1925 Packard Trip Research
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Webmaster
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I received this email asking for information to be used in a novel. I wouldnt even know where to begin to fathom a guess. With the difference in driving styles, road infastructure, etc. So I thought I would post this hear, and let you gents chime in on it.
"Dear Kev, I was quite happy to find your site, but couldn't find the information I was hoping for. I'm a novelist, working on a piece set in March 1926. In it, two characters intend to drive from New York City to St. Catharines, Ontario, an approximately 450 mile drive (according to Mapquest). Mapquest puts the estimated drive time at about seven hours. However, that's using today's speeds, speed limits, and mpg. The characters will be driving a 1925 Packard. Would you be able to tell me how fast those models went at top speed, how long they could go without refueling -- and even how long it might realistically have taken to make the described journey? Any help would be appreciated. Yours, Persia -- Persia Walker Author, www.PersiaWalker.com SUCH A LUCKY, PRETTY GIRL: A Short Story (BLUE RELIGION: New Stories About Cops, Criminals, and the Chase) DARKNESS AND THE DEVIL BEHIND ME: A Lanie Price Mystery HARLEM REDUX: A Novel"
Posted on: 2008/7/22 15:41
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-BigKev
1954 Packard Clipper Deluxe Touring Sedan -> Registry | Project Blog 1937 Packard 115-C Convertible Coupe -> Registry | Project Blog |
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Re: 1925 Packard Trip Research
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Home away from home
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Here is another suggestion. Perhaps you could go for a ride in a 1925 Packard and get the feel for such a journey. I bet there are Packard owners on this board who would be happy to help with your research.
I don't know where you are but there are antique car meets all around the country this time of year. You might attend one and look at the cars, ask around and see if you can find a suitable Packard. I am sure any Packard owner would be pleased to take you for a short ride, and answer your questions. Or give us your name and locality and someone here may step up and have his car immortalized in print.
Posted on: 2008/7/22 19:34
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Re: 1925 Packard Trip Research
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Home away from home
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Here's an account of a road trip from New York to Detroit in the winter of 1929. From an interview with Ford designer Eugene Gregorie.
"Frank had given up a nice room in one of the big, old mansions out on West Grand Boulevard they'd had been turned into rooming houses. A nice, old lady-like gal and her daughter had this big place, and Frank was giving up the room there and taking an apartment with some other chap, so I moved up there. In the meantime, I -8- went back to New York , to Long Island , to get my little French Citroen car--five horsepower Citroen. This was in early December, very cold, mean, so I went back one weekend and I started back with it for Detroit in the little convertible. No heater, cold, mean, and I got up into Pennsylvania in a little town called Hawley, broke a valve spring, went to a country garage. Talk about nerve driving a thing like that out there in those days! You couldn't have gotten a part for that thing this side of Paris . Q: What company was it? You said Citroen. A: Citroen, little Citroen. It was their little bread and butter car. A little, tiny five-horsepower, didn't have a...there was no starter, and didn't have a fan, or a water pump, thermo syphon cooling. It was a real adventure to drive that thing to Detroit in the Winter. Well, anyway, I got to Hawley , Pennsylvania , and had a valve spring go out on it. I went to a little, country garage, and this old fellow took the valve spring out. It was all simple you know, it only took a few minutes to get at the valve spring. He said, "Well, this looks like an inner valve spring on a '24 Buick." This is a little, tiny inner spring. So, he got one out of a trash bin he had, and popped it in there, and he said, "By golly," he says, "that'll work." So, he put the valve spring in, and Lord, the whole thing was a half hour, and two bucks, and I was on my way again. I did all right until I got up to a little place called Wayland , New York . It was about 40 miles below Rochester , and it had been snowing all day, and the snow had been laying in the fields but melting on the road. Along about 5 o'clock in the evening, it unknowingly had turned to a glaze of ice, and this little bugger spun -9- around three or four times in the middle of the road and went over the corn field and laid on its beam ends. Q: You didn't have seat belts in those days? A: No, and they only had one door--one door on one side. Fortunately, the side with the door was up. So, I had sense enough to reach down and turn the gasoline off. It had a gasoline tank in the cowl like a Model A Ford, and I cut the gas off before it set fire to the thing. So, I got out, crawled around, straightened myself up, and along came two farmers and a Model A Ford Touring Car, and in the back they had a big piece of rope. We hooked the rope on, and tipped it up right. The three of us tipped it up, pulled it up on the road, and he towed me into Wayland, about a mile. We put the car in a little country garage there. An old gal had a little farm house down the road, so I bunked in there for two or three nights. The morning after that the snow was four feet deep up over the windows, so I was holed up there for three or four days with this little car. I went to the country garage, the rear wheel was bent, and we put it in a press and straightened the wheel out. I was really tied up there five days, then I went on, finally, to Detroit . It took me about eight or ten days to get from New York to Detroit . It was so cold going across Canada in the little convertible, I had to take newspaper and caulk the window frames up. There was no heat, and every now and then I would stop at a country store and get a cup of hot tea. They always had hot tea in Canada . I'd stand there and warm my feet, you know. I finally got to Detroit , and things were rough there. There was no work anywhere. As it happened.... Q: This is the winter of...? -10- A: Winter of '29 and '30." autolife.umd.umich.edu/Design/Gregorie_interview.htm Depending on the weather your trip in March could go something like this. Although, the Packard would be much more suitable for such a journey than the little Citroen.
Posted on: 2008/7/22 20:33
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Re: 1925 Packard Trip Research
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Forum Ambassador
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Rusty,
Very informative. I'm sure with the advice you've provided, together with the first hand trip account, that Persia Walker will have a basis for her trip story or at least give her matters which she can further research.
Posted on: 2008/7/23 4:10
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Mal
/o[]o\ ==== Bowral, Southern Highlands of NSW, Australia "Out of chaos comes order" - Nietzsche. 1938 Eight Touring Sedan - SOLD 1941 One-Twenty Club Coupe - SOLD 1948 Super Eight Limo, chassis RHD - SOLD 1950 Eight Touring Sedan - SOLD What's this? Put your Packard in the Packard Vehicle Registry! Here's how! Any questions - PM or email me at ozstatman@gmail.com |
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Re: 1925 Packard Trip Research
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Home away from home
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You might check out this thread on lap robes and hot brick heaters.
packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... d=9772&topic_id=1235forumpost9772 Also at that time, your characters would be more likely to take the train especially at that time of year. Not that they couldn't make the trip by auto but it would be considered doing it the hard way. One bit of local color. In south western Ontario an asphalt pavement was called "tarvy" as in "tarvy road". I believe this comes from "Tarvia", a brand of asphalt paving compound used in the 20s.
Posted on: 2008/7/23 15:30
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