is always worth a visit as they have a number of rare early aircraft in addition to the more modern ones. I was there last fall and toured the Autoworld exhibit which was new since my previous trip. As others have noted it is very nicely done with the cars arranged in chronological order.

Some few days ago I have been in Brussels, the capitel of the Kingdom of Belgium. The Autoworld I visited often before but this time with a camera, ready to snapshot. Let's start with the building itself, whose listed facade makes clear that old cars have found there a nice place to be. What a pleasure to discover the Packard Light Eight pictured on the advertising panels, left and right to the entrance. Hard to top but then I discovered a picture of a Deluxe Eight printed on the ticket. You will better understand my astonishment in the knowledge that this museum is located thousands of miles away from USA and displays approximately 300 old cars.

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Thanks Guscha - I hope there is more to come.

Randy, it would have been much better to be accompanied by you and the Kish brothers when walking through this large museum.
If the below shown explanation is to be believed then the Hawk was successfully imported to Europe. This 1961 model was one of the last of the wing era.

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Good to hear from you Gerd. Must have been time to "up periscope"!

Mal, my dear fellow, I'm dry-docked for a couple of weeks, to put it in sailors' slang. Enough time to follow in the steps of Fred, who visited this museum in 2008 (to the audience: Fred is one of Mal's brothers).
The following picture captures the most "suspense-packed" part of the Hawk body. Thereafter an interior shot. The poor instrumentation of the functional dashboard unintentionally reminds of one of those cars, made behind the iron curtain.

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The next is Packard's early attempt to establish a second product level, price-wise located below the prime products. Was it halfhearted prepared or decisive - it took not even twelve months until the end of this experiment. To inform you about the Light Eight I recommend this source, donated from O_D.

BTW I've got permission to jump over the perimeter fence for taking pictures.

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Measured against the below shown original pic the displayed car with its distinguish shovelnose is quite complete and offers more features as commonly expected of a downsized car. Even not visible properties like nine-bearing crankshaft, improved hypoid gear differential and thermostatic air temperature control are convincing. The mechanical "ride control" was way ahead of time. The modern design of door handles and window cranks are an intresting approach.

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For diversion here comes a car, whose designer tried to change almost everything, animated with the idea of aestheticizing of everyday life. In its futility it reminds on "Haute Couture", built to win beauty contests.
Don't know if taillights are installed but the frontal air-intake ducts are suitable even for large combustion plants. This way to get more factual information.

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I rather doubt the emblem on the trunk rack of the Light Eight is correct. Most 900s I've seen have the same emblem as the Eight, though I have quite recently come across one as shown below, pretty hard to doubt its correctness though I suspect many 900s came thru with the Eight emblem or this one would have been seen more often.

As to the ride control, I can attest to the fact that it functions and the "road manners" between the various positions is easily felt and very discernable.

As to the Hudson Italia, what a sweet little machine!! Though I've never had the pleasure of driving one I've run into several of them over the years and different car shows. Though I'm not a real "performance" guy I think it would have been nice to have it come with either the Pacemaker, Wasp or Hornet engine rather than the Jet 202; probably selected because of spatial or weight considerations. Still, given what is probably a very light weight, I suspect they were pretty lively. Hope to get the chance to drive one someday. It's impressive that all the Italia's have survived, a "collectible" from the day they were built.

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