Hollywood Stars: Dutch Darrin's Designs for Packard

Howard "Dutch" Darrin was not averse to risk, and the fact showed up in his resumé as well as in his designs. A pilot for two years during the First World War, he encountered Tom Hibbard in 1923 after the latter had left his design partnership with Raymond Dietrich, a firm called Le Baron. In 1923 Hibbard and Darrin went to Paris and established the coachbuilding firm of Hibbard and Darrin, just in time to participate in the boom in expensive, custom-designed automobiles, a boom that ended with the 1929 stock market crash. In 1931 the partnership ended with Hibbard's departure for GM in Detroit, and the next year Darrin found a new partner in banker and furniture maker J. Fernandez.  The partners often purchased chassis for their own stock, rather than waiting for customers to supply a chassis.  Chssis bodied by Fernandez & Darrin included Delage, Hispano-Suiza, Isotta Fraschini, and at least one Buick.*  One of their rare efforts at something like a sports car is the 1936 Packard Twelve Tailback Gentleman's Speedster shown below.

In profile and in rear view, the Tailback Gentleman's Speedster resembled the boat-tailed Le Baron Speedsters* built on the Packard Twelve chassis two years earlier. The name Tailback is an odd tautology that Darrin may have intended to differentiate the car from those Le Baron designs…after all, the tail of anything is always at the back.

The fender forms and vee windshield of the Tailback echo the earlier Le Baron Speedster as well.  The Le Baron's running boards, however, have been simplified into a small, chromed oval step just below the door.   This would prove to be a one-off for Fernandez and Darrin, who ended their partnership in 1937.

Below is a view of the 175 hp V-12 engine that powered this '36 Speedster.  Cylinder banks were angled at 67 degrees; displacement had been increased from 445.5 to 473.3 cubic inches and aluminum heads added in 1935.  It's a comment on the Packard management's conservative attitude that brakes were still mechanical (though like the clutch they were vacuum assisted) and front suspension was still a beam axle, though hydraulic brakes and independent front suspension had been introduced on the junior 120 line the previous year. The 3-speed manual gearbox was fully synchronized (a bright spot) with the shift lever on the floor.  The big V12 would disappear from the Packard line after the 1939 model year, leaving inline eights to power the top of the line...

In 1937 Darrin migrated to California and began again in Hollywood as a free-lance designer and coach builder. Looking to attract attention to his new enterprise, he began by purchasing Packard chassis and remodeling them into something he called a Convertible Victoria.  An early example, on the smallest eight-cylinder 120 chassis, is shown below, and dates from 1937.  Note the rakish cut-down doors, elegant vee windshield with thin chromed frame, and general absence of decoration.  In the latter aspect it predicted the 1940 Lincoln Continental. Movie stars like Clark Gable noticed, and began to order cars.

In 1939; Packard had discontinued its big Twelves, and decided to add to its prestige line by offering Darrin's Convertible Victorias as catalogued custom styles on the Custom Super Eight 180 through Packard dealers. Elimination of running boards provided further emphasis on tightly-controlled forms.  The 160 hp inline eight provided smooth power.  These cars were the last Packards with free-standing headlights. Packard was at its peak in the American luxury car market, and its products never got any more elegant than this. 

These custom offerings continued into 1942, but 1940 was the only year for the Darrin-built 4-door Convertible Sedan shown below.  The Convertible Sedan and a companion model, the Sport Sedan, were built on the long 138" wheelbase, while the Victorias were on the 127" wheelbase.  Front doors were hinged at the rear on the Victorias and Convertible Sedans. Only eleven of these Convertible Sedans were built.  In all, production of custom Darrin-bodied Packards is estimated at less than 200 units by historian Richard M. Langworth.

Note the photo of the same car below; the B-pillar was moved out of sight when the top and side windows were lowered.  Packard's cormorant hood ornament was a prominent feature.

The sister car, the Sport Sedan, is shown below.  It has the same long, low proportions ans spare, rounded, undecorated forms. Thin side window frames echo the elegant windshield frame, while the thick C-pillar and small twin backlights provide privacy for passengers in the rear compartment.  The radiator was repositioned on the Darrin Packards for a lower hood line, and the cowl framing was cast in aluminum.  Also note that on these Convertible and Sport Sedans, door and deck hinges are hidden.

No more than three examples of the  Sport Sedan shown above were built. Another Darrin design, also called a Sport Sedan, was built with more production parts. Note that the car shown below has exposed door hinges with doors opening along the B-pillar.  The "suicide doors" at the rear are more like Packard's standard sedans, as are the running boards and front fenders with side-mount spares.  

The grille and hood line on this Sport Sedan variation are taller as well, and the window sill line curves up to meet it.  It's still an elegant design, but not a striking as the original version.

The interior of the green Sport Sedan substituted a restrained dash design of Bakelite and chrome for the wood-grain painted steel featured on earlier production-model Packards.  

                             

The 1941 model year Darrin Victorias show a return to running boards, and the addition of four chrome strakes to each fender, departing from the simplicity of the 1940 Darrin models. 

1941 was full of changes for Packard.  It was the last year of the traditional styling with separate front and rear fenders, except for convertibles like the Darrin Victoria above, and for custom bodies like limousines on the long-wheelbase Custom Super 8 chassis.  In April of that year, Packard introduced a new Darrin-designed, mass-produced Clipper sedan intended to replace the traditionally-styled mainstream Packards.  In addition to the sedan, Darrin updated the Convertible Victoria styling to reflect the sedan's fender lines. Front fenders flowed into the doors, and the rear fender shapes were integrated seamlessly into the body form.  A convex shape formed into the doors and sills hinted at the old running boards.  While the sedan was approved for mass production, the new Victoria never made it into even a limited run...

The 1941 Clipper sedan is shown below.  For that abbreviated first model year, the car was only available with the inline eight-cylinder engine.  Note the similarity of front and rear fender forms and the convex sill panels follow the one-off Victoria above.

The rear view shows how Darrin repeated curved lines and rounded forms to create unity; the chromed window sill molding tangent to the wraparound indent of the lower roof fades into the deck shape.  

For 1942 Packard introduced a companion model, the two-door Club Sedan, and added the option of six-cylinder engines.  Below is a publicity photo of a 160 Club Sedan with the eight-cylinder engine.

Two-tone color schemes were available, as well as bright shades like the red below, providing a contrast to the maroons, dark blues, greens and grays more often associated with this make. Owing to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Axis declaration of war, the 1942 model year was a short one for Packard and the entire US auto industry.  Civilian car production ended after February, with about half as many Packards produced as in the previous year.  Still, that was well over 30,000 cars.

The Darrin styling was extended to the long-wheelbase Packards for 1946 and '47.  Chrome bands extended the lines of the grill around the front fenders. This is a 7-passenger sedan; the limousine had the same body form with the addition of a divider window between the front and rear cabins.

Two-toning shows off the rounded forms of the roof nested on the streamlined forms of the lower body.  In terms of passenger capacity, this was the largest Packard of this period; station wagons had not returned to the company's regular offerings. Neither had convertibles...

For 1948 Packard's styling department turned away from Darrin's graceful design with a restyle that substituted slab sides for flowing fender forms.  The result was somehow a car that looked shorter, taller, and with its flattened version of the traditional grille, wider.  A convertible, shown below, was reintroduced to the line, along with a wagon called the Station Sedan.  In hindsight, many Packard enthusiasts concluded that this restyle of Darrin's work was money that would have been better spent on a hardtop convertible and / or a V8 to face the challenge of Cadillac's 1949 models.  Howard Darrin must not have been pleased; he had offered his design services to an automotive startup founded by a ship builder and an old industry hand.  But the Kaiser-Frazer saga is one for telling another day...

*Footnote:  Custom-bodied Packards by Le Baron, Dietrich and Brunn are featured in "Packard at the Peak: Ask the Man Who Owns One", in these posts for 7-30-20. The Le Baron-styled Model 1106 Sport Coupe Packard built for the Century of Progress exhibition is shown in our post entitled "Vanished Roadside Attraction: Chicago's Century of Progress, 1933", posted on 5-31-20. The 1936 Buick Opera Brougham bodied by Fernandez and Darrin is featured in "Hillsborough Concours: Escape Road to the Past" from 7-29-18.  And one of Dutch Darrin's designs from the Fifties is examined in "Kaiser Darrin: It Could've Been a Contender", posted on 9-24-19.

Photo Credits:

Digital editing by Veronika Sprinkel:  veronikasprinkel.com

Top thru 4th:  Mecum Auctions

5th (1937 120 Victoria):  flickr.com

6th (1940 Darrin 180 Victoria): wikimedia
7th & 8th:  the author

9th & 10th:  wikimedia, credited to Zinc Photography

11th thru 13th: flickr.com
14th & 15th:  wikimedia, credited to Zinc Photography

16th & 17th: wikimedia
18th (1942 Club Sedan monochrome):  Packard Motor Company, Detroit Public Library files
19th: Mecum Auctions
20th & 21st: tumblr.com

Bottom:  George Havelka