1946 Packard Super Clipper

With an Art Deco building for a backdrop that couldn't be any more apropos, here's a 1946 Packard Super Clipper Club Sedan.

The gorgeous new 1941 Clipper models from Packard were introduced with what might have been the worst-ever timing in automotive history: Eight months before the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor. Civilian automobile production shut down for the duration early in the production run of the '42 model year.

When sales resumed in '46, Packard just basically picked up where they had left off. The two tone Club Sedan in the photos, Vanderbilt Gray Metallic up top and Atlantic Blue Metallic below, is one of these post war cars.

The Club Sedan is a two-door with a capacious rear seat, which is distinguished from the four-door Touring Sedan.

Beneath that sweeping hood with its graceful cormorant hood ornament could be found Packard's Super-8 flathead straight-eight, displacing 365 cubic inches and rated at 165 SAE gross horsepower. It used a Carter two-barrel carburetor and had a 6.85:1 compression ratio, which is quaintly low by modern standards.

Riding on a 127" wheelbase, the six-passenger Club Sedan weighed in at 3,950 pounds and set the customer back $2,241, or just over $36,000 in today's dollars, provided one didn't go crazy with the options, like the overdrive rear end.

This one was photographed in July of 2021 using a Nikon D3 and a 35-70mm f/2.8 AF-D zoom lens.