Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Good grief, LongJohn brings up another good point. The 1935-37 120s are nice, lovely little imps, and that 120" wb ideal, but i recall sitting in a '36 or '37 120 coupe, head against the ceiling and looking down and out through the windshield. Though the pedal accessibility okay, when you're 5' 15" with size 13 feet, the 1938-42 bodies vastly more comfortable, as LongJohn describes.
My '40 120 owned 1974-83 same as his '39, other than the '40s being slightly cheapened, and with those chintzy cribs of the '38 Buick's hood louvers, merely as that year Buick ended Packard's three-year consecutive streak as Gallup Poll's Most Beautiful Car. Packard won again in 1939, but does anyone know who won in 1940 and '41?

A '39 120 sedan is a handsome car, the '39 Super Eight the same other than the hoary old 1928 engine with separate block and crankcase. No one but some Packard devotee will know the difference, and all Packards 1939-on other than 446 essentially left over Twelves junior based.

Like LongJohn, drove mine both coasts and cross-continent without a hitch. Everything LJ says is spot on.

If you fit comfortably, a car like wjames,' preceding page, would also be a matchless grand tourer (GT), akin to a larger sport car.

In deference to those here gathered having 245-ci sixes/110s, i recall a wonderful gentleman, a retired and most respected Lincoln-Mercury dealership mechanic, George Mossetto, he and his wife avid gardeners, their lush greenery festooned with hanging sculptures made from Packard engine bits, who long owned and drove to work into the 1970s a dove gray '47 Clipper six without overdrive, which he often drove the hour plus to Sacramento at 65 mph to visit family. Asking if he ever missed overdrive, he laughed, "You get plenty of oil pressure at 65 (without it)."
At 192 ft. lbs., the 245 six put out nearly as much torque as the 254- and 260-ci Hudson and Nash straight eights' 198 ft. lbs., but my comments stand. The six was a good automobile, but should've been marketed as something from but apart from Packard.