Packards

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.
 

Larry L.

Lifetime Supporter
Any other Packard enthusiasts on this forum?

I know of one! Me! Both those and Duesenbergs!

...By that time (1941), all the V12s were no longer in production.

Wasn't Lincoln still building flathead V12s into the '42 model year? I seem to recall they were making 2 of them...a 290-something cube and a 300-something...for the Zyph and Cont respectively? One of 'em made about 160 h.p.?

...I think Cadillac may still have been building a V16 but that was more of a luxury car than a speedy one.

I'd have to look it up ('too lazy right now), but I think Caddy V16s "bought the farm" after '37. :shrug:
 

Jim Rosenthal

Supporter
By all means move it.

Larry, I thought Cadillac built their second V16 into the forties? I'm going to have to look it up. I don't know much about Cadillacs- one was enough for me...

The information about the fastest factory cars in 1941 came from Ross Miller, a local fellow who works on a lot of Packards in the Baltimore area. He knows that I have other faster cars and he (I guess) thought it was interesting that I unknowingly bought what I would have probably bought in 1941, had I been around then and driving. And in my current line of work :)
 

Larry L.

Lifetime Supporter
By all means move it.

Larry, I thought Cadillac built their second V16 into the forties?

'Could be, Doc. Like I said, I'd have to look it up too!


I don't know much about Cadillacs- one was enough for me...

LIKEWISE. ('Bought wifey a '95 Eldo in the fall of that year. 'Beautiful car...'a real head turner....but, mechanically & maint-wise it was wallet-sucking pain in the butt. The "Northstar" innit was an oil weeping/leaking joke...especially in the 'pan-to-block' seal department. 'No conventional gas-gut!!! 'Used what looked like a "silicone railroad track" made up of 2, qtr inch, parallel beads of silicone-like sealer that went around the lip of the pan. 'Worked as well as it SOUNDS like it would work - NOT WORTH A DARN. :evil:) ('Had to replace the ABS computer AND its 'valve system at about 30K miles...along with the water pump and some other thing...to the tune of $4,900...on ME...the time had run out on the warranty.) (NEVER AGAIN.)
 
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I had the foolish thought of putting a 1950 series 62 caddy body over a corvette driveline. Foolish, I know.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. Al, 1917 or 1955 for the SBC
 

Jim Rosenthal

Supporter
Al, Packard was built by Packard. They were a standalone company, which is one of the reasons they didn't survive long after WWII, although plenty of mistakes were made that hastened their corporate demise. I don't think Packard ever built a car that wasn't called a Packard- the closest would have been the Clipper, which was initially called the Packard Clipper, but at one point was just called the Clipper, in the early fifties, before it all ended sadly for Packard.

LaSalle was a lower priced car brought out to fill a hole in the GM model line- they were built by Cadillac and I think shared some parts with them. They didn't last too long.

The small-block Chevy V8 debuted in 1955- but I think there may have been a much earlier flathead V8 built by Chevrolet in the teens or twenties. I have a dim memory of reading something about one years ago in a car magazine. Am I right?

It sounds strange now, but for many years in the teens, twenties, thirties and forties, the prestige car to own in the USA was a Packard- not a Cadillac or Lincoln. They also sold well overseas- many foreign heads of state and governments owned Packards. Although Cadillac was almost as old a marque as Packard, they were not the luxury car leader early on that they became after WWII. They were a bit of an upstart- but they had enough GM money and management behind them to outlast Packard, and they did.
 

Larry L.

Lifetime Supporter
The small-block Chevy V8 debuted in 1955- but I think there may have been a much earlier flathead V8 built by Chevrolet in the teens or twenties.

I think Chevrolet built what I believe was an overhead valve V8 back in 1915-16-17 or there abouts...'something like 288-290(?) cubic inches(?) and a whopping 50 horsepower or so. But, again, I'd need to look that up as well...:sick:
 
Wasn't Lincoln still building flathead V12s into the '42 model year? I seem to recall they were making 2 of them...a 290-something cube and a 300-something...for the Zyph and Cont respectively? One of 'em made about 160 h.p.?

I know this is about Packards but can't help talking about one of my favourite subjects Brough Superiors.
George Brough built one car in 1938, using a Lincoln Zephyr V12 engine of 4387cc 110bhp

A nice picture of it is in Mayfair magazine Vol 21 No 7 page 62
 

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Rick Muck- Mark IV

GT40s Sponsor
Supporter
Al, Packard was built by Packard. They were a standalone company, which is one of the reasons they didn't survive long after WWII, although plenty of mistakes were made that hastened their corporate demise. I don't think Packard ever built a car that wasn't called a Packard- the closest would have been the Clipper, which was initially called the Packard Clipper, but at one point was just called the Clipper, in the early fifties, before it all ended sadly for Packard.

LaSalle was a lower priced car brought out to fill a hole in the GM model line- they were built by Cadillac and I think shared some parts with them. They didn't last too long.

The small-block Chevy V8 debuted in 1955- but I think there may have been a much earlier flathead V8 built by Chevrolet in the teens or twenties. I have a dim memory of reading something about one years ago in a car magazine. Am I right?

It sounds strange now, but for many years in the teens, twenties, thirties and forties, the prestige car to own in the USA was a Packard- not a Cadillac or Lincoln. They also sold well overseas- many foreign heads of state and governments owned Packards. Although Cadillac was almost as old a marque as Packard, they were not the luxury car leader early on that they became after WWII. They were a bit of an upstart- but they had enoh Rollugh GM money and management behind them to outlast Packard, and they did.

For extra points what was the name of "Cadillac" before it became "Cadillac?" And what connection did Packard have with Rolls-Royce?
 

Brian Stewart
Supporter
Hi Jim,

Packards have quite a strong following here in NZ with many much loved examples around. Locally we have a lawyer named Tony Devereaux who owns a number. Below is his '28 with his '27 in the background. I believe he owns some more modern ones (30s and 40s models) as well.
 

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Jim Rosenthal

Supporter
VERY pretty. I hope mine looks that good when we are done cleaning her up.

I'll have to look up who Cadillac was before they were Cadillac. The Packard-RR connection is that Packard redrew and retooled the RR Merlin airplane engine, and then built fifty thousand of them during the second World War. The popular wisdom is that the Packard built Merlin was a better engine than the RR built one. And easier to work on, because it was not hand fitted on the production line.
 
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