Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Thanks so much for citing the book. Was sure I had read it was an option but obviously didn't quite retain all the details. At any rate, JW, keep looking. There must be one out there with your name on it.

HH56,
Your welcome. It's fun to dig up whacky Packard phacts!

Owen Dyneto,
As you can see, the figures are just percentages, and mostly based on the quote from Allison. I don't know how close he was to production decisions at the time, but probably not too close. The standard T/L on the Caribbean, the required option on the Patrician and 400, and the availability on Clipper Custom at the ridiculously low $150 price are most likely based on actual production records. It appears that from the beginning and through the model year there were Clipper Customs as well as other Clipper models built without the T/L.

Now the real oddball would be a Caribbean, 400 or Patrician with a "delete" T/L standard suspension.

JW,
Good luck on your quest, but I still wonder "why," although I'm sure you have your reasons. I was curious about these cars, and started a thread a while back asking those who own one how a standard suspension on a V8 Packard rode and handled, and the reviews weren't all that positive. Now, if you want to race on a circle track, standard suspension is the way to go, according to a man who did it--Jack Harlin. He said that setting up the T/L for racing was impossible, and when they tried running with it "off" they got black-flagged for "broken springs." The good ol' boys at NASCAR thought the T/L suspension was some fancy Yankee prank.

Here is a '55 Clipper Custom for sale locally, but alas it is a T/L Suspension. However the fact that it runs, drives & stops for $1495 is quite a deal. Not a bad looking car.

One of my first readings on the V8 Packards was an article in Special Interest Autos magazine (#36), back in 1976, and I seem to recall the author referring to Torsion-Level as a "mandatory option", which struck me as odd. Somewhere, I also read that T-L was officially classed as optional, but dealers were pushed very hard to order it. Yet, I was a little confused by some of the parts book application listings for T-L versus conventional (front coil and rear leaf) suspension.

Years, later a friend provided photocopies of some of the Trade Letters that the factory sent to dealers; those ultimately led to the RPO charts that I composed specifically for this site. Information from those letters helped clear up the mystery, and was summarized, with some additional footnotes, in my RPO charts.

For the 55th Series, Torsion-Level suspension (RPO "TL") was listed as standard equipment on Caribbean, but optional for ALL other models EXCEPT the Clipper Deluxe, which was ONLY available with conventional suspension. However, T-L only became available as an optional for the Super line on June 1, 1955; prior to that the Clipper Super models were ONLY available with conventional suspension.

For the 56th Series, Torsion-Level suspension (now known as RPO "TLS") was again listed as standard equipment on Caribbean, but now optional for ALL other models, However, there were some notes to the effect that that T-L was 100% installation on all models EXCEPT Clipper Deluxe and Clipper Super models. Torsion-Level was fianlly made standard equipment on all models effective May 1, 1956.

While it's theoretically possible that there were some '55 Clipper Customs built with coil/leaf suspensions, I suspect that those are a lot less likely than Deluxe and Super examples of same.

Am I the only one to notice how much better the 52-53 Cormorant looks on the hood compared to the "whatsis" on the 55 and 56 Clippers.

I like the "whatsis" myself.

I believe that there are at least a couple of variants of the stylized Cormorant hood ornaments for 1955-56 (nee "whatsis"). I like the stylized Cormorants.

Craig

The Clippers didn't have a stylized Cormorant. They had a "whatsis". The Cormorant in any variation was better looking.

Quote:

I was referring to the Senior hood ornaments. The Clippers obviously had a "ball something" which was maybe a "whatsis", but it certainly was not a Cormorant, nor was it intended to be.

Craig

Getting back to the original topic of this thread: a non-T/L 1955 Clipper: I have a question: Why would anyone want one?

Craig