Text by Patrick Bell.
Packard was a fine luxury car line that was marketed for over 50 years. I have had very little experience with them, as due to the harsh weather and roads where I grew up, they were pretty well gone by the time I gained my independence. But today we have some good images from their last years.
The first shot of the day is an established couple with a sharp ’52 250 convertible from Chase County, Nebraska, where the seat is the town of Imperial. It is located in the south west corner of the state, along the Colorado border. This was the only convertible model offered that year, had a 327 cubic inch L-head straight eight, and its base list price was $3476. Across the street was a ’47 Oldsmobile Series 66 or 68 Special Club Coupe with a visor.
Here we have a stylish lady with her furry friend and a ’52 200 Deluxe Touring Sedan with a visor from Massachusetts. This was a junior series model that had a 288 cubic inch straight eight.
It was picnic time on a warm summer day with a ’53 Deluxe Clipper Touring Sedan, the most popular model of the year. The Deluxe models had the lowest output 327 engine as standard equipment. In the right lower corner is the fin of a ’57 or ’58 Plymouth Plaza. With the photographer there are ten people in the photo, and I have to wonder if they all crammed in these two cars. It would have worked fine as long as they were close friends.
This one is a ’53 Clipper Club Sedan, with the 288 engine, and the least expensive model of the year at $2544. These two young fellers are likely brothers and seem to be enjoying the crisp fall weather.
Now we are at the waterfront on a cold winter day in a ’52 250 Mayfair that was described in the brochure as the “most exciting new sports car of the decade”. It came standard with the 327 engine and had a base list price of $3318.
A ’53 Clipper Touring Sedan from Maury County, Tennessee, where Columbia is the seat. It was towing a 35 foot trailer in 1958 per a photo search, and was at a stopover somewhere in Arkansas. It may have been on auto row as I see a “Mercury Sales” sign on the building to the left and a “Rambler” sign above the trailer.
The ’66 Chrysler New Yorker 4 door hardtop in the background behind the Morris Minor is the newest vehicle I see, which makes the ’53 Deluxe Clipper Club Coupe featured at least 13 years old in this photo. Beyond the Clipper is a ’54 Oldsmobile 4 door sedan, and then two Studebakers; a ’56 wagon, and across the street a ’55 Commander Deluxe Coupe.
Two shots of a ’56 Clipper Super Hardtop from California and perhaps an Aristocrat camp trailer. This one came equipped with the 352 V8 engine. The top image shows the girls dressed up and ready to go somewhere, and the bottom one looks like they were heading out on a camping trip.
Packard’s first V8 debuted in 1955 in a 320 cubic inch plus three versions of a 352 cubic inch. This ’55 Four Hundred was the coupe version of the Patrician sedan, and came with the mid range 352 which had 260 horsepower. It also was missing a wheel cover and fender skirt (perhaps they were in the trunk), and is at least eight years old going by the ’63 Ford Country Squire in the driveway across the street. Parked at the curb is a ’62 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan.
Here is a chihuahua that was jealous of the pelican hood ornament (also known as a cormorant) on this ’51 250 convertible. With that wingspan it was almost bigger than he was. 1951 was the first year of a restyle that served through ’54.
Our final image is one of the final “real” Packards, a ’56 Patrician. It was the top of the line sedan, and had a 374 cubic inch version of the new V8. Packard merged with Studebaker in late 1954 in a deal that was not what the Packard boys thought it would be. So ’56 was the traditional Packard’s last year, and for ’57 and ’58 the name soldiered on as dressed up Studebakers, which became known as “Packardbakers”. The featured car was from California, and looked in very good condition for a twelve year old car per the photo date.
Thanks for joining us and to all good day!
Boy, I wouldn’t want to get impaled on that cormorant if I was a hapless pedestrian and got hit by the Packard.
If one looks at the luxury cars in the 30s and then look at them in the 50s you can see why they didn’t make it. They tried to compete withe the big3 and didn’t have the budgets. In the 30s they were way ahead of the common man’s cars and they gave that up to compete with the big boys. Now we a stuck with bland follow the leader cars, boring!
The 7th picture has an abnormal amount of imports and old cars in one place. The car in front of the Packard looks small, maybe a Crosley? I wonder if some kind of event or gathering was going on.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Beyond the 66 Chrysler and the 65 Impala behind it you have a collection of beaters.
Building on the left, and maybe building on the right, a used car dealer? The row of flags stretched between the poles looks like something a used car dealership would have. There’s a 29 cent ethyl sign, not sure how that figures in.
That makes more sense than an event!
I grew up in 1950s and also have no memories of any Packards being around. Although a cousin who grew up nearby claimed his father had one, but I don’t recall it or even any conversations anybody ever had about Packards. I always thought that maybe if Packard, like Lincoln did, bought the fabulous GM Hydramatic transmissions for its upper level cars, maybe their sales would have kept up better/longer.
Per Wikipedia: GM bought Packard Electric and used their excellent spark plug wires and innovative quick connectors until 1995 when Delphi took that operation over. (Packard spark plug wires resisted soaking up moisture for 25 years, Ford wires about 15 years, at which point they won’t start on heavily rainy days.)
In 1977, a disagreement on minimum auction price caused 50 rust free classic Packards from an estate to be crushed.
Someone tried to start producing a 1999 Packard 12 but couldn’t get the financing together and only a prototype was built:
https://preview.redd.it/jymihkgeq7571.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=1e2d485cb2c278eb064df283fe3b7546802a3926
“I grew up in 1950s and also have no memories of any Packards being around.”
Nights when I can’t sleep (they are many) I go over the extinct brands driven in my neighborhood back then. Two Packards and I rode in both:
A 1949 Super Eight limo (I really dug the power divider window), and a 1953 Clipper, known as “Elizabeth”.
I don’t remember seeing and Packards either, but I wouldn’t remember anything before 1970, and not notice which makes the cars were for a few years later.
My mother told me several times though about a guy she went out with a few times before deciding not to continue seeing him, after which he began stalking her. She’d randomly walk out of her house only to see this creepy dude in his grey Packard (sometimes a beige Packard, she told this to me several times) show up uninvited. My mom rarely paid attention to cars, so I’m guessing it was a ’51 model with the prominent P A C K A R D lettering on the hood. I think the mental association with stalker dude turned my mom off from ever wanting a Packard.
I hadn’t heard the story about Packard Electric and GM. I knew that Packard made electrical equipment before they went into cars. The car company was bought by a capitalist and the Packard brothers went back to their electric firm. It’s always nice to hear a ‘second life’, especially when it includes a bit of delayed revenge!
*Last Days In the Bunker* tells of Packards struggle to survive . Another Fun Fact, James J Nance (head of Packard) told styling director Dick Teague to *DO SOMETHING About those damn BULL BALL taillights * seen on 53 and 54 PACKARDS. In a weekend, he created the famous Cathedral taillights featured on 55 Senior Packards and slightly altered Clippers. Also of note are the Packards REQUEST and PREDICTOR giving a glimpse of what Packards would have been had Packard survived. I never owned a Packard, but do know a lot about them, including *Ask the Man Who Owns One * or Loves them.
Owning an Original 39 2dr Opera Coupe her father owned is the most beautiful thing to enjoy!
Straight 8 power, 3 speed on the tree, first year, Banjo steering Wheel, Deluxe Radio, Deluxe Heater w/defroster, grille guard, Shutter Grille, tem
The green Patrician at the bottom shows how ’56 Packards are best photographed – with the camera height aligned with the horizontal color band and chrome trim, allowing the wider section in the pontoon rear fender to line up with the main body of the car forward of it. The paint and trim on these is clearly designed to obscure that out-of-style design element carried over from the 1951 bodies, but that effect doesn’t work as well if you view the car from a higher vantage point.
I think the ’56 Packards looked as good or better than anything else around that year. Obviously, there were other problems.
A junior high school friend`s father had one. A `56 Clipper Custom hardtop coupe in the same color scheme as the Patrician sedan in this article. Maybe it wasn`t a ‘real’ Packard but it still was a beautiful car nontheless. His dad loved that car and said it was built as good as the B 17 he served in as a crewman in Europe during WW ll.
First pic is “awesome”!
I saw plenty of Packard automobiles growing up in the 1940s and 1950s. They weren’t as common as some other makes; but they were there. My father had a 1939 senior Packard which was like a living room on wheels, with every sort of passenger comfort-accommodation that one might imagine or wish for. He bought it, new; then in late 1950 he treated it in on a 1951 Packard Mayfair 250 convertible, which he never liked (although he kept it until 1958). My mother thought it silly to own a convertible at their ages. I drove the ’51 Mayfair a few times, but I never owned a Packard.
There were at least two Packards in my home town during the 60s, early 70s. The neighbor had one (he was a “get off my lawn” type of guy) and the picture attached which was taken in 1971. If you find yourself close to Warren, Ohio, stop by the National Packard Museum.
https://packardmuseum.org
The two toned Clipper hardtop with trailer looks sharp to me .
I can’t see how the Mayfair had any sporting pretensions at all .
-Nate
Hello; I live in the UK and have never visited the States. Everthing seems exotic;; the cars,,their names even such terms as trunk or fender guard. What? It all makes me feel nostalgic for a time and place I never even knew.