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Arrived in Auckland NZ early this afternoon in advance of the Top of the South Tour beginning next week on the 26th. On the way to the Tour I'm catching part of the Napier Art Deco Festival in the North island as a precursor to the Tour in the South island. Today I visited the Museum of Transport and Technology where there is the '47 Clipper Hearse I had previously mentioned in a post. Tomorrow I pick up Wade and Gina and then head off to Napier, visiting the Classics Museum in Hamilton on the way. There are a couple of Packards in residence there.

Please forgive the quality of the pic's posted. These are the best I could do with my point and press digital camera, even using the flash, because of the lack of light. Once I get all the photos uploaded I'll post a link to the album they are in.

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Mal, sounds like a great trip. The Clipper hearse looked interesting, hope you don't mind that I reworked the first photo a bit for a better view.

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O_D, be my guest. My skills in that regard are very limited!

Mal has all the fun. Please keep the photos and accounts of your tour coming. Please give Wade our best, we miss him.

The Clipper hearse reminds me how easy it would have been to have had a station wagon model. Wonder what a difference a wagon model line and a convertible would have made in the immediate post-war years. Packard could have kept the Clippers going through 1948 and then a Contour styled car in 1949 for the 50th anniversary with an OHV V-8 a couple of years later - a Mayfair V-8. Oh well...

(o{}o)

Haven't been able to get many pic's uploaded yet, that'll have to wait until I return from the Tour. But, in the meantime, here's a few pic's from along the way.

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I really like the 1918 12, and the 34 roadster is very nice as well.

On one of the days before I arrived at the start of the Tour I expected it to be Packard free. And it was, except I saw about 25 Bugattis! First one going the other way, then small groups, then about a dozen stopped and finally a few stragglers. A few pic's from where they were stopped, where I helped push start 2 of them!

Link to a Facebook page of the Bugatti Rally

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I find the '18 by Fleetwood especially interesting. Though we may associate the name of Fleetwood mostly with Cadillac, until 1925 when the were bought by the Fisher Brothers their principal customer was Packard.

Mal, any notations on that car as to prior ownership? It look very similar if not identical to the one bought by Phil Hill's aunt and pictured in Pfau's "The Coachbuilt Packard". One difference I see is the absence of the Westinghouse air shock/shackles at the rear. How many like that could there have been?

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Dave,

I don't know if it's the same car as the one you referenced, but here's another pic from the Museum in Wanaka. But, the owner is on the Tour in another of his Packards and he told me last night they'd taken it on a rally a few weeks ago to Dunedin, a round trip of over 300 miles from Wanaka. I'll also try to remember to ask him about the history of the car today.

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Great pictures - thank you Mal!