I received these photos today from Tim Stuart in Texas, as well as his permission to post them here, along with his comments. Enjoy!
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I've been reading things lately about a possible Richard Arbib custom called the Monte Carlo that has been brought to light. I think I may have seen the car about 1995 at an IRS/Federal Marshall auction in Houston, Texas. There were lots of nice cars there, Italian sports cars, modern luxury cars, and some vintage cars. All vehicles were in one large dimly-lit warehouse. None of the cars were run - you purchased them based on observable-condition only. I was new to the Packard Club back then but I thought this convertible seemed different with the Monte Carlo script on each front fender. It had a plaid Western Auto type interior and needed everything. Somebody in the Houston area bought it for around $7,500 I recall. I took three pictures with a Fotomat cardboard camera of the car and shared them with Haden Vandiver, Jim Hollingsworth, and Mike Franco, the most knowledgeable Packard people I knew. I think Mike may have shared the photos with some others, but I'm not sure. Wish I'd taken more photos, I think my box camera held 24 frames. It was an interesting auction, only about 100 cars, seized from drug dealers and tax scofflaws. Everything was cash money, as-is, where-is. I had hoped to see that car at a Salado meet someday. I thought it was an odd Super Eight with the Monte Carlo script. I thought perhaps someone had transplanted the actual Arbib Monte Carlo script onto a Super Eight. The script appears as though Packard made them. They are of fine quality. But the only Monte Carlo we saw references for at the time was a hardtop. So, we were stumped. But that's why we love playing with Packards. I always thought that this car was odd. But it didn't have any body modifications that you might expect from Arbib. Maybe extra sets of scripts were made, and someone close to the project put them on his Super Eight?
ECAnthony wrote: I received these photos today from Tim Stuart in Texas, as well as his permission to post them here, along with his comments. Enjoy!
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I've been reading things lately about a possible Richard Arbib custom called the Monte Carlo that has been brought to light. I think I may have seen the car about 1995 at an IRS/Federal Marshall auction in Houston, Texas. There were lots of nice cars there, Italian sports cars, modern luxury cars, and some vintage cars. All vehicles were in one large dimly-lit warehouse. None of the cars were run - you purchased them based on observable-condition only. I was new to the Packard Club back then but I thought this convertible seemed different with the Monte Carlo script on each front fender. It had a plaid Western Auto type interior and needed everything. Somebody in the Houston area bought it for around $7,500 I recall. I took three pictures with a Fotomat cardboard camera of the car and shared them with Haden Vandiver, Jim Hollingsworth, and Mike Franco, the most knowledgeable Packard people I knew. I think Mike may have shared the photos with some others, but I'm not sure. Wish I'd taken more photos, I think my box camera held 24 frames. It was an interesting auction, only about 100 cars, seized from drug dealers and tax scofflaws. Everything was cash money, as-is, where-is. I had hoped to see that car at a Salado meet someday. I thought it was an odd Super Eight with the Monte Carlo script. I thought perhaps someone had transplanted the actual Arbib Monte Carlo script onto a Super Eight. The script appears as though Packard made them. They are of fine quality. But the only Monte Carlo we saw references for at the time was a hardtop. So, we were stumped. But that's why we love playing with Packards. I always thought that this car was odd. But it didn't have any body modifications that you might expect from Arbib. Maybe extra sets of scripts were made, and someone close to the project put them on his Super Eight?
Best Regards, Tim Stuart Austin, Texas
Well...! It would seem that Tim might want to catch up on latest developments with this Packard by checking out Geoff Hacker's thread on this very site where the car is being discussed extensively. Geoff owns the car these days and has it in Florida. Geoff is presently looking into the origins of this unusual Packard Monte Carlo convertible.
Leeedy wrote: Well...! It would seem that Tim might want to catch up on latest developments with this Packard by checking out Geoff Hacker's thread on this very site where the car is being discussed extensively. Geoff owns the car these days and has it in Florida. Geoff is presently looking into the origins of this unusual Packard Monte Carlo convertible.
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