Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Very interesting..

imperialclub.com/Articles/56AutoAge/index.htm

Motor Trend did a comparison about 3 years ago of the Cadillac, Packard and Lincoln. In that issue Packard came out the clear winner in ride and handling. I think that MT was also comparing the 2 door coupes. It was a well done article and seemed to be unbiased

John

The Patricians upholstery material is in poor taste?


What kind of trash was this article written for? Fire the author!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was at the old Packard Proving Grounds last weekend for the club's annual car show. Lots of nice Packards and many others too including a '55 Imperial. Must admit I was mesmerized by the Imperial just as much as the two '38 Super Eight convertible sedans. The Imperial's exterior was carefully sculpted, the grill classy and together. The interior was beautiful; instrument panel might have been the best of any 50s car. The article should have tested the '56 Southhampton 4-door hardtop to more directly compare with the new Cadillac Sedan DeVille, or chosen the standard Caddy sedan.

One thing I always compare is the refinements. Beauty is in the eye of the viewer so styling aside, if two items have identical functions but one is bare bones compared to the other, IMHO that is where a difference shows.

Two cases in point:

Trunk mounted AC units. Same unit but one car just vents the cold air out top of package shelf and leaves it at that while another car takes that same air and goes to the trouble to supply a duct under the headlining all the way to front of car with vents for both seats along the way.

Fresh air & heat delivery. Same basic inlet but one car takes the air and just opens it at the feet of the front seat passengers while another car takes a portion of that same air and via ducting in the doors or floors also delivers it to the rear seat passengers.

Whether the trouble taken is advantageous is up to debate but it shows at least an attempt was made to justify a label.

Was Packard the one to use the more refined system? If so, good for them. Better still would have been to work with Nash to get its '54 new industry standard A/C system incorporated. Given the close relationship why didn't Nance jump on it?

The thing about design is that one person's opinion is always subjective but 30 or more opinions is hard statistical data. Wonder how these luxury cars scored in surveys for their design. Surely each company conducted them internally.

Was Packard the one to use the more refined system?

Unfortunately, no.

Unfortunate indeed. Though they did supply underseat heaters in most models to provide heat to the rear seat passengers.

Packard delivers heat to the front floor and to the rear via underseat heater. Cooled air to the feet and through the top of the dash which "can" be directed to go over the front seat towards the rear seat passengers.

Lincoln heat to front passengers, presumable had underseat heaters also. A/C unit in the trunk had clear plastic funnels which connected to headliner vents for front and rear passengers, quite spiffy.

Cadillac had the vents through the doors and floors for heated air, do not recall how they distributed the A/C from the trunk unit

Didn't realize Lincoln also had roof vents so that really leaves Packard hanging. The underseat heaters were an option and do a good job--sometimes too good and that's one of the bad things about them. One side only and the poor person on that side gets a hot foot while the other side passenger takes what is left.

For anyone wondering about the AC difference, here is 53-4 Packard on top with all air vents and returns on the package shelf. 54 Cadillac on the bottom with roof ducts for cold air and return grills are under each side of the rear seat. The same basic Frigidaire trunk unit was used on both with some slight differences in packaging, compressor and controls.

There have been mentions that Packard also had the clear plastic cones over the rear glass that directed air toward the front. I don't dispute it but they don't show in parts manual or on the illustration and were not on the 54 Patrician I have pictures of. That car just had vents same size as the fresh air under dash vents except with straight louvers instead of the "V" shape and two screened return air grills very similar to a rear seat speaker grill.

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