1939 Packard Twelve Formal Sedan

Packard, like most producers of luxury goods, was hit hard by the Great Depression that started in 1929. They only managed to sell something like 15,000 cars of all models in '33 and '34. As the economy rebounded, however, so did Packard sales and soon enough they were back into the horsepower war with rivals Cadillac and Lincoln.

Packard had introduced the V12-powered Twin Six back in the 'Teens, but renamed it the Packard Twelve for 1933, aiming it right at the Cadillac V-16 and the V12-powered Lincoln K-series. The '33 Packard Twelve boasted a 446 cubic inch flathead V12 rated at 160 SAE gross horsepower.

By 1939, the Packard Twelve's powerplant had swollen to 473 cubic inches. Fed with a single Stromberg carb, it put out 175 horsepower, easily outmuscling the 150-horse 414 cubic inch Lincoln V12 and nearly equaling the mighty 7.1L Cadillac V16's 185 horsepower.

For 1939, the 17th Series Packard Twelves could be had in one of two basic flavors: the 1707 on a 134.4" wheelbase, or the 1708 on a longer 139.4" one. The 1707 could be had in eight different flavors ranging from a convertible coupe to a touring sedan. The one in the photos is one of thirty Model 1707 Formal Sedans built for 1939. 

Weighing 5,745 pounds, as a formal sedan it had seating for five, with three in the back and two up front (separated by a glass divider from the rear), plus a jump seat that folded down from the rear of the front seat for any friends you might run into at the opera who wanted to accompany you to the club afterward.

Price for this coachbuilt beauty at the time would have been $4,865, which comes to something like $110,000 in current-year money. A little bit of internet sleuthing shows that this particular 1939 Packard Twelve Formal Sedan once belonged to American Formula One champ Phil Hill.

It was photographed in June of 2023, using a Nikon D700 and 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G zoom lens.

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.

1952 Packard 200 Deluxe

The 1951 model year saw Packard introduce an all-new "junior" model to complement the "senior" 300 and 400 model lines. Less expensive than the longer and more luxurious senior Packards, the new Packard 200 rode on a shorter 122-inch wheelbase.

Just to let you know that you weren't getting the full luxury experience of a senior Packard, in addition to the shorter wheelbase, you had smaller vertical taillights and no graceful swan hood ornament. You could, however, order all sorts of luxury options on your 200, like carpeting, a heater, a radio, and tinted window glass.

In 1952, Packard added a Deluxe model to the 200 sedan lineup. The one above is a 1952 Packard 200 Deluxe Touring Sedan in Argentine Gray. While it got the extra chrome teeth in the grille and the chrome jet intake doodads on the side that aped the more luxurious senior Packards, the small non-wraparound rear window still let you know you were sitting in the Packard Motor Car Company's cheap seats, almost like a plebeian forced to drive an Oldsmobile or something.

The base 200 Deluxe Touring Sedan started at $2,675 in '52, a bit over $31k in today's dollars, several hundred more than the Olds 88, and going wild with the options list could add up fast. Under the hood was the Thunderbolt flathead straight-eight engine, displacing 288 cubic inches and rated at 135 SAE gross horsepower. For another $45 a buyer could opt for the 327 cubic inch version of the Thunderbolt, which bumped output to 150 horsepower. Coughing up another $189 could get you the Ultramatic transmission, the one that came standard on the Patrician 400.

The 200 only lasted for two model years, 1951-52, before Packard shuffled model designations again and the revived Clipper nameplate was used for the cheaper cars... "cheaper", of course, being relative. Packard meant cheaper like Oldsmobile, not like the Pontiacs and Dodges driven by the rabble across the tracks.

These photos were taken probably a decade or so ago... 2014? 2016? I was standing in the parking lot of a Kroger that is long closed now and I have no idea what the photos were taken with. Just looking at them I'd guess either my first or second smartphones, an LG Optimus V or a Samsung Galaxy SII.

1955 Packard Patrician

The Patrician was the last "Senior Packard", the company's top-of-the-line model, intended to go head to head against Lincolns, Imperials, and Cadillacs on the American market.

For 1955, the Patrician above, with its Agate-over-Topaz Metallic two tone paint job, would have featured Packard's first... and only ...V-8 engine. Displacing 352 cubic inches and topped with a Rochester 4bbl carburetor, the overhead valve V-8 put out 260 SAE gross horsepower in the Patrician.

The Patrician also features a "Twin-Ultramatic" transmission, an improvement on the existing Ultramatic, designed by a young Packard engineer who had been lured away from his job at Chrysler by a $14,000-a-year salary offer. The engineer's name: John DeLorean.

Talk about a different era. You can tell the image the manufacturer wished to project with a vehicle name like "Patrician". Bunches of chrome gingerbread, a two-tone paint job, and sweeping ribbed stainless steel accent panels on the sides. It even says "The Patrician" in script on the fenders behind the front wheel wells.

The photo above was taking in southeastern Colorado in October of 2013 using a Sony Cybershot DSC-W650.

1953 Packard Clipper Deluxe

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.