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

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I think you have that backwards. If built on spec, that means there's no buyer in mind when being built.

Agreed, beauty is in the eye of the beholder... and to me, the car is just gorgeous. It might have to do with the fact that I generally consider french coachbuilt big cars of the late 30's to be some of the most beautiful designs ever (Hispanos, Delage, Delahaye, etc), and blending those with a Packard majestic front end... the result just had to be very good.

Is it my imagination or does it look lower than a regular Packard? How many parts would you think were re-used as Packard stock parts? Hood and grille? Perhaps non sidemount fenders?

I think you have that backwards. If built on spec, that means there's no buyer in mind when being built.

West, of course - read it again. Perhaps poor sentence structure has bit me again (wouldn't be the first time) - UNLESS it was built on spec (for no one in particular), the design would have been at least in part purchaser-driven.

Is it my imagination or does it look lower than a regular Packard? How many parts would you think were re-used as Packard stock parts? Hood and grille? Perhaps non sidemount fenders?

Can't say with regard to this particular car, but taking direction from the restoration of the Pebble Beach 38 Graber, that car was delivered to Graber as a chassis (no body tub). The cowl was lowered, the grille shell was lowered and shutters probably shortened, etc.

Some further pix and details at the end of this thread:

packardclub.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=504

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Victor (56P400), sorry if it sounds like a know-it-all small-mindedness but althought Hispano-Suiza had a branch factory in France, it was founded and registered in Barcelona, Spain. But perhaps I'm wrong and the talk is of cars designed in France such as Franays.

--> sample for a Hispano with French design

However, I agree expressly with the central idea that the French designs were not seldom leading (even in later years). For hours I could sit next to a French car to talk about its lines but to sit in I prefer US American and German cars. French car design mostly is everything else than boring.

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Victor, I believe it looks and it indeed is lower due to its acute-angled A-pillars. Against the backdrop of its year of origin it really looks sporty. What a mixture: sporty, powerful and majestic - the car for a King! Paint it red to run in a race, paint it blue to visit Pebble Beach or use a muted two-tone scheme (but roof and box tone on tone) to own a Grand Tourismo (Grand tourer) nobody else has.


1980





1984





[picture source:eag.unicweb.ee/a-sks/OpelAdmirallim_39_neljas_PackardSE1502_37-39.jpg]

Guscha:

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I couldn't agree more!, except perhaps for adding a Twelve under the hood.

One other reason it might look lower is that in fact it is much longer than regular convertibles, with the 138 wheelbase.

Re: Hispano Suiza being Spanish... I guess you are right, though what can one think of a car's nationality when it was founded with spanish capital, swiss engineering, and had factories in Spain and France (though I believe I read that by the 30's production was more important in France than in Spain), but mainly that it was advertised and promoted in French, and with the majority of the bodies (just my guess based on observation) built by French carrosiers, like Saoutchik, Labourdette, Fernandez et Darrin, Franay, etc.? Same thing happens to me with Bugatti... italian owner, french factory...

Back to the Packard, I think Franay did a great job and still used (based on comparisson only and my guess, which could be wrong of course) Packard's grill, complete hood, and front fenders. Compared to Owen-Dynetto's post (great, by the way) of the Chapron car, that appears to be a more 'complex' bodywork, in the sense that it uses very little original Packard body parts (shortened grill and perhaps upper part of the hood, but I can't think of no more, as clearly hood sides and fenders were not Packard).

Thanks again for all the pics!

My last bullet, a photograph taken at a rally 1984. About ten years later the odyssey has ended in the Latvian car museum.





[picture source:eag.unicweb.ee/a-am/PackardSuperEight1502_37-39e_Voru84.jpg]
My thanks goes to my friend Igor from Moscow who sent me the picture links.

For good order's sake we should at least take a quick look at its blue neighbor.
Its rim color gives it a new zest. (It is so-called Fukushima purple.)

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It goes on and on. Another pic, taken in Estonia back in the 80s.



[picture source: www.vanatehnika.ee]

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