Tph479

Last week at a club event my buddies and I had a conversation regarding this subject. It use to be that in the Chicago area you would see cars from the brass era up to the prewar at cruise nights and such. Last year I was at a 1,000 plus car cruise night and there were maybe 10 cars, including hot rods, that were prewar. As guys have passed on their prewar cars left the area and there has been limited new collectors buying. There are also those collectors that age out and don’t bring their prewar cars out anymore. Either way one can easily see what the collector car trends are by just going to a show and observing. Also look at old club classifieds from 20 years ago and you will find most prewar cars have dropped in price since that time. In the last 5 years or so there has also been 3 local prewar restoration shops close because the owner’s retired. No one has stepped into filling that local void. So the way I see it is if the cars are not seen in public, then the public will not know much about them, and as such will not be interested in buying a prewar car. Then again about 80 million new cars are made worldwide each year and that increases the variety of cars that a car collector may be interested in and the hobby expands because there is more to choose from.

1984 Chrysler minivan. aaca eligible, probably saved a company at the time and started a entire genre of design. They were everywhere back in the day, but are practically extinct now where I live.

Those are 2 good looking cars you posted. Nice stying was quickly revolving at this time, which I find interesting considering the economic times. The Plymouth reminded me of a car my late friend had Boyd build, a 1933 Plymouth and the hood side doors are the exact size and shape of the 1934 Packard Lebaron’s. My friend was inspired from seeing the Roxas Lebarron’s being built while he was having some cars restored there.

You are an excellent writer and historian. It is a shame what transpired. I get the impression that you are a fan of Gubitz. He was experimenting with the hood going back to the windshield in 1931 for the cheapest Packard line. It wasn’t until 1934 that the hood covering the cowl was used on the custom v windshield Dietrich’s and custom Lebarron’s. From 1935 on it was used throughout the Packard line.

Packard had a sales winner on its hands with the 120 and 115. In 1937 Packard had sales volumes that they last achieved in 1929 before sales cratered. I would bet that during the 1920’s and early 1930’s those buyers of the lower cost CCCA classic Packards were also the same buyers of the 120 and 115. Here they got a more advanced car with juice brakes and independent front suspension, a faster car that was a lot easier to drive, more fuel efficient and the car was probably better built and sold for less than half the price they would have paid for their 1929 626 model, and the 115 and 120 looked like a senior Packard, just like the 526 and 626 looked like a 640 Packard. I compare this to a cell phone, where a brick phone cost over a grand when it came out and now we have smart phones that can do everything under the sun and phone companies give them away for free. Technology quickly gets more advanced and the price usually goes down as it gets more public implementation.

The 120’s are fabulous cars. They are very nimble and are easy to drive. My personal belief is that Packard wouldn’t have survived the 1930’s without it. 160’s and 180’s to me are just larger 120’s based on the same design principles. If I recall, I think guys from Pontiac or another GM branch were hired to develop the junior cars. Correct me if I am wrong. You are correct about the fast moving pace of automobile technology during this time period and also the roads being designed for faster travel. All car manufacturers were quickly developing quicker, faster cars with standard comforts and features that were unheard of 10 years prior, especially in the sub $2,000 price range. Price points came down and the quality and advancements in non classic cars greatly improved during the 1930’s. The guys running Packard did what they had to do to survive and they were able to keep afloat in an era where a lot of other independents closed the doors.

When I was visiting this collection, I was taken back by the size of his personal restoration shop. There were maybe 15 talented employees working on nothing but his cars, one of which, a 1937 Nash coupe, was nominated for the Zenith award this past year. The buildings could have been easily filled with Duesenberg’s and European cars with fancy Spaghetti Alfredo bodywork but Bulgari has went out of way to restore and collect American cars. I have seen pictures of his collection in Rome and it is similar to what he keeps in Pennsylvania. We were treated with a goodie bag when we left, which included a hardcover book on his collection of Limousines of the Vatican and also a model car. You could tell talking to his restoration guys that their passion for the hobby probably mirrors Bulgari’s.

1932 Packard light eight.

I was at the collection earlier this year on a tour. It really is a stunning collection and the restorations are magnificent on cars that usually never get that kind of treatment. The grounds and buildings were fantastic and in spotless condition. If anyone ever gets the opportunity to visit it I would highly recommend going. Mr. Bulgari should be commended on his dedication to the hobby and the hospitality that he has shown to us fellow enthusiasts. The pictures above do not do the place justice. Every car is in immaculate, authentic condition and all of the cars are in turnkey running condition. Kudos to a job well done and it was a real treat to see it in person.

My brother bought a wood boat last month. He tried to take it on a maiden voyage with one of my other brothers the same week he bought it. The second it rolled off the trailer it started to sink. The recently divorced seller was getting rid of it to fund a set of new aftermarket parts for his new girlfriend. I don’t know who got the better deal on this transaction.

Reviewing the chart, most of the 9th series standard eights and deluxe eights had to be built in the 1931 calendar year and took most of 1932 to sell. The month of august was absolutely brutal for production. I do not have the twin six production figures by month, but 549 of them were produced from January 1932 on. But from June 1932 on, you can easily see how quickly it was deteriorating at Packard. It would be interesting to see the custom body orders with all of the coach builders to see what their trends were. I wonder how many of the light eight sales stole from the standard and deluxe eight numbers or alternatively, if the light eight wasn’t around would packard had those sales anyway. Werner Gubitz did a fine job with light eight design on the shorter wheelbase and maybe it was the stop gap the company needed to boost sales and experiment with new engineering. Werner did to an excellent job at maintaining and updating the Packard look through he rest of his career. It would have been interesting to have been a fly on the wall in the Packard corporate office after the 1929 banner year and hear them talking about the quickly collapsing luxury market. Like Su8overdrive said no money, no sales. What I really find interesting is that while the party was quickly coming to an end during the years of 1932-1934, it also brought out some of the finest designs of the classic era.

I thought all of you would find this interesting. Amazing how the sales plummeted as the depression went on.

I was told that this car was very, very awkward to drive because of how much space there was between the drivers seat and drivers door. I have another picture of it somewhere that I’ll try to dig up.

This picture was taken in Chicago after the car was pulled out of the sticks somewhere in Florida. A mangrove tree fell on it and that is why the headlights are out of wack. I always wonder if there is a building somewhere where a bunch of closed car bodies are hiding after having there chassis donated to new coachwork projects.

Let’s see some pictures of those parasitic appendages.

This is a local Chicago area car coming out of an estate. The colors are colors that look different inside compared to outside, and then outside they look different from being in the sun to being in the shade. In person I would say the blues have a slight purple tint to them. If I remember correctly, they built 67 newmarkets and the later bodies built had a raked windshield.

That looks like the V16 aerodynamic coupe with the phenomenal restoration on it. You have to look at the positives, the tire was only flat on one side and it looks like you got to enjoy a fantastic breakfast location.

The car is not too far from me. It has been of fb for a while and it must be a relatives account that it is posted under. Word was passed around that the car would be available before it was posted on marketplace. The owner is getting older and he does occasionally take the car out and drive it around. My friends worked on the car within the last 10 years or so. It has a phenomenal paint and pinstripe job. The picture is from a few months back.. A local, once a year cruise night where about 1000 cars showed up this year. I think there was maybe 10 prewar cars. Not that many prewar hot rods or street rods either. The reason I bring that up is because there is some other threads going on right now about prewar cars and pricing. Once the car sells it will probably be one less prewar classic car in the area. In the last 10-12 years prewar guys have died off and the cars have left the area and few people have replaced them. Fb marketplace is interesting. I have found some interesting parts that were needle in a haystack kind of parts.

My daily driver is more than half way there to being an aaca accepted car. Besides slowly turning into a winter beater, it is also on its way to being a high mileage spring, summer and fall beater.

Cadillac v8 victoria coupe

I was playing around on the Googler yesterday and I typed in the search engine both Babe Ruth car and Babe Ruth packard. I found this book page down in the images section. I also wanted to read the rest of the article but only that page came up when I clicked in it. Babe must have been a real baller back in the day. I also find the picture of him in riding in the Lincoln fascinating. The deep crowds, well dressed people, cop on the motorcycle, and what looks like Boy Scouts holding the line. I would place Ruth, Ali and Jordan on top of the mantle of athletes that transcended into world pop culture by a country mile. I can’t think of any other ones that everyone from young to old can instantly recognize by a picture or just by first or last name alone.

I was just playing around on the worldwide web that one of our ex politicians invented, and came across this page describing Ruth’s maroon Packard roadster. Thought you all would enjoy.

My buddy and I once had a conversation about cars with reproduction or replica bodies on them, or cars that were made up of floor sweepings and his comment was that back in the Roman days some Romans were probably popping out replica Roman chariots in their colosseums behind their house so replicas are nothing new. These pictures just made me remember that conversation since we had a good laugh over his witty comment.