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Re: Photo: My Grandfather with James Nance & the Predictor
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Just can't stay away
 
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Great Photo. Thanks for sharing. Side note - look at the pressed creases on the trousers of both men. That is what I call sharp - in more ways than one!
Posted on: 2021/4/9 10:25
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Re: Photo: My Grandfather with James Nance & the Predictor
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Home away from home
 
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Quote:
Yes. This photo was taken in the design studio viewing area In the Grand Blvd. Packard Plant just off of Concord Avenue. The Predictor is sitting on a motorized turntable in the floor where several photos were taken. The question is, what are they discussing on that paper? This was shortly after thin-line whitewall tires were installed. Something considered very futuristic for that time. Look for untold Packard Predictor secrets in an upcoming issue of The Packard Cormorant magazine– the glossy publication of The Packard Club.
Posted on: 2021/4/9 12:09
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Re: Photo: My Grandfather with James Nance & the Predictor
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Thank you Leeedy for the info on where the pic was taken. The info about the thin whitewalls is interesting! As far as what they are discussing on that paper -- my guess is nothing, that this was a 'staged' photo op. I had wondered if other similar pictures have surfaced with other dealers posing with James Nance. Has anyone seen any?
Posted on: 2021/4/9 12:49
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Paul
www.studebakerskytop.com |
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Re: Photo: My Grandfather with James Nance & the Predictor
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Home away from home
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Dealer Bill Rodekopf of Independence, Missouri with Nance. Many dealers attended a "pep talk" with Nance around February 1956 in Detroit, and had their photos taken with the Predictor.
Attach file:  Bill and James Nance.jpg (165.60 KB)
Posted on: 2021/4/9 17:05
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Re: Photo: My Grandfather with James Nance & the Predictor
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Home away from home
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Great Photo(s) to cherish.
I really like the fedora hat automotive period. Was never keen on suits and ties, but wore for work, etc. Not many Daddy's hat boxes today. We've lost some civility along the way with "purple" hair, tatooes, piercings, etc and discourteous handheld electronic device use. Capt. Kangaroo and Mr GreenJeans are turning in their polite graves. I've converted the family photos to electronic copies, so you may want to for archiving, as photochemicals will eventually fade or discolor. Lots of browned glossy B&Ws Kodak paper out there. Sadly, the predictor's prediction wasn't quite accurate unless that's what "out of business" looks like! I think that's what happens when a "linear thinker" views the curving future, the vision goes off the edge tangentially. All I see is asbestos laden floor tile with today's eyes.
Posted on: 2021/4/10 9:27
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Re: Photo: My Grandfather with James Nance & the Predictor
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Quite a regular
 
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Great photos. Cool history. I can't say the Predictor is the most attractive Packard I've ever seen. But most prototypes were, and are generally a little extreme.
Posted on: 2021/4/10 12:51
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Re: Photo: My Grandfather with James Nance & the Predictor
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Home away from home
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Let's be fair to the Packard Predictor. Many people today say things about Predictor and its styling and features. These critiques of today never really take into account how ground-breaking all this was in 1956, not 2021.
Mother-of-pearl paint job. Swivel seats. Spring-loaded front bumper. Individual bucket seats with center console. Reversible upholstery. Electronic push-button aluminum transmission with lock-up converter. Electronic suspension. Quad headlights–hidden at that. Wrap-around-wrap-over panoramic windshield. Aircraft type overhead console. Dished steering wheel. ALL before cars that would follow with this kind of thing years, even decades later. Take your index finger and place it over the upright bumper/grille) and tell me what do you see? Complete with the hood bulge, quad hidden headlights, peaked leading edge, and high pontoon fender edges? And say this knowing that the guy who is credited with the design of a famous 1963 sports car worked where in 1955-56? Packard. Magazines right now continue to crow about the Mercury "Breezeway" rear window. All while never bothering (or knowing enough) to tell their readers that this design/feature actually came from Packard. The true origins were Packard Balboa of 1953 and where else? Packard Predictor. And where did the 1958-60 Continentals get their reverse-slant, power rear window? Predictor. Shall I mention T-tops of the 1970s? How about 4-passenger luxury sports "personal cars" from the late 1950s through the 1980s? And those three gauges in the center top of the instrument panel on Predictor? Pontiac got a LOT of mileage with this 3-gauge design for many, many years. Magazines raved about it. But Predictor had it first. AND where did the big guy from Pontiac of the 1960s work at the time of Predictor's development? AND the original INTENDED engineering features of Predictor's suspension and transmission also ended up where in the 1960s? For those lamenting the driving position of Predictor today... REALLY? What about the driving positions on other 1950s dream cars? Ohhhh... that's right. Most of those dream cars weren't real cars and didn't even start, much less drive. One account critiqued Predictor's thick safety doors...but many 1950s concept cars didn't even have real doors at all! Let's give Predictor the credit it deserves. Read about Predictor's unknown features (intended and otherwise) in an upcoming issue of The Packard Cormorant magazine.
Posted on: 2021/4/16 21:28
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Re: Photo: My Grandfather with James Nance & the Predictor
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Quite a regular
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Innovations come from the prototypes. It's basically a test market. Some ideas work and some don't. But the manufacturers do get ideas from feedback from the public.
The one case that I can think of that test marketing really didn't work was the Edsel. It was heavily test marketed. We all know how that worked out. It could be blamed on the 1958 recession, and Ford did sell quite a lot of them. My dad had one. But that was because it was cheap and so was he. My mother hated it so he sold it and bought a Falcon. I hope this picture posts. The grille looks very reminiscent of a GTO. Attach file: Prototype 1.jpg (64.16 KB)
Posted on: 2021/4/18 0:38
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Re: Photo: My Grandfather with James Nance & the Predictor
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Home away from home
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...The grille looks very reminiscent of a GTO. What looks like -> the front of the first GTO generation is the backsite of a concept car, designed in Turin (Italy). Ricky (Ricky Dillinger), don't be disapointed. Even Wikipedia says: "This style would make the car look like the front was the rear and vice versa." The car survived in ... Russia. About Paul (r1lark), sorry for the short excursion.  image source: posta-magazine.ru Attach file: survived behind the iron curtain.jpg (51.27 KB)
Posted on: 2021/4/18 5:16
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The story of ZIS-110, ZIS-115, ZIL-111 & Chaika GAZ-13 on www.guscha.de
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