Packard at the Peak: Ask the Man Who Owns One

James Ward Packard, founder of the Packard Motor Company, apparently disliked being trapped in long decision-making sessions so much that he famously said, "Let's do something, even if it's wrong."  His engineers must not have listened to him, because from the beginning in 1899 until the last real Packards rolled off the line in 1956, the company's products held a reputation for careful if conservative engineering and for bank-vault levels of solidity, so much that the company picked "Ask the man who owns one" as their slogan. 

There was style, too.  Packards were expensive from the beginning, and during the heyday of custom coachwork, from the 1920s through the Great Depression, the cars were bodied by some of the best style houses, including Le Baron, Dietrich, Rollston, Brunn and Darrin. After World War II, a handful of Packard one-offs appeared with Italian bodies by Vignale, Motto* and Ghia.  

Packard had produced its first V12 engine, the Twin Six, in 1916, perhaps in response to Cadillac's V8.  It went out of production after 1923, but in 1932 Packard topped its line of inline 8s with a brand new V12 of 445 cubic inches.  They had enlarged it from a smaller V12 intended for an abandoned front-drive car project.  For the 1934 model year Le Baron designed and built perhaps the most sought-after Packards on the short-wheelbase (well, 135") 1106 chassis. Four boat-tailed Runabout Speedsters shared brakes and chassis frame with the senior Eights, but featured the Twelve as power.  In a way, they were factory hot rods...

The Speedsters, and the Aerodynamic Coupes* built in similar numbers by Packard to a Le Baron design, were considered by Packard fanciers to be the most classic designs produced by the firm. The Twelves fit into the fierce competition for the shrinking market for luxury cars, and competed with Cadillac and Marmon V16s as well as V12s from Lincoln, Auburn and Franklin. 

In addition to the Speedsters and Coupes, Le Baron built a few Dual Cowl Sport Phaetons on the Model 1108 chassis, with a wheelbase a foot longer than the Speedsters. If anything, these Phaetons were even more spectacular than the Speedsters and Coupes.  The price was $7,100, about three thousand dollars more than the "standard" Twelve sedans.  It was the kind of money that would have bought a very comfortable house during those Depression years...

This Dietrich body on the massive 147-inch wheelbase Packard Twelve Model 1006 from 1933 was called a Stationary Coupe. The "stationary" part of the name distinguishes it from the coupe roadster, which had a top which could be lowered.  Despite its huge size, the car offered tight seating for only 4. 1933 was the second year for Packard's new V12, and the worst year of the Great Depression, which limited that year's sales to 520.  Packard had originally named their new V12 the Twin Six, to link it to their earlier V12 from 1916-23. Dietrich made numerous bodies for Packard, but the Stationary Coupe was one of the special designs made in small numbers. 

By 1935 Packard's design staff under Ed McCauley had rounded the body forms and adapted the fenders to smaller diameter wheels.  Alex de Sakhnoffsky consulted on the designs for the new bodies, which featured fenders enclosing the front of the wheels, streamlined headlight nacelles, and front opening doors.  Dietrich, in its last year as a coach builder, and Le Baron, produced all the bodies for the big Packard Twelves.  In 1935 when this maroon Victoria was built, Packard had introduced the 120, an entry in the medium-priced field populated by Buicks, and with the 120 came independent front suspension.  But this Model 1207 Convertible Victoria on a 132 inch wheel base held onto a beam axle behind the proud radiator fronting the 473 cubic inch V12.  Hydraulic brakes were featured, however, with a vacuum assist...

A year later, Packard released the Model 1407 Opera Coupe in the senior Twelve series. The bodywork shown below shows off a similar conservative approach to the Convertible Victoria above. The upright lines of the windshield and flanks yield only reluctantly to curved window openings...

Hermann Graber* of Switzerland took a more modern approach with the 1938 Model 1601 shown below.  The eight cylinder, two-door cabriolet features teardrop fenders and more rake to the windshield, which is framed by narrower A-pillars and follows the line of the cowl....

The tapered rear fenders and deck share similar form with a Duesenberg Graber built in the previous year, though the subtle dorsal fin on the deck lid echoes some contemporary designs by French coach builders like Sauotchik and Figoni.  This car was the only Packard Graber bodied in this style.

Four door convertibles were still a part of the automotive scene in 1938, but the phaeton, with its skimpier top and side curtains, was beginning to fade.  If you could afford a Packard Twelve Phaeton like the one below, bodied by Derham, you could also afford a weathertight sedan for the cold seasons...

...or something like this 1938 Brunn-bodied Touring Cabriolet, one of two Packard Twelves built in this style, this one for J. Seeburg of the famous jukebox company, seen below standing with his new purchase.  Note the twin, tinted skylights above the windshield, called "Neutralites" by Brunn. They also built at least one Lincoln K* Series Touring Cabriolet with this feature.

The section of the roof over the doors and windshield remained stationary, while the rear section of the roof forward of the trunk could be lowered. In Europe this style was called a landaulet...

The interior featured the usual Packard attention to detail, and was trimmed with broadcloth seats and generous amounts of chrome, Bakelite and polished wood. Though the Great Depression had taken its toll on fabricators of custom bodywork, and Dietrich, a Packard favorite, had closed by 1936, coach builders like Brunn, Darrin and Le Baron continued to offer bespoke bodywork for Packards.

One of the last examples of those special bodies was this 1941 Super 8 One Eighty Sport Sedan, one of no more than 100 designed and built by Le Baron.  By the 1940 model year the Twelve had been discontinued, and the Super 8 One Eighty was Packard's prestige line. The Sport Sedan may have been Packard's belated answer to the Bill Mitchell-designed Cadillac Sixty Special which had appeared in 1938, and was in its last year when this Packard appeared. The cars shared horsepower (150 hp for the Caddy V8, 160 for the Packard inline 8) and the same 127 inch wheelbase (the Caddy shrank by an inch in 1941), but the Packard was a more expensive proposition because of its bodywork.

1941 was a pivotal year for Packard.  It was the last year of the traditional styling with separate front and rear fenders, except for convertibles, and the senior Packards with custom bodywork.  It was also the first year for the new Darrin-styled Clipper sedan, introduced in April of that year, with front fenders that flowed into the doors, and full-width bodywork without running boards.  1941 was also the last full year of production before war stopped civilian car production.  The Darrin style spread from sedans to coupes in the 1942 line, and over thirty thousand Packards were built before production stopped in February of that year.  The Darrin style, as well as the postwar Packards, will be examined in our next installment.

*Footnote:  The Motto-bodied Packard racer for the  Carrera Panamericana is pictured in our post entitled "Unsung Genius: Rocco Motto, the Closer" from 3-25-18. The Le Baron-styled Model 1106 Sport Coupe Packard built for the 1933 Century of Progress exhibition is shown in our post entitled "Vanished Roadside Attraction: Chicago's Century of Progress, 1933", posted on 5-31-20.  Other designs from Hermann Graber on Alvis, Duesenberg and Talbot-Lago chassis are shown and discussed in "Forgotten Classic: The Graber Alvis", posted on 1-22-16.  And Lincoln's Model K, a competitor to the Packard Twelve, is profiled in "Forgotten Classic: Lincoln Model K, Not Your Average K-Car" from 11-9-17.  Photos include a Brunn Touring Cabriolet from the year before our Packard example.

Photo Credits:
2nd & 4th (Le Baron Speedsters), 12th (Derham phaeton):  George Havelka
5th (Le Baron Phaeton):  tumblr.com
6th (Le Baron Phaeton):  Cincinnati Concours d'Elegance
9th: (Opera Coupe):  Bonham Auctions
10th (Graber Packard): i.wheelsage.org
11th (Graber Packard): Wiley on flickr.com
13th thru 15th, 17th & bottom:  Mecum Auctions
All other photos:  the author