Are these for real?

I just saw a 1958 Packard. It looks like ... well...a Studebaker Scotsman or something. The interior is ok...but nothing like what I would have called a Packard. I knew the Packard sport model..I forget what it is called...looks like the Hawk Tourisimo with a gapping mouth and stubby teeth. Is this what happened after 1956? Could anyone tell me what happened? I thought the company stopped producing at the end of the model year, 1956?

Basically what you are looking at is badge engineering. Packard as a body style was really done with the 56 model year....the fact that they had merged with Studebaker in I think 54...well led to the Stude cars being sold with a Packard badge. I like some of the body styles but they aren't Packards. My thoughts on it.

Tim

MBL

Tim, I read through your website, or the one you pointed to, on the Panther Project. Many of the designs I saw there, including the Predictor, or is that Preditor?, look a lot like the 1959 Packards that were eventually sold. The car you illustraited as the Possible 56 Panther looks good...a sporty model of the Clipper I guess...did Packard ever get that far with it? And what happened to the Predictor? Incidentally, it is UGLY...like the Lincolns of the day...so ugly that I rather like it!! <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Oh NO!? that is not my site but another fellow member. He has done some exceptional work with Packard and has helped us all with his innovative ideas. It is Craig that you are refering to. That is a great site!

Tim

MBL

What you saw was a last gasp attempt to keep the Packard name alive until corporate finances of the Studebaker-Packard Corporation would allow a re-introduction of a truely unique Packard line of autmobiles. Packard and Studebaker merged in 1954 (technically Packard bought Studebaker, but it involved a stock swap, etc.). It seemed like a great fit; Studebaker would produce low and medium priced cars while Packard would pick up the high end. This would also fit well for the existing dealers as they could expand their lines without too much conflict with other dealers. Unfortunately for the merger Studebaker introduced a new line of cars in 1953 that included a beautiful coupe and hardtop, but a homely line of the bread and butter sedans. (The mid-50's Packards can't be described as stunning either). Anyway, things went down hill from there for both lines of cars and by the late 50's it was decided to close the Detroit Packard plant and concentrate production in So. Bend. It was felt that it would be too expensive to retool for true Parkard production in So. Bend so they produced Packardbakers as a stopgap measure to keep the Packard name going until times got better and a new line of true Packards could be produced. The good times never came and the Packard name badge was phased out in 1958. It's reported that that the last Packards were actually a small number of rebadged Studebaker trucks sold in So. America due to import regulations. Hope this helps answer your question.

Yes it does...it was a sad day for Packard, and the entire automotive industry. Just as when Tucker failed...any independant that fails hurts us. But consumers are blind. All they see and want to see is a good looking vehicle that runs and does not break down.

Randall:

I'm glad that you enjoyed perusing my website ( 1956 Panther ), and many people I've both physically and virtually met with over the last few years would agree that the independents were crushed by the big three. Why just the other day, I was driving my 55 Pat around near my new home in Pahrump, NV when I spyed a guy with 4 Nash Metropolitans...one of which was fitted as POLICE car! <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Too bad the Hudsons, Packards, Nashs, etc are all gone. I think they were the most interesting of the 50s.

Craig:

I certainly think so. Once the Big Three held total sway they started to eat at each other. Competition did create some good cars but I do miss the independants which offered variety and more competition for the comsumer dollars out there. Now they are paring down the choices even farther. Oldsmobile is going, and who knows the next...Buick? Cadillac? (the rumors have been that Cadillac is on the block), leaving what...Chevy and Pontiac? Chrysler has reduced its models to just a few, as has Buick. And none of them are terribly different, just more SUVs of all sizes. That is what is being demanded, I guess.

1956 was the last year for "true" Packards... and some cars they were. Slightly better looking than the 1955 models, because of the hooded headlights and some mouldings, with push button transmissions, improved torsion bar suspension, more horsepower... I particularly love the 56 Caribbean, my personal postwar favorite Packard... perhaps one day I will be able to get my hands on one.

1957 and 58 they were only badge engineered Studebakers, for the reasons explained up there. Packard continued to sell Studebakers well into the mid 60's.

Too sad an ending for a great marque, or perhaps I should say the greatest comercial american car, and by comercial (excuse the term if it is not well applied but I am not a native english speaker) I mean a car sold in great quantities (not like Duesenberg or the like).

victor.

The two door car you speak of is the 1958 Packard Hawk. Actually, a Studebaker Golden Hawk with a grafted on "shark" front, 275hp supercharged V8, outside armrests, rear deck tire cover and slightly different taillights and a really pulsh interior. The car was designed by Duncan McRae. He thought it was going the be a "one off" for Roy Hurley, head of Curtiss-Wright which at the time ran Studebaker-Packard. Hurley had seen a Ferrari during a trip to Europe and asked McRae to do a design theme using the Studebaker Hawk. McRae had no idea the car would end up as a production car. Internally, around the design studio, the car was dubbed the "Hurley Hawk". The Packard Hawk sold for $3995 with total sales amounting to only 588 units. As you can guess, this car is very rare today. Howard

The 57 and 58 Studebaker-Packards were actually Replicars. They were not the first though. Actually, the 1955 Hudsons with Nash Bodies were. In fact the 1955 Hudson was the best looking Nash built in the 1950's. The same probably could be said of the 1957 Studebaker President based Packard as being the best looking Studebaker built in the 1950's. I've always said that even the 1959 Studebaker Larks would have looked much better with the 1956 Clipper Tail Lights on them.

By the way, in 1958 there was a Studebaker-Packard 2 Door Hard Top which wasn't that bad looking. It shared the Studebaker Starlight Body.

Bob

Maybe 15 years ago in a junkyard in Pittston, New Jersey (or was it Pittston, PA ???) I stumbled (literally) across a station wagon carrying Packard Studebaker Broadmoor insignia. Anyone know what I was looking at? It carried both Packard and Studebaker scripts. I assume Broadmoor (spelling?) was the model. Interesting and somewhat attractive I thought, especially for a wagon. In the same yard was a 1932 Maccar truck.

That 58 in my opinion is a very cool looking body style, but of course it's really a Studebaker and the interior just feels 'cheesy' to me; it doesn't feel like a solid and expensive Packard interior... but then again my 49 has fake wood-grain, which was disappointing to me too, but there is another thread about how Packard went cheap/middle-class after the war.

Was the fake wood grain like the dynoc of the Cadillac and other GM products? I would be interested to know. I remember my 62 Lincoln Continental had real wood veneer on the door panels and dash. I do not mind the look of dynoc really since real wood would have been disproportionately expensive to achieve the same results. Even a well painted pattern is nice to look at, if not as rich in color and depth. When was the last real wood used in interiors? Was that pre-war or pre-30s?

Clippers were fake wood-grain too, so I am thinking mayby 120's used real wood? You know I love Packards and American cars in general, but for the latter half of the 20th century we have neglected real wood for the most part - a little goes a long way for interior style, a fact that Mercedes and Jaguar, the low-priced high-end Euro makes know.

Who can tell me that a 80's Caddy interior doesn't feel chinsy compared to a 80's Mercedes? I think 90's Mercedes were going backwards, esp the low end 200- 300- series cars while the US cars got nicer.

But now I am rambling. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />