
The coupe version of the car I would own after 20+ years of dreaming. 1955 Packard image from Old Car Brochures.
What 30 something dreams of owning a 61 year old luxury sedan from a marque that most people have no idea even existed? This one.
A Dream
I first became aware of Packard as a child. My father had taken me to a car show and that’s when I saw it. The rear end of a 1958 Packard backing up right at my face. It was grey and seemed like it had fins pointing every which way – all capped by those glorious, slipper tail-lamps. It all felt so menacing and fantastical.
My father only let me pause a moment. I was dumbstruck.

Imagine seeing this coming towards you, right at eye level. Image from Daniel Schmidt Co.
I read everything I could about Packard, quickly learning the last “real” Packards rolled off the line in 1956. The more I read about these final Packards the more I was hooked. I love a good last, best effort story – it’s always where things get interesting. I had to have one of those last “real” Packards.
By 1955 Packard was on the skids, so much ink has been spilled on that topic I won’t rehash. But to summarize: Packard pulled out all the stops at the last possible moment, delivering a new and innovative self-leveling torsion bar suspension, the first automatic transmission with a lockup torque converter (ok, an evolution of the 1949 Ultramatic), and the industry’s largest, most powerful V8. If all of that wasn’t enough to make you drool, what they were able to do to a body shell introduced in 1951 for the 1955 model year was astounding. I had to have one and in 2016 the time had come.

The greenhouse is an obvious carryover, even with the wrap around windshield, but Richard Teague’s efforts to hide a 1951 body in 1955 are – to my eye – masterful. Top picture Macs Motor City Garage. Bottom, my own.
To Reality
By the holiday season of 2016, we were preparing to get the details of an impending relocation to Belgium. This was a dream come true for me, being asked to take on an international assignment and possibly get EU citizenship in the process. It all came crashing down when the details were presented to us and the numbers just didn’t add up. I was presented with a bum deal and no manner of financial acrobatics would make it work.
I saw an opportunity. One evening, after crying, my husband asked if there was anything he could do, I looked up and said:
“Can I have a Packard?”
This was a common question in our relationship, but mostly as a joke as I always knew the answer was (rightfully) no. I was shocked when he said, “Absolutely, you’ve earned it.”
I found my car at the shop of a well known person in the Packard community – it was part of their personal collection. I won’t mention their name because you know what they say about meeting your heroes? Well, it’s true.
This 1955 Packard Patrician was solid black, in a year where solids were definitely out, and was last registered in 1972. It hadn’t been run in years, and the paint was starting to show wear – but the provenance seemed like a sign – this was it. We made a deal. The car would be put in running/driving condition, and be delivered the following month.

He stuck out so much we had to have bump-outs cut into the back of the garage for the dagmars. We dubbed the car Mr. Price because it was black & white & campy.
False Awakening
Upon delivery there were still some serious running issues and a ticking lifter. The seller-who-shall-not-be-named said “Oh you’ll get used to it, just drive it and enjoy it, there’s nothing wrong.” My local guy found the fuel system choked up with sediment, old fluids and all the rubber shot. His theory on the ticking lifter was that the car sat so long it was stuck and should free itself up with some driving. So I drove it.
Waking up early in the morning, crossing over the old Lincoln Highway Bridge into PA and driving along the Delaware felt like living in a different world. It was just me, the cyclists and the early morning mist. I loved the burble of the V8, the floating of the torsion springs and the gentle “push” when the transmission locked up in direct drive. Oh I was in heaven, and the lifter tick became intermittent after I had an improved oil pump installed.

My own picture after one of my early morning drives. I can still smell the unburnt fuel.
On one outing my husband and I were so engrossed in a conversation that we nearly missed a deer that jumped out in front of us. As I slammed on the Easamatic power brakes I quickly did the permutations of what this was going to cost me. But the Packard didn’t dive and obliterate the animal. Instead it squatted and halted. We were both dumbstruck with how stable it stayed. One of the benefits of that torsion bar suspension. I couldn’t stop grinning.

Image from PackardInfo.com
Arise
A year later we were plucked from NJ by a company out in Utah. The Packard went to a specialist to give the transmission a once over.
After many months it joined us, however, during the time with the specialist it was stored outside. The paint went from patina to failing and surface rust. After 60+ years that paint didn’t owe anything to anyone. My husband urged me to wait before I did anything and to enjoy the car. So I drove it.

A few last photos before I dropped him off to be completely stripped and repainted. It was worse than it looks.
We drove up and down long, 2 lane farm roads into the vast emptiness that is Utah. Bugs covered the car and the lifter tick got worse. But I didn’t have time to worry about that. I was traveling 3 weeks out of the month, internationally, and we were in the middle of adopting our son. My attention was elsewhere.

This was a great cruising road even if Utah was the kind of place that made me grateful for wherever we ended up afterward.
I went for one last, long joyride when I decided to finally have the car repainted. I headed for the highway, alone. The Packard flew, building the speed like a locomotive. I watched the speedometer climb – 50 – 70 – 90, and it wanted to keep going. Now, the lifter tick was like a mini jackhammer.
My travel schedule meant I didn’t have time to rebuild the engine myself and I couldn’t find anyone willing to take it on. More than one shop tried to convince me to drop a crate engine in –sacrilege. The engine would have to wait.

I couldn’t get over how smooth they made him, probably smoother than factory actually was.
The Wasatch Front was ideal for the Packard’s new paint and gold emblems. But that tick was now a constant tapping, something out of a Poe story.
It may as well have been a bomb. By the start of the New Year, my position was eliminated.
Honestly it was a relief.
I had time on my hands, COVID19 shut down everything, so I decided to bite the bullet.

My god did he shine.
Falling Back Asleep
I didn’t have the capability to safely remove the engine and rebuild it. Deciding to scale back my ambitions I chose to replace the lifters and pushrods. The shop manual showed a rather straightforward procedure, so I went in.
All day & late into the night, it was me, a space heater and an amount of blue language that I don’t think had ever been heard in all of Utah County. Our teenage son even helped, a moment that made my heart sing – this was the moment I wanted with my own father and here I was having it with my son. It was awesome. Eventually I sent him back inside to go to bed.
At 10pm the moment came. It was all back together. And I fired it up…my husband and son came running down to the garage because they could hear the car and me screaming and shouting. The Packard never sounded so good.

A lineup of the lifters that came out of the engine, the engine stuffed with shop towels, printouts of the shop manual as our map and all of the parts.
It lasted a week, and the tick came back. I was sullen. Suddenly I got another job, clear across the country in PA. I had to be there immediately, they were making disinfecting products and we were in the middle of a pandemic. On top of that, we had to make sure our son finished school in Utah and be settled across the country in time for him to start school there. Time was of the essence.
Dream Displacement
“I’m selling the Packard.”
My husband and my son were agog. It was time. My priorities shifted, I had to be realistic and focus my efforts on doing what was best for my family. Dragging a money sucking toy across the country, mid pandemic, and trying to find a house that would fit it seemed like the wrong thing to do. It didn’t help that I had soured on the car so much I didn’t even want to look at it.
I connected with Parker’s Packards out in Massachusetts – a wonderful fella, truly. His client was looking for a 1955 Packard sedan -in Dubai. So he was sold. By now I was across the country and my husband was closing things in Utah. He sent me a video of the Packard being flat bedded away to the carrier. My heart hurt for a little bit, that is until the shop in MA told me the car arrived and when they opened the trailer the entire exhaust system had let loose and collapsed on the floor. That’s when I thought it had to be a sign so I said “So f’ing long!”
There’s another Packard in my future, in another dream.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1955 Packard Patrician – Proceed To The Lifeboats
I have the same feeling for these Packards. (Packard – what a classy, expensive-sounding name!) “This is it. One last push, boys, and we’re saved. This is your hour, honor or death, do or die”. Onward – and then, the guns are silent. But the legacy is what’s remembered above everything else that they did.
Of course, these aren’t the most magnificent things that that company ever made – 1942 Clipper, please – but they do represent a magnificent defiance in the face of probable doom. Go quietly? No way!
I can’t help but think that the original front screen would’ve looked better than the then-fashionable wrap-around, but the whole is still heavily lovely.
I completely understand you not even being able to look at the car after The Big Fix. I think plenty of CCers have been there and done that after spending much time confident we’ve nailed a problem, only to be nailed ourselves.
A very nice post. Btw, I presume the electric whizzbangery was working on your car’s torsion system?
The torsion level did work, surprisingly. Had I had it longer I wanted to replace all the bushings in the system.
Interesting story, T.!
First, to your first line, I’ll add “This one too.” I spent much of my 20s working at my large state university, and one of the perks was being able to spend nearly every day’s lunch break deep in the stacks of the 20+ floor research library. There I developed a passion for 1950s lifestyle magazines (such as House Beautiful) and their celebration of mid-century life. And there I fell in love with car ads of the time, and ultimately decided that I needed one of those beautiful high end 50s cars. It was the Packard Caribbean that really caught my eye. Especially one with the 3-tone paint. That black and orange accent strip was amazing. And sure, why couldn’t a nearly 30-something person dream of acquiring 1 of 276 cars (I wanted a 1956 convertible) produced? The fact that I was driving a VW Rabbit diesel at the time only helped fuel the fantasy.
Ultimately, I turned that interest into a graduate degree in 20th century American History…also courtesy of the large state university and its free tuition for employees.
Second, I’ll give you kudos for apparently driving your Packard as a daily? In 2020? That’s dedication. I’d love to read more about the day to day work of driving a 65 year old car on modern roads and traffic.
Third, I think that there’s a subtext to your story that has to do with the Pandemic and the kinds of choices – in this case mostly related to work and living situations – people made…and in a way that we’re still living with as a society/culture. That’s probably a whole other discussion but I’ll just say that the last half-decade has made a big difference to the stability of many people’s lives and the rapidity of how people have had to make decisions related to work and location.Sometimes for the better, sometimes not (and surely for some not at all). I think that younger generations than mine (i.e., yours) have been particularly affected.
Interesting times, and I look forward to reading about what comes next.
I spent way too many hours in my own university library paging through back issues of LIFE magazine from the 1940s through the 1960s. The ads were as good as the feature articles.
I probably have enough to tell about driving the Packard on modern roads and traffic for another article. The long and the short of it; you get really good at anticipating what someone else is going to do, 5 cars ahead of you lol
Definitely right on with the subtext about what we had to do when the pandemic hit, and frankly, I feel like we’re still dealing with.
I first learned of Packards from the amazing collection of old National Geographic magazines my middle-school library had, going back to the 1920s. Nat Geo conveniently placed all of the advertisements at the front of the magazine, and I often found reading the old ads more entertaining than the actual magazine articles (although they were sometimes interesting to me too). Nearly every issue from the ’20s or ’30s had a Packard ad in it – making the car out to be part of a successful lifestyle as well as a reliable and luxurious car (but did so in a way that managed not to look annoyingly snobby). Later ads from the ’30s made a good case for buying an expensive car during an economic depression, noting its reliability and high resale value would prove buying one was still a sensible choice. And of course there was the memorable tagline: “Ask the Man That Owns One”.
There were adverts for numerous other long-gone car brands too, but the Packard ads were the standouts. So whatever happened to this obviously-once-successful company, I thought? Looking at 1950s National Geographics partially answered that question – postwar Packard advertising was undisinctive and didn’t convey elegance and luxury anymore. By the mid-’50s the “ask the man…” tagline was gone, and the cars were made by a new entity: Studebaker-Packard Corporation. Unlike Packard, I had heard of Studebaker as a 13 year old (there were still a few Studes in the neighborhood) and knew things didn’t work out for them, though I didn’t learn the full story until decades later.
This story really resonates with me, because the 55-56 Packard was a car I have always loved. There was a time earlier in life when I would have loved to own one as a daily driver. But your story splashes my face with cold water – DDing a car like this is an expensive and time-consuming proposition. I want to tell myself that I would have kept it and fixed the engine had I been in your place, but I would probably have sold it just like you did. But what a great story!
Stories & experiences are really the only things we keep in life, and I’m glad I have this one. And I know there’ll be another classic in my future, eventually.
Thanks to you, we’re in a position to ask the man who used to own one!
For the record, *Last Days In The Bunker* gives a great account of Packards efforts to survive and thrive. Also, the beautiful and classic Cathedral taillights were created by Dick Teague in a weekend after James J Nance ( head of Packard) told him to DO something about those damn BULL BALL taillights on pre 55 Packards. As to Caribbean and Patrician, an effort to emphasize aspirational names referring to Elegance and Luxury. Oh how the world has changed to bloated SUVS, crossovers and melted jelly beans badged with letters and numbers.
Fantastic story! You obviously have the common sense to know when to cut and run, a skill I’d love to acquire. I’m sure some lucky buyer in Dubai is thrilled with their treasure.
What a great story! How many people have driven a 1955 Packard from New Jersey to Utah in the 21st century? And it didn’t break down.
Bless you for ignoring the crate engine guys. To me, modern drivetrains miss the point of owning an old car. Restomods are their own thing, but they’re not my thing. You either get it or you don’t.
Curious about the identity of the Packard legend who sold it to you, but no doubt its best to remain in ignorance.
I try to keep any person or place I’ve had a negative interaction with relatively anonymous. Both for kindness sake (my experience is a sample size of 1) and the desire to remain free of litigation.
I believe I saw that gray ’58 at a car show in Florham Park NJ in 1999 (see pic). It is an amazing thing to see, both still and in motion.
Since you’re from NJ, I can tell you that I used to see a pale pink ’58 Packard parked on Rt. 10 in Denville near Powder Mill. Passed it every day on my way to County College of Morris. It was pretty weathered but all there. This was mid-1980s.
I got to briefly test drive a ’55 Packard 400 about 30 years ago. I remember the Torsion-Level Ride was very steady and smooth. If a 55-56 Packard shows up for sale locally, I’d be tempted. A nice-looking tan ’56 400 was recently listed on Craigslist in Easton PA for $12,000 but I didn’t go look.
It certainly looks like the same one, and very much the same angle in which I saw it. The show I referenced would have been about 6-7 years earlier in Clinton.
I wonder why no one’s ever made a computer-controlled modern version of the Torsion-Level suspension. I assume the patents expired decades ago.
Because modern air suspensions offer all that and much more. Active air suspensions are quite common now. And brands that use/used air suspension on their models include: Audi, Acura, Bentley, BMW, Cadillac, Citroën, Ford, Genesis, Hummer, Hyundai, Jaguar, Jeep, Land Rover, Lamborghini, Lexus, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes–Maybach, Porsche, Ram, Rivian, Rolls-Royce, SsanYong, Subaru, Tesla, Volkswagen, Volvo, and more.
My perceptions of air suspension have been based on stories I’ve heard about trouble air suspensions. COALs by Joseph of Eldorado (Cadillac) and Kyree Rollerson (Jaguar) come to mind.
Congratulations on having had this very rare experience in modern times.
The Packard V8 had great promise but arrived with numerous issues and wasn’t around long enough to have them all resolved. Too bad.
It’s a shame, it all but obliterated their claim to be “master motor builders” – that engine had so much potential. I always thought Studebaker was so foolish to not continue for their purposes.
With the refusal of insurance companies to provide financing for Studebaker-Packard in early 1956, the company was facing bankruptcy by that spring.
The Packard V-8 was not a great fit for Studebakers, and it needed additional development work to eliminate the bugs. The Studebaker V-8 was good enough.
As part of the rescue plan that involved Curtiss-Wright, production of all passenger cars was centered in Studebaker’s South Bend plant. The South Bend plant’s assembly lines could not accommodate the large Packards. Under those conditions, there wasn’t a need for the Packard V-8.
At some point when Packard was circling the drain, the facility that built the Packard V8 was sold, and that was that, as far as the V8 was concerned. AUWM’s history of that era of Packard has more detail.
Sold are wedding Packard recently, a 1942 Packard 148 inch wheel base Limo. It just need to much TLC. I did love that car, those it had been driven since 1992 or 1993, best I can recall
Great story. About 1966 I was driving with my mother (I had my learners permit). We were at a stop sign – I had looked right and then left and was about to pull out, not sure if my mother said something or perhaps gasped, I luckily hadn’t taken my foot off the brake. Approaching rapidly up the hill on the right was a black and white Packard very similar to the one in the ad at the beginning of your article. I have to say, to this day when I check twice at an intersection it is always that Packard I see!
I loved your story, although it didn’t end with you and the Packard driving together happily ever after.
I was a car nut from way, way back. For decades I’ve wanted one of the 55-6 era Packards. Heck, we even named our first dog Packard Patrician in 1982 (to be followed by Bentley Continental, Nash Metropolitan, and Tucker Torpedo). Alas, when finally could afford a classic car we lived in DC with only on-street parking and no garage. When we retired to Seattle our new home had a two-car garage, but it’s filled up with my car and my husband’s. No place for a Packard, unless he puts HIS car out on the street. Which ain’t gonna happen.
Earlier this week a house down the block from us came on the market. We went to the open house, and discovered a HUGE indoor space with tiled floors. The realtor said the original owner was a local Subaru dealer and he used the space to house his classic cars. My husband said to me “Steve, if we buy this house you can finally get a Packard!” Alas, the asking price was $6.25 million, and we don’t have that kinda dough. So my dream of being stuck in Seattle traffic while sitting in torsion-level comfort while the 352/374 V8 burbles away will remain just a dream. Unless one of us wins the lottery!
It’s always been my dream to live somewhere with a huge indoor space where I could park cars and live among them. When much younger, I used to imagine finding an ex-car dealership that could somehow be converted into a residence…while keeping much of the showroom floor for its original purposes. One of the reasons why I love the old car dealership photos that Rich keeps us well supplied with here on CC.
It figures that something similar would realistically cost 6 million bucks in the real world. Bummer.
Loved the car but was ambivalent over the story and agonized for some time in how to respond. All of us here are car people but there are different categories of car people. There are those who are stylists if you will and analyze such traits. That isn’t me. Either I like what I see or I don’t. I don’t drill down to pick the concepts I don’t like.
I am in the machinery category you could say. I want the car to perform well and will make it so. Had I acquired such a car I would have gone over every system in the car in the first months to prioritize what needed to be done. That is me with any machine be it a aircraft carrier, a torpedo bomber, a car, a camera, or a sawzall I restored last night for a friend. Once mechanically situated then time to make the car very presentable.
Granted my life has been stable as a rock since I am self employed in the same location for 43 years. That is a big advantage. Nonetheless, I do have a car that my wife has told me several times to get rid of. Hasn’t run since 2016 but wasn’t needed so back in the queue and never seen on CC. She has a point but she is dealing with me and I don’t see it that way. I have slowly acquired everything right down to a new block to simply swap one engine out for the other this year after the 410 engine is finished.
So a cool car but with a sad ending in my eyes.
Lovely article, I really enjoy hearing about people’s experiences with their unusual cars throughout their lives, and what they are like to live with and drive.
Although from and live in Britain, and mostly prefer European cars, I am well aware of Packards, I bought the Brooklands series Book Packard Gold Portfolio 1946 to 1958 and Packard cars 192-1942 decades ago, in one of them there was a map of the UK with Packard dealerships (probably 1930s) in it and to my surprise there was one in my home town, though I have never been able to find any information about it or even where exactly it was located.
I believe that it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. That’s kind of the story with old cars. First, you love the idea of an old car, then you acquire it, and eventually the reality of old car ownership makes itself rudely apparent. It’s not the car’s fault, it’s just a machine, a collection of parts. Every one of those parts was designed, engineered, and built with a specific service life in mind. Some have short lives, like tune up and regular maintenance items; consumables. Others have much longer lives, like chassis and drive train parts. But they are all headed in the same direction; entrophy, they are all going to wear out eventually. Some things will wear out with use, others will deteriorate just with the passage of time, like rubber hoses, seals, and bushings. Anyone who has ever had to keep a couple of old beaters running, just to be able to get to work, is familiar with the drill. It’s a constant matter of playing catch up and dealing with problems as they occur, followed by frenzied sessions of wrenching.
A car that has been treated to a complete restoration should have had every system and part returned to a “like new” state at the same time. That car should be as good as new. However few cars get that treatment, most are just refurbished and cosmetically restored.
Commercial trucks and airplanes are examples of vehicles that see constant usage and constant inspection, maintenance, and repairs. That provides reliability.
Cars that have been sitting for years are the worst. Sometimes inside storage will preserve the body, but the lack of use means more deterioration of the car’s systems. If no one has been using and driving the car, nobody has been maintaining it either. The best old cars are the ones that have been in constant continual use while receiving proper maintenance during that time. Those kinds of cars are pretty hard to find.
Most people will acquire an old car that they love, get it up and running, deal with deferred maintenance and breakdowns, fix what they can to keep the car on the road, then pass it along to a new owner when they run out of patience, time, and money. Just think, the new owner of the Packard got a car that was refreshed and tuned, had new lifters and push rods, a rebuilt transmission and even a new paint job! They will redo the exhaust system and do some more repairs as needed, and the car keeps getting better and better. You had the opportunity to own and experience the car for a time, hopefully that should provide some satisfaction.
By the way, I think that those are the most impressive post war Packard models.
Check out youtube video 56 Packard in motion
This was a really great read. I wish my story was as cool (search “my classic car 1964 comet” and the few-sentence totality is on classic cars journal). I can’t imagine being enamored by one vehicle for a lifetime, owning it, putting sweat and blood into it, and then having to part ways with it. I don’t know much about the Packard, but as mentioned, the make/model seem a minute detail in this story.
I do agree with Clarkson that cars are living entities, but most of us (as well as most online publications) focus solely on the machine itself, and not the story surrounding it. While I love seeing a classic car in a driveway, when I walk by and the owner says “do you want to hear how I wound up with this car?”, my response will always be to pull up a chair and reply with “absolutely!”
Thanks for your story. Inspires me to write my own 1953 Packard Story someday. That one is still in progress but shares some of the same elements. Good luck on your next one. Jack Vones (see Packardinfo.com) apparently has rhe best fix for the lifter issues with an Oldsmobile-derived oil pump and other changes, but there are only a few of those left last I read.
Jack Vines (typo)
The love one says they have now for something that wasn’t loved then. GM had all the glory.
Great Story
Was lucky enough to find a nice tan and brown 55 Patrician out of Hollywood in the late 90’s with the famous “Dealer to the stars” Earl C. Anthony licence plate frames. . Car was in good running and driving condition with about 80k except for needing some brake work. Car had rear only torsion as you could get front and rear. We had one in the family in the late 60’s and drove it on the freeway 60 miles and raced a 65 Riv at over 115. A shame Gm was allowed to be so big they put so many companies out of business. Just to give you a comparison. In 1955 it Amc $1100 to build a Rambler, but only $450 for Gm to build a 55 Chevy. It’s amazing anyone else survived including Chrysler who Gm arranged for steel to be sold to them from the blast in Hiroshima with the carbon burned out of it so it rusted immediately and in 58 arranged for the UAW to strike Chrysler Only brand loyalty saved them and Ford and lark and rambler for a few years. I sold my Packard a couple years later with the appreciation of having owned one of the last.
Hi T, I love this story. Similar…I’ve always wanted one….I think because a Packard was THE car to have up until probably sometime in the 1940’s. My grandpa would always mention that was THE aspirational car for people to have when he was growing up. At the ripe age of 36 (last year), I decided it was time. I landed on the model that people…didn’t like so much…a 1949 Super 8. I bought it off an old timer in Indiana. It hadn’t been run in 5 years, but he did all of the daily driver stuff then he said. It was also on four very flat bias tires when I got there. The car was what I expected…but as I’d never bought a 70+ year old car before I sort of expected to hear it run. So I asked if he minded if I went out to get a battery.
Some gasoline and a battery and it fired right up. I came back two weeks later with a buddy and towed it home.
Great car, great community. Hope you get another!! We need more younger people into them!