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West I stand corrected. I was deceived by the similar color. I am borrowing on my quota of mistakes for next week. Best John

Friends My young mind was flypaper for catching stuff like this. I just looked it up again. Somewhere around here I have the Anselmi book about Isotta and it may have more information. The Isotta Fraschini type KM ( 1910-1914) had four wheel brakes designed by Cesare Isotta. These cars have a 10 liter engine so may maybe prudence caught up with some of the enthusiasm in Milano. John Harley

I have made over my quota of mistakes already this week, so I am fairly confident that this car was at the Packard Centennial. Its was very much the worse for wear. The owner was running the engine and balancing a quarter on it . Given the probable compromised compression it was running even smoother than normal. Mosquitoes may have suffocated. It was restored by a proverbial "well known collector " not far from me I had the privilege of seeing it soon after. I have driven two Packed Twelves. Starting at the bottom of a hill in third gear and accelerating up to the top is an experience to be remembered. Perhaps it will get more exercise in the future. John

Friends After deliberation, the fees for the Metro Gand Classic for Saturday June 29 have been revised downwards. individuals who have already sent payment in will be refunded the difference. I have attached a link to the revised application for your convenience. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6419b9981005ff19352727d8/t/65fee7e609b79636c410615e/1711204327027/CCCA_v2_MetroRegion_GC_2024_Event_Registration.pdf Best John Harley

Friends Just posting a reminder that the Metro Region of the CCCA is hosting a Grand Classic In Oxford New Jersey on June 28 and 29 , 2024. I am attaching a link for your convenience. This is the first Grand Classic that the Metro Region has hosted in a while. The Board has been hard at work and we are excited to present it https://www.metroccca.org/grand-classic Many thanks . John Harley Secretary, Metro Region CCCA

For what it's worth, a Packard 356 crank is 105 pounds . The counterbalances are bolted in and then welded over. Unfortunate if you have to grind journals .

Friends Any DS resting on mud for any length of time is going be primarily ferrous oxide. Any remaining useful parts attached to the body work or chassis should be removable by two hands without the use of tools. This is from first hand experience. John Harley

Tom New website is metroccca.org. Contact information is on the website. Best John Harley

My first Packard was a 1951 200 Deluxe sedan in dark blue. I would take it out on a highway to exercise it. I would aim to keep the speed to 55 or 60 but inevitably the car would drift up to 70, apparently with little effort. It wanted to run. Riding in the front was like sitting in your couch at home. I gave up trying to fight it. I drove from New Jersey to a car show in Fairfield Connecticut one time. I had given up on the conservative speeds by then and kept in the left lane of the Merritt Parkway and let the car have its head. It was fun flying past Porsches in the right lane trying to behave. When I arrived I was parked next to a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air hardtop in yellow and chartreuse. I was shortly subjected to a self appointed expert loudly explaining to his friend that four door sedans were a waste of money and whoever owned this dark blue sedan was a fool. I found this hysterically funny. I'm sure the owner of the Chevy had 4 or 5 times the money in his car the I had in mine. Best John Harley

PWN Ok, you asked for it. The first cars I owned were DS models. For an SM , multiply the below by 10 , I guess, except the engine in a DS is pretty much fool proof, unlike the rest for the car. The Maserati engine in an SM is a different animal. At the end of my junior year at Boston University in 1973 I need a car for student teaching. Stuart, in my dorm found a very nice Peugeot 403 for not much money, through a friend of a friend. Bingo! The friend of a friend was named Lance. Those of you with too many car magazines lying about will find articles about Lance in the last two issues of Hemmings Sports and Exotic Cars. This was very soon after Citroen left the American market. I don't think they were ever very serious about it. My understanding is that Citroen was exceeding the new safety standards in way that was illegal and they considered themselves. above complying . The DS was about to be replaced by the CX anyway, which was never imported here. Citroens were therefore in a state of free fall and Lance's mission in life was to find as many Citroens and parts as he as he could and find owners for them . He kept a pretty close track on this. I ended up up with a recently painted 1964 DS 19 and bought some tools and we were off. After a while I learned a lot. There are only two modes of Citroen operation, otherworldly or totally unacceptable. The car experienced all sort of mechanical problems, the hydraulic problems were a small part. Best guess is that the paint job covered a 100,000 miles on the odometer . Shortly before I got a (perfectly horrible) teaching job the car met the front fender of a pink 1966 Ford whose owner I suspect lacked a license. I did give him a fine opportunity to hit me... So, I was able to get a loan and buy a very nice 1970 DS21 with a perfectly working Citromatic ( hydraulicly operated semi automatic). This was mostly trouble free. It later collided with my limited funds and was sold. There is nothing like a DS. In many ways no case since has been as advanced and I don't expect that any one will address the same issues that Citroen did. Andre Lefebvre designed the DS, the Traction Avant and the 2CV. He got his start with Gabriel Voisin designing airplanes and then automobiles. The suspension may have made another poster sea sick but the cars stick like a leech. I found out that they were very quick around corners because one never had to downshift or let up on the gas. Rain or snow seemed to make no difference. Railroad tracks are truly not felt. The car would jack it self up and down for changing tires or oil. The high pressure brakes in the DS are extremely effective. Full application will nail the car to the pavement NOW. The design is truly logical and the oddities all make sense. The gas mileage was exceptional for the time . I lived through the gas embargo, which I think was only about 3 weeks in Massachusetts. I remember being in line for gas only once, Citroen owners and mechanics are few and far between but are very tight with each other and helpful. Most mechanics are probably best avoided. Get handy and ask for help. The cars like as lot of attention. My mother would say that they are like living with a large dog . They rust very quickly once the rust gets started. The low survival rate explains the general high price of good cars. The hydraulic system is not that hard to understand, but many mechanics couldn't be bothered to lean and did a lot of damage. The later hydraulic systems using the green LHM fluid are much more reliable than the earlier brake fluid systems. Some of the earlier cars have been converted. You cannot mix the two kinds of fluid in the Hydraulic system. SMs have the later system. Citroen spent a fortune on the machinery for making the various hydraulic valves and controls. They had trouble with tolerances that would hold pressure and past just enough fluid to keep things lubricated. The tooling is of course gone and only older parts are available. One of the tests is for the car to maintain height, or most of it overnight. I see a lot pictures of cars for sale resting on the ground . This could signify wear in the height correctors or the main accumulator. There is a good string of articles on BAT about working on an SM. The cars are great fun when they are running right. Some times I wish I could afford one now. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions. John Harley

Friends "Golden Green Metallic". The wool interior was originally a dark olive green but has faded uniformly to brown. She celebrated today by getting a new battery. It will go in tomorrow . An ancestor, Samuel Finley , came from Ireland in 1732. His 5 sons were heavily involved in the American Revolution. One brother one of the founders of Princeton University. I gather some are celebrating that today, also. I have the honor of traveling again with the Tacoma Concert Band to England and Ireland this summer. We will be performing in Dublin on the 4th of July.. I will have a little Irish whiskey tonight to celebrate. Happy St Patrick's Day !!! John Harley

Friends I tend to prefer blackwalls in many instances but somehow whitewalls have an appropriate air on the Dietrich Packards . I was discussing these cars with my neighbor Owen Dyneto the other day and we agreed that the catalog renderings with the bail caps are more attractive many of the cars than the more elaborate ones. I certainly feel the plain cap helped the looks of Earl's car. I took about 15 rolls of photos of the Packard Centennial ih Warren Ohio Iin 1999. I carefully arranged them in an album. I was able to remove them without damage and scan them. Here are some Ninth Series cars in the Magnum Opus to start out with. I have always been fond of the Ninth Series.

George This is the only surviving two cylinder Pierce "Arrow". In 1903 Pierce was still the name of the car and "Arrow" was the name of the model. It was restored about 15 years ago by the late John Hovey. One of his brothers owned of Victor's House of Music where I worked . It has a two cylinder DeDion engine. John brought the carburetor in to be cleaned in the ultrasonic cleaner. It was a substantial bronze affair weighing a few pounds. The cleaner was 90 gallons so tubas could be cleaned in it. The carburetor promptly turned the fluid black and plugged a clean filter. It sure looked nice afterward. I have the DeDion book around here someplace. I also have a picture I took of the car round here with John standing next to it, this is one I found on the net. DeDion and Bollee did a lot of ingenious work early on. John Harley

Friends I got all exited and looked up Schnauferl. I thought it was another obscure make to find out about but alas it is just a German term for old car. At least we could start a Schnauferl Gesellschaft or something. Not enough room in the body for a boiler or water tank. Drum under the car looks like the crankcase of a one cylinder DeDion engine. I suspect it may be a French confection . Best John Harley

Packard 12 Thanks for those pictures ! That is how I remember the car. It was closest to the door to the house, but at furthest point from the garage door to the outside. There were 5 or 6 non running cars between it and the garage door. The car guarding the garage door was a bathtub Packard rusted to the point of needing ropes to hold it together. He had also acquired a very original LaSalle coupe about 1928 that I remember as also blocking the way. It was attractive in a two tone teal color scheme. It had been stored for decades in a barn with roof leak directly above it. I'm sure every metal part was rusted to its adjoining part and part and the wood was completely shot. It appeared here on a for sale forum in the last 18 months or so but my discretion stopped me from commenting on it . Earl also barn a 1929 Pierce Arrow coupe and skeletal remnants of a early 20's Buick . The Pierce might have been in better condition than the Packard. Thanks also pictures of the dog and his wife. There were a few other relatives living there when I knew him but Earl had a calm demeanor and high entropy levels he took as a matter of course. I saw a superb 1108 sedan as pictured above at a local Christmas party two weeks ago. I was informed buy some who knows that it was a known car, so I guess it is not one people are looking for. Best John Harley