Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Come to California and see what a cycle was built to do.
I do about 80 on the local freeway and these crazy bikers pass me like a rocket zooming between cars and cutting the auto off. We do lose a lot of them.

My concern about speed is what happens in a crash. Packard didn't do any safety testing. The Packard frame was cited as being prone to decapitation injuries. The Packard stub frame directs the steering column toward the header bar in a high speed impact. While a seatbelt might prevent windshield impact, who knows what happens when the chest is flung forward towards the steering column.

I was talking to a friend last night and was told that someone who treated me very poorly (not an old car person) was recently impailed on the steering column of their car.
It's a wierd feeling.

And the nicely tapered 55-6 Packard senior center steering wheel emblem certainly doesn't help the impalement situation. Nader would have had a field day with Packard. I believe that commonly shaped item was just one of the things he railed against.

gotta say

my 56 400 is smooth at 80,