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Got back from Gettysburg yesterday afternoon. The drive out was trying on both cars and drivers with a traffic delay on I-78 which was closed completely in Allentown, sitting in the sun (95 degrees) on hot pavement moving only 3 miles or so in 2+ hours. Fortunately no overheating or vapor lock in our 3 cars. The drive home was hotter, about 102 around Harrisburg, and then another Interstate closure in I-287 around Oakland New Jersey. Curses to bad drivers!

Driving tours, some of which are mandatory if you want your car judged, were on equally hot days. Tours were (1) the CW battlefield at Monocacy, and then Frederick MD, (2) Antietan, and (3) the CW museum in Harrisburg and the AACA museum in Hershey. Bus tours were around the Gettysburg battlefield and the Eisenhower farm, and also to Harpers Ferry. About 160 Packards on show day. The show venue was a bit different - rather than park in a large lot or field we were were distributed by judging class in different sections of the quite spacious and lovely campus of the Lutheran Seminary (founded in 1826) on Seminary Ridge Rd., just a short drive from the site of Pickett's Charge.

About 160 Packards on display for show/judging day. In addition to the Request there were many very unusual cars, and a good proportion of prewar cars including quite a few from the 20s. With the exception of the loss of a rear wheel which Shireman has noted on a 1940 Darrin sedan, car problems were very limited, one fuel pump failure on a 1954 Pacific (easily fixed on the road) and a few cases of overheating. I believe the oldest car on the driving tours was a 1922 Single Six. One of the most glamorous in my view was a 1st Series Eight (1923-24) custom with body by Fleetwood.

We had several interesting presentations, one on the Henney operations, a technical Q&A by Ross Miller, and a fine talk by Jim Balfour with excellent graphics on the growth and decline of the Packard plant from 1904 thru 1956 with a large format site plan from 1930 distributed to all present. One of the more intersting outcomes of this talk opened the question of who Packard contracted the casting of the V8 engine blocks and other cast parts to (perhaps Studebaker?) as the casting plant and forge was sold prior to the introduction of the V8 cars. I didn't ask if the sale was as an on-going forge/casting plant, or for real estate development but will contact Jim and see if he has any info on that aspect. If so I'll amend this post with that information.

Hi Owen

Thanks for the report and pictures, look like a great time except for the extreme heat. That's what kept me from attending, it just drains me.

If you have more pictures, we'd all love to see them!

Steve

Thanks Steve, the heat drained me as well. For the drive home I actually snitched a hand towel from the hotel, dipped it in my icewater I had in the car, and layed it on my head during the drive home to keep my head cool. Must have made quite a site for passing cars.

My thanks to those others who also posted pictures here, and just to let you know that I've posted about 30 or more others over on the PAC Forum under "Shows, Events & Judging" and then under the thread on Gettysburg. Hope you enjoy them. If you're thusly inclined, go to www.packardclub.org, and then to the Forum. Hopefully they convey what wonderful events the Packard Nationals are and that they encourage some of you who weren't there to participate in the future.

Happy Packarding!!

WOW! Wotta show - wotta show! I am only going to post a couple of pics for right now as I have a time constraint.
But first, a large THANK YOU to Dave Czirr, Ole Book and John Harley and their friends for taking me under their wing and assisting me in choices for events, dining and just enjoying the PAC National. It was really a marvelous weekend for the old curmudgeon from Irwin. I met a lot of folks and was finally able to put a face to a name. Although the heat was stifling, I kept reminding myself of February and tried not to complain.

And now some pics. That is the Request flanked by Best Other and a 56 Patrician in the same Eire green and Dover White. I could have paid money and not gotten a better parking space!
You will see more photos of the Request, but none that mean more to me. The two gentlemen standing in front of Best Other are Dick and Mark Allison, the sons of William Allison. It was a pleasure and an honor to meet them.
Note the genuine carnation and Amethyst Pacific - a rare automobile. Last, but certainly not least, the body by Fleetwood magnificent early Packard. Pictures cannot do this automobile justice.

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Thanks Randy, Dave C. and others who posted photos and comments of the PAC Meet. It is great to see and read them all.

Thanks to those who reported and posted pictures. Hopefully we can attend next year. MAYBE the 120B convertible will be done by then.

Info. on the 2011 and 2012 PAC National Meets will be posted on packardclub.org shortly. Updates on the 2011 event were just received last week at the 45th PAC National Meet in Gettysburg, as approval was given for the 2012 event in Williamsburg, VA, in late Sept., hosted by Packards Virginia.

To you, perhaps. But not to the 600 people who went to Gettysburg. What is the purpose of your comment?

Dwight: Your remarks in post 42 in this thread who are they directed at or I am missing something.

John S.