Looking at this Packard in the snow the word Endurance comes to mind, for a couple of reasons.
I’ve been driving by this car for about 5 years, although it never seemed to move from the end of a long driveway (seen here in July 2015 SV image). I never worried about it too much because I’m not much of a Packard guy. I prefer my Automotive Orphan Lunacy in packages marked Studebaker, Desoto, or Triumph. Go figure. However last week I noticed that both the house and the Packard are for sale, so I stopped to look.
It’s a 1955 Packard Patrician, the 55-56 models represented the last blaze of glory for the Packard name. Well styled and technologically up to date, they could not stop the long slide and after these cars the final two years of Packards were rebadged Studebaker models (or PackardBakers). Although the Packard name has not endured, this specimen has. Who knows how many of its 63 years have been endured outside?
Despite the organic growth and some lower body rot it looks like a solid project, glass is good and chrome is decent. The interior is worn but all there.
It’s even a Toronto car, Robertson Motors was a dealer on Danforth street. “Old Reliable” isn’t the hippest of advertising slogans, but maybe that didn’t matter when you were selling Packards.
A quick image search came up of this one from the mid 1960’s, when Robertson Motors was a Chev-Olds dealership. It too has not endured.
With the snow and general air of abandonment, this car also reminds me of Endurance, the ship Ernest Shackleton sailed on his unsuccessful but heroic Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition of 1914. After being caught in pack ice for nearly a year she was crushed by the ice and sank. Shackleton led his men to land, and after a harrowing voyage in one of Endurance’s lifeboats to find help the men were rescued with no loss of life.
This Patrician is also beset by ice, although not in imminent danger of being crushed. I would imagine that it is a possibility though.
$7,500 seems steep for a 1950’s Packard project car, but the OBO gives me some hope.
When I parked my car in the driveway and shot my photos there was no sign of life in the house, and since both property and vehicle are for sale I’d guess an elderly owner has moved on, leaving their former pride and joy behind.
What is really needed here is for someone to step up and declare “I WILL KEEP YOU ALIVE!” a quote from the excellent 2001 movie Shackleton which you should watch.
Hopefully this Packard will endure further to be part of a survival story. I’ll leave the number on the FOR SALE sign as long as I still see the car, if there’s no number it’s gone.
Shot 18-Nov-2018 Ancaster Ontario Canada.
Related: CC 1956 Packard Patrician – Please Proceed To The Lifeboats JPC
These final Packards make my heart ache. For one brief final moment the cars were current and competitive. Of course we all know that a car that looked like this would not have been anywhere close to current and competitive in 1957, so this body was at the very tail end of its freshness date.
And is there any other engine in modern automotive history that was introduced with such fanfare and died so quickly and completely as the Packard V8? I realize that there were a couple of design glitches which led to some lubrication problems, but many other engines of that era suffered some early teething problems only to become quite durable later (Hello, Studebaker). 2 years of production before everything was scrapped seems like such a waste.
And since your tastes run to Studebaker, you are in luck because this 1955 model was absolutely a product of the Studebaker Packard Corporation. Wouldn’t this make a great companion for your VW?
Agggggh! That lead photo makes this Packard look like a dog in the pound, with those big, sad eyes begging you to adopt it and take it home.
Well if you buy it I’ll hold in in my driveway for a while until you can pick it up.
You’ve had it too easy lately with your reliable fun Miata. What you really need is a massive orphan project with hard to find parts.
Yeah MX5s dont need tools very often, time to get your paws dirty JP, this car is you. Join the other orphan owners club.
> And is there any other engine in modern automotive history that was introduced with such fanfare and died so quickly and completely as the Packard V8?
The Comotor rotary?
The Packard V8 did manage to make it under the hoods of Hudsons, Nashes, Studebakers, and a few boats and racing cars during its short life.
In the early 1990s, Old Cars Weekly newspaper ran a story about running changes to the 1949 Cadillac V-8. Apparently there were a few teething problems with that engine, but GM had the ability to correct them quickly, and obviously customers were willing to give Cadillac the benefit of the doubt. (The Oldsmobile Rocket V-8 also had some teething problems.)
It undoubtedly helped that the Cadillac and Oldsmobile V-8s were the first of the new type of engines coming from Detroit.
Unfortunately, by 1955, a high-compression, overhead-valve V-8 was hardly a new idea in the medium-price and luxury market segments.
Packard was late with the type of engine that customers expected in these price classes, and simply didn’t have the resources or the customer goodwill to get through the early problems.
If I am not mistaken, these also used torsion bars for the front and rear suspensions, a rather unique set up, even then. Love it, even though my own tastes run from ’50s barges, I do rather like this one. But 7K seems a bit steep, closer five maybe for a project, as refit costs will be high if thats your thing. But you will have the only one on the block I’m sure!
If I am not mistaken, these also used torsion bars for the front and rear suspensions, a rather unique set up,
Invented by William Allison, and engineer at Hudson. Hudson didn’t have the money to develop it, so Mr Allison was loaned to Packard.
system diagram
Be sure to turn the levelizer switch under the dash off before you put one of these on a lift. One of my co-workers neglected to do this and the Packard dropped to the ground while trying to level itself.
I’m seeing a $4000 car here, and that might be high. The article states that the interior is worn and it hasn’t really moved in 5 years. It will need tires, brakes, the gas tank cleaned out and any number of other things. Too bad, because these are very nice cars but the supply is greater than the demand.
25k all day long if it was mailed out here, however the postage isnt cheap.
I can only hope this car goes to a home where there’s a garage or carport to keep it out of The Elements. It deserves some TLC.
Holy Moses! I’ve always found Packard of this generation to best represent what made the nameplate great in the first place. Yes, its styling isn’t at the height of fashion by any means. However, it isn’t dowdy either. You bought a Packard for its absolutely sterling build quality and engineering. Personally, I would love to find a 1955-1956 Packard project and fix it up proper (although I wouldn’t refuse a Packard of any year!)
Owned a 56 Clipper Super in the early 80’s – drove well – handling the Merritt Parkway as well as any 4 door on the road at the time. Kids in the neighborhood loved sitting on the bumper while the suspension corrected for height… no sure that a king pin front suspension or vacuum powered windshield wipers were very early 80’s but still nice fun car… and we made money on it when we sold it!
Love those cathedral taillights.
Such a beautiful form. The ’55-’56 Packards were Dick Teague’s first glimmer of brilliance. His last gasp of brilliance was the ’84 XJ Cherokee (he even managed to get a bit of say on the upcoming Grand Cherokee). Unfortunately somewhere in between, he drew up the Gremlin and Pacer….
These final Packards were the most “normal” looking of the independents of the era, the only ones that if you squinted a bit could pass for a Big 3 product. Despite only minor changes, I much prefer the ’56 to the ’55 – instead of that silvery molding on the ’55 that just stops halfway along the rear door, on the ’56 it continues the full length of the car and makes it look all of a piece. The front end was also finessed to draw your eye lower, with smaller headlight scoops, a bigger grille section down in the bumper, repositioned dagmars, the elimination of the PACKARD lettering in favor of a logo, and a nicer egg-crate grille texture. There was also a bigger engine underhood, plus electric pushbutton shifting. The ’56 Caribbean hardtop remains my dream car, but if I ever buy one it will likely have to be a midrange 400 hardtop or this Caribbean sedan.
Well, $7500 Canadian is $5640 in Freedom Dollars as of today so that’s (perhaps) more palatable. With the obo, $4000 may well be attainable if one has to have it. The real time to swoop in is as soon as the house itself goes under contract. Then the car will likely be hauled off to the scrapyard prior to closing and any pittance of an offer might well secure it…
I guess I glanced over the fact that the car is actually in Canada. I live less than 100 miles south of the border so it isn’t out of the ordinary to find a car that began life up there and then made its way into my neck of the woods.
The 2nd photo (Google street view) almost looks as if it could have been taken around 1960 or so.
Would be a good image for a jigsaw puzzle.
It’d be good if it was clearer. Honestly, I think a better jigsaw puzzle would be the Toronto photo of Danforth Street. I’d enjoy wasting my time putting that one together.
Yeah–that’s a good one too!
It’s a cute little house. Unfortunately it’s on a large lot in a desirable area so it will probably be bulldozed about 10 minutes after the real estate deal closes to make way for a McMansion. 🙁
Believe it or not (I barely can) this is my childhood house the Packard is parked beside. My mom sold it a few years ago well below market value. The current owner is asking more than double what they paid. They will not get it thanks to a fallen market. They are cursing themself because in spite of plans to knock down and build bigger, there are limits to development in that part of town. They deserve the frustration they get as the existing structure, though small, is in great shape and perfect for a small family. From the looks of the car this person must have a history of dreaming big and losing their way often. Too many people fail to see when enough is enough.
I haven’t seen the Shackleton movie, but there was a very good PBS special on his failed expedition. I’m just guessing here but like many biopics these days, I wonder if the impetus for the movie was the PBS special. One that springs immediately to mind was the lackluster Apollo 13 movie. The PBS special on that one was much better. Maybe it’s just me but the documentaries seem to carry more weight and are more riveting than the big-name movies that tend to embellish and take liberties with the truth to get asses in the seats..
Those are two examples of stories that don’t need embelishment!
Oh, my. That Patrician needs to be rescued, for sure. It’s hard to tell from pictures, but it almost looks as if it could be a driver with some TLC.
A Patrician was the top of the line 4-door sedan for Packard in 1955. As has already been mentioned, Packards came equipped with the brand-new V8, and the unique torsion level ride (optional on Clippers at first, but they even had it in 1956).
What HASN’T been mentioned is that over top the new engine and suspension, chief stylist Dick Teague did a masterful job transforming the body shell introduced in 1951 into something that looks relatively fresh and contemporary for the year.
It was too little, too late for Packard.
I’m continually amazed at the number of ’55-’56 Packards that have survived over the years. That in itself is a testimony to the quality of their engineering.
Popular Mechanics magazine used to run articles based on surveys of car owner satisfaction. 97% of 1955 Packard owners rated the car “Excellent”–a record high shared only by the Mercedes gullwing sports car.
By comparison, in 1958, Cadillac and Imperial were rated “Excellent” by 81%, while the ’58 Lincolns only got 67% “Excellent” (and 17% “Poor”!)–a record low.
With that kind of owner satisfaction, I wonder why the 55-56 Packards didn’t sell better.
With that kind of owner satisfaction, I wonder why the 55-56 Packards didn’t sell better.
That survey must have been done when the cars were nearly new. The Ultramatic had been revised for 55, but it had a tendency to burn up the high gear clutch. They seem to have gotten the transmission issues resolved by 56, but the oil aeration problem persisted, which lead to lifter and bearing failures. Packard tried to sell the V8 to the Army as a truck engine. The first requirement for Army purchase was to run the engines on a test stand for a given number of hours to verify durability. Every engine Packard tried failed. Packard sold the V8/Ultramatic combination to AMC for the Nash Ambassador and Hudson Hornet. I have a 56 Nash salesman training film that assures the salesmen that all the problems the V8 powertrain had in 55 have been fixed, then it spends the next five minutes telling the salesmen to avoid selling the V8.
Packard might have been able to sell more cars in 55, if they could have built them, but they moved assembly into a small, too small as it turned out, plant, which cramped production volume. There was so much pressure on the plant to ship cars that defects were not corrected before shipping. Cars were shipped out with red tags and left for the dealers to fix. The dealers stripped the service parts system clean of parts to fix what the plant didn’t correct, then some dealers had to resort to cannibalizing cars in their inventory to get others repaired so they could be delivered to customers.
In 56, the press was probably nattering constantly about S-P’s teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, as customers stayed away.
“The Fall of the Packard Motor Car Company’ and “Master Motor Builders” make for pretty grim reading.
I watched part of that film after you referred to it in another discussion. If I recall correctly, the film tells salesmen to avoid “upselling” customers interested in a Nash or Hudson six to the V-8.
The concern was the higher cost of the V-8 models was a “bridge too far” for the typical Nash or Hudson customer. If the customer showed interest in the six, then the salesman was to run with that.
The high cost of the Packard V-8 was one thing that spurred AMC to develop its own V-8.
What’s the consensus amongst Packardphiles regarding the straight-8 vs. V8 engines? Of course the new-for-’55 V8 was more powerful and more trendy, and became even faster in ’56. But did it have the legendary smoothness and quietness that was a hallmark of Packard’s inline-eight engines?
Joe Ligo did an excellent video on the ’55 Packard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmUJixqoUQM
My Dad was someone this type of car should have appealed too. He loved his Cadillac’s and had owned a 41 Packard shortly after the war. I remember seeing a couple at shows and questioning why he had such a variety of interesting 50’s cars ( 56 Caddy, 55 Nomad, first year Chrysler hemi etc) but no Packard.
His response was ” those cars had the technology but were born old . Nobody under 50 would be caught driving one”
If you liked “Shackleton”, Doug, try and find a 2004 doco called “Frank Hurley: the Man who Made History”. Hurley was the Australian photographer on Shackleton’s famed expedition, and took the image you include here. He was also one of those self-invented characters who lived an improbably busy life as a war correspondent (both lots), documentarian, feature film-maker, Academy Award nominee (for some short film), contrarian, and, insofar as his photography is concerned, controversialist. For example, there is a photo of Shackleton returning to Elephant Island – it is in truth probably the one of him leaving, doctored. An early user of the forerunner of Photoshop, perhaps.
That enduring heavy-set Patrician looks like it might weigh more than the Endurance. Great photo, btw. Unlike Shackleton, I don’t think this Packard’s captain is ever returning.
Well, that was a bummer. Had a short, sweet paean written. Went to submit and…poof. Said I was submitting comments too fast. Not.
The phone number from the ad comes up as a cell phone number, so probably a relative of the owner helping to get rid of the car and the house. It’s in great shape for a 60+ year old car for sure.
Here’s a similar one I took at the Packard museum in Florida. This one looks to have some more chrome and a ragtop roof. A very nicely styled car.
There was a book about Shackelton’s voyage called “Endurance”; it really was an amazing story-Shackelton managed to save everyone on the ship after it was trapped in the ice.
I’m struck by the similarity in operation of the interconnected suspensions in these Packards, and the Citroen 2CV. And how these two cars served such completely different markets. Given that the 2CV was introduced 7 years earlier, I wonder if this was more than coincidence?
It’s also interesting to note that the Citroen DS was also introduced in 1955. With load-levelling, interconnected suspension.
Shackleton’s book, “South,” is a good read. Even better, in my opinion, is the book he wrote about his 1908 expedition, “Heart of the Antarctic” — when he came within 100 miles of the Pole (it’s available online at the archive.org).
Shackleton’s 1908 trip was the first to attempt using a motor vehicle in Antarctica (an Arrol-Johnston).
January update – The house has sold, and the Packard is gone.