Passed a Packard yesterday..
 

I passed a Packard sedan yesterday. He was keeping up with highway traffic at about 65MPH, I was going a bit faster. I am thinking it was pre-war, it had a really long hood. Maybe a strait 8, maybe a V-12?

From under the hood I could hear the most delightful cacophony of ticks, buzzes, wheezes, slapping, hissing and pukka-pukka-ing all in a perfect rhythm.. It sounded like mechanical silk.

They sure dont make things like that no more..

Packards were pretty fast machines.....my 38 buick tops out around 65, but you don't want to deal with a car that heavy, with that type of suspension, at those speeds.

Packard also offered a 245 cu in flathead six in the mid/late 30s.

In the teens Packard used 2 Inline 6's in a V to creat the 12 cylinder..they were called the twin 6.....later I think they modified the engine to a V12..

Packard had the exclusive 12 cylinder line then the Straight 8' aka the 120s, and in the late 30's they iintroduced the 110 line of 6's as a poor mans Packard...

Up until WW2 Packard built Chassis for Custom Bodies..

Packards have always been a desirable car..."Ask the Man Who Owns One".. was the companies slogan....that was in response to a request for information from a poential customer back in the early 1900's ...

Today alot of the Custom Bodied stuff is in museums or Big $$$$ collections....but there still is a fair number of desirable cars floating about...if I'm not wrong prices havn't really moved up on this stuff, simply because the generation that coveated them so greatly is is now in the bone orchard or nursing home....The hot number after the Packard gen is the Hot Rods...but that gen is now passing by too....Today the HOT number is the 60's Muscle Cars that the Boomers love....

BTW...If I were to own a Vintage car it would be some kind of Packard from the 30's.....

Also my Daddy as a young lad worked as a Tool and Die Maker for Packard during the late 30's and early 40's....while attending High School and College...during the war he worked on the Rolls Royce Merlin Engine at Packard...he told me about walking through the 2nd floor of the factory where they built all the custom bodied cars...

Daddy also bought a 1940 110 Convertable...which he fondly remembers to this day....he regrets ever having gotten rid of that car...