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Return to the production of custom cars is part of the revitalized program.



source: Michiana Memory Digital Collection

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Packard Clipper Sportster with appeal for the youth.



source: Michiana Memory Digital Collection

This item is made available with permission from the copyright holder. It is the researcher's responsibility to seek permission from the copyright owner and any other rights holders for any reuse of these images that extends beyond fair use or other statutory exemptions. For more information, contact local.history@sjcpl.org.

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A number of years ago, I owned a Clipper Deluxe Sportster. Mine was a '54 model. It was a pretty sporty little car. I liked the chrome bows in the headliner. Nice touch. Gave you hardtop styling at a lower cost. Packard hid the center post by applying two thin chrome moldings, so it really did look like a hardtop. Here are some photos of my car. I later sold it to a collector in PA who did a full restoration on it. My car was originally from California, so it had a really solid body.

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Packardsix1939, thanks for sharing images and thoughts. We've talked about the Sportsters so rarely on PackardInfo that I've forgotten this version even existed. What immediately catches my eye in your photos are the open metal bars underneath the headliner, the large coat of arms on the trunk lid, the rear wheel cover and the simple chrome trim on the sides and B-pillar.
However, your '54 model appears to differ in terms of chrom decoration from the '53 car pictured in the newspaper. The chrome trim on your car was continuous.
The fact that the interior colors (dashboard, steering wheel, door panels) were tone-on-tone and that is also repeated on the roof and the hubcaps, gave the car a visual advantage over most European vehicles of that time.

Hi Guscha. I became interested myself in the Sportsters about 25 years ago when I was looking for a 1951-54 two door model and my Sportster popped up in Hemmings. Prior to this, I really hadn't heard of this model. The owner of my car was a PAC member from California who had used it for a time as a daily driver. I started doing some research and later found a 1953 Sportster for sale, but it was much rougher than mine and had some pretty significant rust. The '53's were quite a bit different from the '54's with the most obvious difference being the continuous body side moldings on the '54's. The '53 Sportsters had the split side moldings as seen in the ad photo. Other than my car, I don't recall ever actually seeing another Sportster at a show and have not seen very many for sale since I sold mine around 2001. The production numbers were not very high for this model to begin with, and it was only offered for two years. Here are the Sportster production totals I have from the Nat Dawes book "The Packard, 1942-1962":

List Price Production
1953: $2,795 3,671
1954: $2,830 1,336

Despite the considerably higher 1953 model production total, for some reason, I seem to find more '54 Sportsters for sale than '53's. I did recently see a '54 Sportster for sale on the West Coast, but it was really rough. If I can find the ad, I will repost it here in case anyone is interested in restoring one. They are nice cars. 

Was your Sporster in Northern California? There was a PAC NorCal chapter member with one that he sold around that time.

I forgot the gentleman's name from whom I bought the Sportster, but as I recall, he was from Northern CA. I also recall that he was a PAC club officer of some sort.

As I study psychology, it is often noted, looking things forward and looking things backwards could be very very different.

Maybe in 1953, with the residual reputation left by that time, Packard Clipper could be a temporary measure to gain some volume while Executive limousine still had enough credibility of the brand left. But the situation quickly got difficult, as we know. Brand equity was in a crisis but bigger problems quickly overtook.

And the concept of youth in the '50s could be very different from what we feel today. People like Tom Daley simply didn't exist as a collective group back then. Tom Daley as we see today, his manner and character is quite youthful but his numerical age would inch well into mid-age, if not even older in the '50s. (someone could be close to being a grandfather in that social norm at the time) Packard Clipper perhaps merely included his age range (30yo) on the top end, but targeting people like him was quite possible, because he is quite a typical example of what being a youth should be.

Youth at the time old enough to drive should be at least somewhat socially mature, with bodyhair and hairstyle distinctive from those younger, rather than being smooth and tender like Ganymede, almost like a cupbearer somewhat. But society and technology changes, so do the people. Childhood gets shorter, but adulting gets later, and in between period stretches from merely a short duration back then to a decade or so longer, blurring the boundaries between demographics and social ages.

I would have been at the right numerical for Packard Clipper buyers but I would be perceived as totally socially unacceptable as being too childish. It is a different world after all.

Despite having a higher production volume in the history of Packard, the entire industry was expanding too aggressively and it would be quite close to the eventual monopoly. Smaller players got quickly wiped out.

It feels like long time ago, but another industry somewhere else is repeating this stage. Chinese EVs. Very interesting to observe. Former Chrysler executive Bill Russo seems to have a lot of fun looking closely at it.