Jim Rosenthal
Supporter
Any other Packard enthusiasts on this forum? Just curious.
Several months ago I bought a '41 160 coupe in CA- it has spent several months in Michigan getting necessaries seen to, and is supposed to get on the way here in the next week or two. I wondered if there were any other Packard aficionados lurking here.
My mom learned to drive in a Packard (running into the grape arbor in the process, or so family lore has it) That would have been in the late thirties, I think. My buying one is sort of an experiment- I'm curious to see what they were like and what it's like to drive a 1941 car around. Hopefully this will go better than the last experiment, the '57 Cadillac. That was an itch I wish I had not scratched. Perhaps others here have had the same experience.
Interestingly, I found out that the '41 160 coupe was kind of a factory hot rod. By that time, all the V12s were no longer in production. The 160 Packard and the Buick Century were the most powerful cars available for purchase in that year- so if you were shopping and wanted a powerful car, you bought one of those two. I don't know if many European cars were still being built as the war had already begun in Europe. I think Cadillac may still have been building a V16 but that was more of a luxury car than a speedy one.
It's interesting to me that three of the qualities that make a luxury car have not changed over many decades- lots of power, and smooth delivery of it. Also silence. They seem to command a premium just as they did in the twenties through the forties.
Several months ago I bought a '41 160 coupe in CA- it has spent several months in Michigan getting necessaries seen to, and is supposed to get on the way here in the next week or two. I wondered if there were any other Packard aficionados lurking here.
My mom learned to drive in a Packard (running into the grape arbor in the process, or so family lore has it) That would have been in the late thirties, I think. My buying one is sort of an experiment- I'm curious to see what they were like and what it's like to drive a 1941 car around. Hopefully this will go better than the last experiment, the '57 Cadillac. That was an itch I wish I had not scratched. Perhaps others here have had the same experience.
Interestingly, I found out that the '41 160 coupe was kind of a factory hot rod. By that time, all the V12s were no longer in production. The 160 Packard and the Buick Century were the most powerful cars available for purchase in that year- so if you were shopping and wanted a powerful car, you bought one of those two. I don't know if many European cars were still being built as the war had already begun in Europe. I think Cadillac may still have been building a V16 but that was more of a luxury car than a speedy one.
It's interesting to me that three of the qualities that make a luxury car have not changed over many decades- lots of power, and smooth delivery of it. Also silence. They seem to command a premium just as they did in the twenties through the forties.