Classic Hifi Care

What a beauty!

I do still grin every time I hear "Packard"...... My Dad would say "Those Packards were gas guzzlers!"

Did not know they had pushbutton transmission selectors....

Did not know they had dim/bright exterior side molding courtesy lights......

https://youtu.be/QLLHJbApzO4?si=M4j2XvtY_7Ny1A6_

A Packard was a combination of ultra-advanced gadgets and antique body architecture. The body on a '56 Packard was built like the body on a '36 Buick. The '56 Packards had a huge engine, pushbutton control of the Ultramatic transmission and four-wheel torsion bar suspension. That system, once sorted was ultra-cool. Nothing else like it. GM tried air bags in 1958 that bombed. The Packard system, although fairly electrically complex, worked really well. You could load three huge people in the back seat, then watch the body raise in the rear, When those people got out, the body would go back down, back to level. There was a series of relays that ran the system, powering a Delco starter motor to run the torsion bars. Excellent build quality. Sometimes a mish-mash of components. Common to find an Autolite starter, Delco generator, Prestolite ignition. They used what ever parts they could get on credit. They used Rochester and Carter carburetors. All-Delco electronics and a Carter AFB on the 374 made a competent power plant. Fuel economy was not a consideration to Packard owners. If you could afford a Packard, you could afford the gas..... Packard in 1956 had the coolest instrument panel extant. I think they used it and the Clipper tail lights in the "57 Studepackards..... They used a '54 Cadillac Wonderbar radio in the '56 big Packards. I still have a Packard Wonderbar here in my junk box. The straight 8 Packards were the better ones, in my opinion.

My dad thought anything that was not a 6-cylinder Chevrolet was a gas guzzler. I'll bet a Buick or Packard didn't get more than a couple miles per gallon worse mileage than a Chevy 6....

The best car on gas I ever saw was a Falcon with the 144 six. Slow as pond water.......

Incredible example. Oddly missing power windows. And the owner's manual that would explain the transmission gear settings.

I believe pushbutton Twin Ultramatic transmission controls were available on uplevel models in 1955, wasn't it? I know you could get that option on Clipper in 1956. Besides no power windows, it is rather odd that it doesn't have air conditioning. And Kelsey-Hayes wires.....

There is a '66 (I think) Cadillac Calais that is semi-local and shows up occasionally at open car shows. Kind of a light pea green (not Seafoam Green) non-metallic paint, white top, no air, no power windows car. A bare-bones Cadillac that you don't see often. It is very nice, don't get me wrong. I always expect a Caddy to have everything, all the options. There is a '63 Electra in New Jersey that has three-on-the-tree, no power steering, no power brakes, 2-barrel carburetor, from the factory, built in Linden.

A friend of mine bought a 62 York blue Fleetwood with "my" gray broadcloth interior. Car was a mess. Rusty, seats dry rotted and puking their stuffing...

Oddly, car had no radio.

So happens it was ordered by a very wealthy widow in Birmingham who wasn't paying her chauffeur to listen to baseball games while she was shopping.

We forget that back in the day if you did not buy a vehicle off the lot, you had the option to order your vehicle and every option that was available for the vehicle of your choice was available as a single item. You got to pick what you wanted, and the dealer would order it for you. I was working for a dealership when the car companies decided the whole package thing. Customers were having fits, they wanted what they wanted, not what the car companies told them they needed. Eventually they got over it, and pretty much now days vehicles come with just about everything. How things have changed over the years, and not necessarily for the better.

Bill

I had a customer one time who was driven around in a chauffeured Bentley. He had the lap robe and the whole shot. I'm not sure I'd like that.