Your wake up to find yourself in an alternate universe in the year 1975. Everything looks normal, but it’s not. For one thing, Studebaker and Packard still exist. It also appears that headlight regulations do not.
Welcome to the first in a series of posts featuring AI-generated cars that never existed. In a prior outing I asked the Midjourney AI to create paintings of various classic cars in a forest setting. Now I was asking it for something more challenging: Could it extrapolate what a 1975 Packard or Studebaker would look like if the brands had survived into the seventies?
I generated a LOT of images, so I’m going to split things up by devoting each post to a single model. While working on this, I learned about Midjourney’s limitations and how different art styles can produce better results (or at least hid a multitude of sins).
Let’s start with the 1975 Packard Patrician. As most of the pictures in this post will show, Midjourney still has a serious headlight problem when generating cars that aren’t famous icons:
Seriously, I discarded lots of pictures for odd numbers of headlights: Three one one side, two on another. This was less of a problem for smaller cars, but on the Patrician the AI seemed to compensate for the width by adding more headlights.
That said, Midjourney was smart enough to figure out that Packard Patrician = full size luxury car, and created something appropriate to the era.
No two of these cars are going to come out exactly the same. Consider them more like variations on the theme.
It’s easy to give the AI more credit than it’s due. “Ah, of course Packard would be following the market and offering cars that look derivative of Cadillac’s and Lincolns” rather than “The AI is creating a generic 1970s luxury car with a unique grille that is maybe Packard-inspired.”
Midjourney also had a tendency to put a lot of extra gingerbread on these cars (and not just the Packards): Extra windows, gigantic frilly hood ornaments, three or four side marker lights (because you can’t be too safe), double door handles and oddly placed chrome accents. For the sake of brevity I’m not posting those.
Here’s a split-grille variation that reminds me of a Chrysler product.
One thing I noticed is that throughout the process the AI was very good at generating correct 1975 5-mph bumpers.
A little Cadillac-derivative with what might be double opera windows.
Another style I tried was the “journalism” photo. The reflections and blur tended to obscure the weird details.
Or maybe the AI had to put so much effort into the scene and lighting that there was no processing left to ad embellishments.
On the other end, a “concept sketch” style has the same effect. I the first and only grille I thought to be uniquely Packard (or maybe Edsel?).
The forward cant on the front end adds a little sportiness.
The one looks to me like in 1975 Packard would be doing its best to adapt bodies from the 1960s.
This one looks a bit like a 1975 Bonneville.
Finally, a “mixed media” style can obscure a lot of mistakes. However, it had the added benefit of fixing the headlight issue..
That said, I can’t say that it screams “Packard.”
It’s almost more like a dealer-installed grille cap on a Cadillac.
This is another one that looks like a 1960s body updated for 1975.
Overall, I was impressed that Midjourney got the style of 1975 correct, even if the results weren’t as uniquely Packard as I had hoped.
Next time: Better luck with a lot of Larks!
I’m actually surprised nobody back in the day went for a six-eyed look with driving lights (or more likely, glorified turn signals) that looked just like sealed beam headlights.
1973 Cadillac is close. Not my favorite, but their best sales year at the time.
AI is having the same problem Packard did in the late 40s: how to implement their classic 10s-30s hood crease when there isn’t a lowered catwalk between the fenders and the grille.
Pontiac used the six-headlight look in the mid-80s on the 6000 STE and high-trimmed 2000/Sunbirds, although on both of these the inner not-real headlamp was slightly smaller than the real ones which detracted from the six-headlamp illusion.
Thanks for sharing – most look like a 1970’s GM B-body with a Packard front end. I know how much work these AI images take to make – each can take up to several minutes to render, with lots of keyword tuning. Maybe 1 out of every three will be usable, so I appreciate the time and effort you put into this.
One suggestion to make your future posts easier to read, if you could please: Most writers here follow Paul’s suggested “show then tell” format where you show the picture first, then write about it. You seem to do it the other way, which can be a little confusing at first if you are used to “show then tell.”
Duly noted for the next post, thanks. It’s exactly the opposite of how I document things at work and it’s hard to break the habit.
Yes, I reject a lot of images, and try to upscale only the best. Lately, I have learned that if I have extra headlights (or an odd number of headlights) after an upscale that a “beta upscale redo” often removes the extra headlights or other issues.
Consequently, I’m on the Midjourney unlimited plan, as I was burning through the Basic CPU quota in about a week!
I was confused too; in some cases I thought you were describing the car below.
We are a very visual medium, and these short snippets of text in this post are the equivalent of captions, which of course are always below an image, right?
I find “tell, then show” to be very counter-intuitive, as one has to remember what’s being said without an actual image to refer to. But then maybe that’s just me?
I just edited the text.
Even with the extra headlights it’d easily fool my mom for example into thinking it’s a real car. After all, if the Wagon Queen Family Truckster can have eight headlights why not a Packard Patrician.
Actually, get rid of the extra headlights and just show me a picture you’d probably fool me into thinking it’s some kind of 70’s Chrysler that I just never paid attention to previously. Parked in a row of other similar period cars it probably wouldn’t get a second glance.
This is perhaps mildly disturbing. Nothing is real anymore.
It would look better and more stately with hidden headlights.
Getting hidden headlights has been a challenge. No matter how I ask, especially with Avanti, it just won’t do it. I suspect that the AI is favoring what it sees in its library of imagery. No pictures of Packards with hidden headlights, so I get headlights in my image.
I suspect I would have better luck describing the general look of the car I want, or using a Lincoln as a reference image, but that defeats the purpose of the experiment, I suppose.
As a self-proclaimed Packard nut, and having owned hundred of Packards since 1968, including at least 1 Patrician per year since the company first started using the name in 1951 [but only adding the physical Patrician emblem to the car in 1953], I know the car and company very well.
What I would have expected to see was at least one of the company’s trademark items like the red hexagon centers on the wheels. If you look at a 1956 Cadillac and a 1975 Cadillac, they both have the trademark crest with laurel leaves.
I think the AI is only looking at comparisons of other 1975 American luxury cars, without taking into consideration the historical aspects and visual clues that buyers of luxury goods have always looked for in a product.
I’m curious if the beginning of the AI process started by using existing Packard images, or some other starting point. I wonder what the difference might have been if the starting point had been based on the 1956 Packard Predictor show car, or the styling drawings of the planned 1957 Patrician. I’m attaching a photo of a stylist Robin Jones line drawing of the planned 1957 Packard 400 2-door hardtop, should you like to see what the AI might change based on that car.
I’ll give that a shot. It will likely turn out much like the original. Midjourney can be very slavish to reference images, although there are parameters I can try to make it less so.
One interesting phenomenon: When I asked for a 1975 Packard or Studebaker, it usually made something era-appropriate. The same thing with 1985. But if I asked for 1995 and beyond it would only generate cars that looked like they were from the 1959s.
Looks like a Ford LTD or Lincoln Continental.
These Packard renditions might have been a reality had Packard been part of GM. My favorite is the first b/w sketch sitting in front of the stately mansion as it’s closest to what a ’75 Packard could have been. The final picture would have made a nice Chrysler Newport.
It’s an interesting idea. I obviously like “What if” posts like this. I just think the issue is in execution.
As much as I like 70s American iron (Lincolns in particular), they are cars of their time for a reason. It’s not a styling that is universally loved. And with this, the AI compensates too much with the stereotypical trappings of what it thinks the 70s is (think Superfly Eldorados and Stutz Blackhawks) rather than the reality.
I think if Packard had lived, I doubt they would go full gingerbread and brougham trying to compete with Cadillac and Lincoln. Even in the context of the time period, it wouldn’t be nearly as overwrought as what’s presented here. I think it would be much more in the vein of Buick than any of the big dogs of the time.
Cool idea just needs a bit of tweaking. It’s why I always tend to rely on traditional artists rather than programs like these. An AI can only work with its limitations and has a very black and white directive it follows to the letter. That can work with many things, but art just isn’t one of them.
The radiator/grilles are wrong, a Packard trademark was the “shoulder” design radiator. Even the 1955? Packard Request show car had it, here’s the ’30s version.
’55 Request
I’m pretty disappointed in what I got for grilles. I would have liked to see something more recognizably Packard, but I’m trying not to cheat by using image references and such.
As for the 3 headlights, it might look better if the 3rd was smaller in radius, more like a fog lamp.
Also, the first few renderings remind me of an early 70’s Pontiac. Maybe if the sides were less coke bottle and more flat panels.
In a “what if” scenario, GM could have purchased Packard, and used the name on select Premium models, but more Euro in flavor (overhead cams, fully independent suspension with sway bars front and rear, disc brakes all around, etc). May have stolen some sales from Cadillac, but would have kept more customers within the GM fold who eventually flocked to BMW and Mercedes in droves in the late 70’s and most of the 80’s.
I really like most of them. Kind of cool looking, but then again the 70’s is my first and favorite decade followed by the 80’s cars.
Auto makers today must use a similar design program as much of what is produced today is a mishmash of geometric shapes and design elements that have no continuity with each other. But these what-ifs are probably pretty accurate of what we would have seen. Somewhere I have an article with a photo of a prototype Packard that was developed in the late 70’s. I’ll try to find it and post it here.
One realization for me, as a result of this work, is that if Packard had survived into the ‘70s, the “brougham” years of the early-mid ‘70s would have been right in Packard’s wheelhouse. Packard could have gone “full brougham” and made a mint—until the late ‘70s, when the economy/front wheel drive/high gas mileage thing would have crushed them.
Most of these look a little bit lower-end than a Cadillac of that era. I tend to think if Packard had survived it would have tried to go even higher-end than Cadillac, maybe even go for a Rolls-Royce kind of market, you might have ended up with something like a Camargue. Remember at the end Packard was trying to innovate as fast as it could, with Torsion-Level, Posi-Traction, and lock-up torque converters. If they survived, they wouldn’t have survived by selling a Buick. That said, I guess I like the 12-headlight one the best.
I love these against my better judgement. They seem stuck somewhere between ’80 Fleetwood, ’79 Continental, and 77 New Yorker brougham, with all the mass of each. I can smell the unburned HCs from the 4 bbl 589. The Lego brick alignment of the high count lights is actually very 2020 on the otherwise ’79 looks. Very Acura feature.
These wouldn’t have saved Packard on looks, but it’s fun to see some of these looks brought to their illogical full bearing. I love how the algorithm gets away with stuff in plain sight that’s so wrong. The color one in traffic has a large van behind it that’s got all kinds of stuff wrong on it but sneaks through past my brain unless I actually look right at the bad stuff. I’m fascinated with how it does this, obviously with much human guide.
None of these look particularly Packard-esque to me; rather just mashups of mid-’70s to early ’80s GM B/C body, Chrysler C and R body, and Lincoln Continental cues (complete with oval opera windows) with a different, but not very Packard-like, grille. I’d like to think a real ’75 Packard would be more restrained than these.
They did nail the 1975 look though, even subtle details like the thin cut lines that separate the plastic front clip from the front fenders, and the wide windshield that wraps around neatly to the side window with a thin pillar between them. A number of them have a kick-up in the beltline near the back of the rear doors, a last vestige of “Coke-bottle” styling that was fading in popularity by 1975 but still common. The one you thought looked like a ’75 Bonneville looks to me like a ’78 Bonne grille on an early-’80s Olds 98. The third pic down seems derived from the 79-81 Chrysler Newport.
They almost all look as if they were placed on GM’s “C” platform – basically, a modified Caddy or big Buick. Not attractive. But better than the abomination that guy in Arizona tried to foist off as a “Packard”.
I’d buy one. Nice job!
These are mesmerizng! It’s like waking up from a dream that you totally believed and after being up for a while you realized it really was just a dream. Good job!!!!
People seem to forget the mid/ late 70s . Sticker shock. Skyrocketing inflation. Gas at an unheard of .60 cpg. Chrysler was flailing around . Recession. This would of sunk like the turd its aspiring to be.
I love the looks of these cars. They’d be great on the interstate, can’t imagine driving something so large on a daily basis though – especially parking them. Despite the quirky details I really like their looks. Reminds me at times of a Pontiac Grand Ville or Bonneville.