When the "Clipper" name was brought back for the 1953 model year, it was originally intended to be peeled off as a separate brand, leaving Packards free to be marketed exclusively as competitors to ultra-luxury market rival Cadillac.
Packard dealers were worried, though, that the loss of the lower priced models from their showrooms would hurt sales, so it remained as the entry-level Packard line. "Entry-level", of course, was relative, since the Clipper was still priced and optioned to compete with upscale-ish nameplates like Buick, Olds, and Chrysler.
Available in regular or Deluxe trim levels, the Clipper sold well.
Both versions were powered by Packard's Thunderbolt engine, a flathead straight eight, with a 289 cid engine in the standard models and the one in the Deluxe displacing 327 cubic inches. Breathing through a 2-bbl Carter carb and featuring a then-racy 8.0:1 compression ratio, the larger Thunderbolt was already a little archaic in 1953, since Oldsmobile was selling their 88 with the overhead valve 303 cubic inch Rocket V-8 and Dodge was offering the Red Ram 241 cube hemi-head V-8 in their Coronet, both of which were priced lower than the Clipper.
The slightly undersquare 327 Thunderbolt was rated at 160 SAE gross horsepower, only twenty more than the much smaller, lighter Dodge Red Ram, with its more modern heads, intake, and oversquare dimensions, while the Olds Rocket put out 165 SAE gross in its 4bbl configuration.
The Dresden Gray 1953 Clipper Deluxe Touring Sedan in the photos wound up being the next-to-last year for the Thunderbolt, with Packard debuting their own OHV V-8 in 1955.
For the 1956 model year, Clipper did become its own brand, before being subsumed along with the rest of Packard into the Studebaker lineup.
The photos in this post were taken with a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens in October of 2023.
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