I am now 93 years old and remember back in 1950 going into the Packard agency in Trenton. N.J. There was a black Packard 8 in th showroom just like the one you have shown. My Dad said that this is the car for your Mother and wrote out a check for about $3900,00 dollars. Wow! That seemed like a lot of money then. The car was great.
Mama and I moved to what would become Virginia Beach in 1955 and Mr. Flamont, the gentleman across the lane, had a 1951 Patrician. I still 'hear' the sound of him coming out the driveway.
I recall, my Uncle showing me, in 1972, when I was in 2nd Grade, him starting a friend's Packard, and then Balancing a US Quarter, UPRIGHT, upon the Head of that RUNNING Engine. Yeah, That Frickin' SMOOTH!! A believer ever since!
Pre WWII Packards were considered superior to Cadillac in prestige, particularly the senior cars. Senior Packards of the 20s and 30s were every bit the equals or even superior to the contemporary Rolls. After WWII is when Packard slipped into Buick territory. We will not speak of the Packardbakers.
Clipper was sharp for post war. Now that i'm older, I would definitely like a Hawk. It grew on me. Mouth like a big flathead but sharp in its own way. Prewar like you said was another level. One of the three P's!
Great video. These are very good cars! I've owned several over the years and I currently have the larger version a Custom Eight with the big 9 main bearing engine.
The car our great great great parents drove. I can see them now getting I there Packard and going to the corner store. Grandma telling grandpa slow down. Thanks what an awesome piece of history.
We own several 50s era Packards in our family none have motors displacement in liters. Packard made many engines under government contract because of the power, reliability & just great motors, used in PT boats to planes.
@MarkSchieman I only own one turquoise 1949 Packard Standard Eight Touring Sedan with Ultramatic. It doesn't have displacement in liters either. He's probably only converting CID to liters to appease the *_Metric Maniacs_* . Happy Packarding!
Pre great depression Packard was certainly an equal or even a class above Rolls Royce. Hyper luxury combined with the absolute pinnacle of automotive engineering. During the depression they introduced lower end models, which allowed them to survive, unlike other American hyperluxury brands like Peerless, but this cheapened the brand image down to a Cadilac equivalent. Post WWII, they introduced even lower end lines like the Clipper in an effort to survive, which unfortunately poluted the brand image even further.
No overdrive on that particular car. Most had it, which also shifted with the gas pedal. You missed one of the coolest items on the late -40's Packard's. It's said they have the most beautiful instrument cluster of any car, ever.... at NIGHT. The dials are glow-in-the-dark greenish radium kept energized by a soft, purple "black light". Zero impact on night vision. They are best appreciated on a rural road on a moonless night. The large numbers and needles are suspended in a diffuse cloud of purple haze, as you float along on your magic carpet ride.
I noticed that they were glow in the dark and I don't even know anything about Packards. That's because my parents had a small night table alarm clock and the numbers have that same lemon green look in the daytime. We also had a Robert fan that made a strange wooing noise when it was on .
A Tri-Five Chevy or a "Forward Look" Dodge/Plymouth/Desoto/Chrysler? I say the Chevy. It seems like when you ask the average person about a '50s car, they think about the 1957 Bel Air and a diner. Ford had Edsel which they said was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but we know that was a bunch of crap, because they did not last.
The first edsels were pretty ugly but if you look at an edible ranger from the last few handful of months that they were produced only around 1960 it has a totally more 1960s designed to it it's really beautiful car and you can get one for like 10 to 15,000 much cheaper than you can get a 55 Chevy for sometimes you might even be able to get a second generation Edsel ranger even cheaper than the original Edsel and it doesn't have that strange toilet bowl seat grill.@@jdslyman1720
Nice review! Hopefully you can drive one with their Ultramatic. The gas-pedal starter arrangement was also shared with Buicks of the period. I once had a 1953 Clipper Super Deluxe and made sure I had spares around, as that starter arrangement was on the carburetor.😊
Beautiful car - thanks for saving it. I caught that 1968 Torino GT fastback in a couple of your images. My Dad bought one of those in late 1967 when they came out. Are you going to feature that as well?
From all that I've seen and read of Packard Motors I can say they had a solid build and reputation to go with it. The straight eight was essentially bullet proof both quiet and strong. Too bad Packard was a victim of it's own success and was faced with an overwhelming dealership presence in every corner of the country from Ford, GM and Chrysler. I would be driving Packard today for sure if they were still around no doubt. Thank you for a great review and awesome look at this beautiful car, it has a lot of WOW factor no doubt.
My father was proud of our family’s post WWII navy blue Packard . I recall the plush interior and distinctive hood ornament. The car was traded for a 1953 Buick with a ‘straight 8’ my father was excited about, so the Packard must have been a six.
As far as handling is concerned, one needs to drive a car of this era for a week to learn how to 'throw' it around a corner, and then you'll have a blast. Worthy to note that this 'bathtub' Packard out-sold Cadillac in the late 1940s. Unless you've driven a 1950 Rolls Royce, who are you to compare this Packard to it?
Maybe putting on some modern radial tires can help? There are whitewall bias look radials that use radial internal construction and modern rubber compound with pie crust sidewall and retro tread pattern so they won't ruin the look.
@@DripDripDrip69 I agree. If you're going to drive it a lot, radial tires make a huge difference in handling. Europe had radial tires since the 1950s, but American cars didn't offer them until 1970.
This is the era where Packard stumbled and never recovered. Prior to the Depression, Packard WAS on par with prestigious makes like Rolls Royce. They used to call them the three P's: Packard, Peerless and Pierce-Arrow. Packard was the only marque to survive the depression, but they did so by moving DOWN market; a move that kept them alive, but destroyed their image. Packard used to be well above Lincoln or Cadillac. Bankers used to drive those.... Hollywood movie stars or Executives or Presidents would drive Packards. Packard was so Prestigious at one point in time, Rolls-Royce gave specifically ONLY Packard permission to build the Merlin V12 engines for the Spitfire airplanes. Following the war, Packard management refused to think that the post-war boom would end. But by 1950, even Ford, Plymouth and Chevrolet were starting to catch up with Packard equipment levels. Cadillac offered a new OHV V8 by then, Chrysler had the Hemi and even Lincoln would have an OHV V8 on the horizon. Packard still had the same basic inline 8 engine they'd been using since the 30's and R&D on "luxury" equipment had all but halted leaving the Packard as no more equipped than your average Oldsmobile. Moving down-market again in the 50's with the Clipper; losing their body Manufacturing by Briggs; and then moving their own body manufacturing to a plant that had NEVER assembled bodies before was just..... astonishingly foolish. There are those who say had they changed final assembly at the Conner Avenue plant to body manufacture; it might have saved Packard the embarrassment of the 1955 model year "new" bodies. QC was so bad in '55 that some dealers would complain that doors would open, but then not close or worse yet.... couldn't actually be opened! This was left for the dealers to solve as Packard was more worried about production than quality. This was pretty much the final blow to Packard. Even though they'd solved MOST of their teething problems by the 1956 model year.... the damage was done. If memory serves, they couldn't shift more than 20,000 automobiles in 1956. Even their most amazing gadget - the Electrically shifted Pushbutton Ultramatic was such a disaster.... that the Bendix corporation that produced it - DESTROYED all parts and documentation for the device in 1959 as they deemed it a failure and an embarrassment. Packard decision-making in the late 40's and early 50's were almost identical to what killed AMC later in the 70's.
Man.... Packard is better than Rolls Royce... packard was THE MOST LUXURIUS BRAND in the world until WW2. Packard was the American Rolls Royce, and actually even better.... Packard was the first automaker to make a car with air conditioning in the 30s. When Packard had electric windows, seats, air conditioning, the most advanced and revolutionary automatic transmission and 310 hp v8 engine in the mid 50s... Rolls Joyce still had crank windows, no air conditioning, manual transmission, and les powerful engine. Packard also had a revolutionary torsion bar suspension and an auto- levelizer, which was years ahead of the European competition.
I really like this review, I just expect a little more honesty in the comments about that engine bay. Sounds and runs waaaaay better than it looks in there. Looks rational enough, not necessarily bad from a functional lens, but aesthetically looks plebeian for a “luxury car”
This design was also known as the pregnant elephant: it did not age well. Actually designed by Packard's president's son - maybe not a good idea. Really mucked up the still handsome postwar Clipper which had caused such a stir at its 1941 introduction. They probably did need something new to move away from the early 40's look (and the 50th anniversary added some pressure), but this wasn't it. Looks like they just troweled on sheet metal. The 51 was a better design and would have had more legs - but for the fact of the too high beltline.
Ya Know... or, Ya Cannot fathom that Back Seat Space.. On Prom-night, OMG, almost as good as a Wagon-Back Saab 99 from 1975!! Not quite as good, but Close. Listen to Bob Seger a bit more, perhaps...
I am now 93 years old and remember back in 1950 going into the Packard agency in Trenton. N.J. There was a black Packard 8 in th showroom just like the one you have shown. My Dad said that this is the car for your Mother and wrote out a check for about $3900,00 dollars. Wow! That seemed like a lot of money then. The car was great.
Mama and I moved to what would become Virginia Beach in 1955 and Mr. Flamont, the gentleman across the lane, had a 1951 Patrician. I still 'hear' the sound of him coming out the driveway.
It WAS a lot of money then!😊
thank you for sharing your story. what a wonderful time to be alive that mustve been
"Ask The Man Who Owns One". Such a fine ride.
I recall, my Uncle showing me, in 1972, when I was in 2nd Grade, him starting a friend's Packard, and then Balancing a US Quarter, UPRIGHT, upon the Head of that RUNNING Engine. Yeah, That Frickin' SMOOTH!! A believer ever since!
Pre WWII Packards were considered superior to Cadillac in prestige, particularly the senior cars. Senior Packards of the 20s and 30s were every bit the equals or even superior to the contemporary Rolls. After WWII is when Packard slipped into Buick territory.
We will not speak of the Packardbakers.
I think the 1946-1947 Custom Super Clipper was Packard's pinnacle post war
Clipper was sharp for post war. Now that i'm older, I would definitely like a Hawk. It grew on me. Mouth like a big flathead but sharp in its own way. Prewar like you said was another level. One of the three P's!
@@pbrandon4129 I've always thought the Hawk (1958?) looks like a whale shark
@@pbrandon4129 I had a 1951 200 with the 3-speed and Overdrive and a 1953 Pacific with Ultramatic and I much prefer the former.
@@jerrycallender9352 I believe 58 is right. Whale shark is a better description than the catfish! Nailed it.
Love these! Especially the convertible Victoria version like in back to the future
Great video. These are very good cars! I've owned several over the years and I currently have the larger version a Custom Eight with the big 9 main bearing engine.
Hey, it's Doc Brown's Packard from Back to the Future!
Grandpa Phil’s car from Hey Arnold
The car our great great great parents drove. I can see them now getting I there Packard and going to the corner store. Grandma telling grandpa slow down. Thanks what an awesome piece of history.
We own several 50s era Packards in our family none have motors displacement in liters. Packard made many engines under government contract because of the power, reliability & just great motors, used in PT boats to planes.
@MarkSchieman I only own one turquoise 1949 Packard Standard Eight Touring Sedan with Ultramatic. It doesn't have displacement in liters either. He's probably only converting CID to liters to appease the *_Metric Maniacs_* .
Happy Packarding!
@
All ours 5 have 327 thunderbolts, Ultramatics, power steering, Electic power brakes.
Pre great depression Packard was certainly an equal or even a class above Rolls Royce. Hyper luxury combined with the absolute pinnacle of automotive engineering. During the depression they introduced lower end models, which allowed them to survive, unlike other American hyperluxury brands like Peerless, but this cheapened the brand image down to a Cadilac equivalent. Post WWII, they introduced even lower end lines like the Clipper in an effort to survive, which unfortunately poluted the brand image even further.
No overdrive on that particular car. Most had it, which also shifted with the gas pedal. You missed one of the coolest items on the late -40's Packard's. It's said they have the most beautiful instrument cluster of any car, ever.... at NIGHT. The dials are glow-in-the-dark greenish radium kept energized by a soft, purple "black light". Zero impact on night vision. They are best appreciated on a rural road on a moonless night. The large numbers and needles are suspended in a diffuse cloud of purple haze, as you float along on your magic carpet ride.
I noticed that they were glow in the dark and I don't even know anything about Packards. That's because my parents had a small night table alarm clock and the numbers have that same lemon green look in the daytime. We also had a Robert fan that made a strange wooing noise when it was on .
Wow!
This is a treat! A Packard!!! I've only seen one once back in the 80s. Thanks Zack!!
In the Thirties Packard was best known for their V12s.
I love those Packards, Studebakers, and Hudsons. Thank you for doing the review!
We need an 8-bit picture of a Packard to go with the music, lol. Have fun dude!!
1:45 it is so quiet😂😂😂
Do a 50s car that the average person drove plzzz
A Tri-Five Chevy or a "Forward Look" Dodge/Plymouth/Desoto/Chrysler? I say the Chevy. It seems like when you ask the average person about a '50s car, they think about the 1957 Bel Air and a diner. Ford had Edsel which they said was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but we know that was a bunch of crap, because they did not last.
@@jdslyman1720Average people in the '50s did not drive tri-power chevies. They drove del rays and 150s.
The first edsels were pretty ugly but if you look at an edible ranger from the last few handful of months that they were produced only around 1960 it has a totally more 1960s designed to it it's really beautiful car and you can get one for like 10 to 15,000 much cheaper than you can get a 55 Chevy for sometimes you might even be able to get a second generation Edsel ranger even cheaper than the original Edsel and it doesn't have that strange toilet bowl seat grill.@@jdslyman1720
Nice review! Hopefully you can drive one with their Ultramatic. The gas-pedal starter arrangement was also shared with Buicks of the period. I once had a 1953 Clipper Super Deluxe and made sure I had spares around, as that starter arrangement was on the carburetor.😊
My Grandmother drove Packard's. Very comfortable back seats.
Beautiful car - thanks for saving it. I caught that 1968 Torino GT fastback in a couple of your images. My Dad bought one of those in late 1967 when they came out. Are you going to feature that as well?
Character class and charisma
💯
I love the Packard more than a Chevy or Ford, just so much better looking.
From all that I've seen and read of Packard Motors I can say they had a solid build and reputation to go with it. The straight eight was essentially bullet proof both quiet and strong. Too bad Packard was a victim of it's own success and was faced with an overwhelming dealership presence in every corner of the country from Ford, GM and Chrysler. I would be driving Packard today for sure if they were still around no doubt. Thank you for a great review and awesome look at this beautiful car, it has a lot of WOW factor no doubt.
I do so love three on the tree. I briefly owned a 1951 Packard 200 business coupe - no back seat. Even this very base model oozed quality.
That straight eight sounds mean under power. Big, classy car that meant that someone important was pulling up.
I would love an inline 8 car today, but nerds won't let us.
I drove a streight 8 Buick long ago
It was a gas hog and a dog !
My father was proud of our family’s post WWII navy blue Packard . I recall the plush interior and distinctive hood ornament. The car was traded for a 1953 Buick with a ‘straight 8’ my father was excited about, so the Packard must have been a six.
What a beautiful car this is , so prestigious and stylish!
What a beautiful Sunday car.
6:18 I suppose the 1945-1960 Panther De-Ville used some Packard parts for the trunk.
As far as handling is concerned, one needs to drive a car of this era for a week to learn how to 'throw' it around a corner, and then you'll have a blast. Worthy to note that this 'bathtub' Packard out-sold Cadillac in the late 1940s. Unless you've driven a 1950 Rolls Royce, who are you to compare this Packard to it?
Rolls was just getting back into production by then, whereas the Americans were already back by 1946.
@@jptech57 Rolls Royce automobiles were back in production in 1946.
Maybe putting on some modern radial tires can help? There are whitewall bias look radials that use radial internal construction and modern rubber compound with pie crust sidewall and retro tread pattern so they won't ruin the look.
@@DripDripDrip69 I agree. If you're going to drive it a lot, radial tires make a huge difference in handling. Europe had radial tires since the 1950s, but American cars didn't offer them until 1970.
Awesome thanks Zman!!
Packard would still be in business if they hadn't waited too long to dump the straight 8 in favor of the V8.
This is the era where Packard stumbled and never recovered. Prior to the Depression, Packard WAS on par with prestigious makes like Rolls Royce. They used to call them the three P's: Packard, Peerless and Pierce-Arrow. Packard was the only marque to survive the depression, but they did so by moving DOWN market; a move that kept them alive, but destroyed their image. Packard used to be well above Lincoln or Cadillac. Bankers used to drive those.... Hollywood movie stars or Executives or Presidents would drive Packards. Packard was so Prestigious at one point in time, Rolls-Royce gave specifically ONLY Packard permission to build the Merlin V12 engines for the Spitfire airplanes.
Following the war, Packard management refused to think that the post-war boom would end. But by 1950, even Ford, Plymouth and Chevrolet were starting to catch up with Packard equipment levels. Cadillac offered a new OHV V8 by then, Chrysler had the Hemi and even Lincoln would have an OHV V8 on the horizon. Packard still had the same basic inline 8 engine they'd been using since the 30's and R&D on "luxury" equipment had all but halted leaving the Packard as no more equipped than your average Oldsmobile.
Moving down-market again in the 50's with the Clipper; losing their body Manufacturing by Briggs; and then moving their own body manufacturing to a plant that had NEVER assembled bodies before was just..... astonishingly foolish. There are those who say had they changed final assembly at the Conner Avenue plant to body manufacture; it might have saved Packard the embarrassment of the 1955 model year "new" bodies. QC was so bad in '55 that some dealers would complain that doors would open, but then not close or worse yet.... couldn't actually be opened! This was left for the dealers to solve as Packard was more worried about production than quality. This was pretty much the final blow to Packard. Even though they'd solved MOST of their teething problems by the 1956 model year.... the damage was done. If memory serves, they couldn't shift more than 20,000 automobiles in 1956. Even their most amazing gadget - the Electrically shifted Pushbutton Ultramatic was such a disaster.... that the Bendix corporation that produced it - DESTROYED all parts and documentation for the device in 1959 as they deemed it a failure and an embarrassment.
Packard decision-making in the late 40's and early 50's were almost identical to what killed AMC later in the 70's.
Omg! Love seeing this!! I have a 49 Super 8. Get a hold of me if you want to do another!!
Man.... Packard is better than Rolls Royce... packard was THE MOST LUXURIUS BRAND in the world until WW2. Packard was the American Rolls Royce, and actually even better....
Packard was the first automaker to make a car with air conditioning in the 30s. When Packard had electric windows, seats, air conditioning, the most advanced and revolutionary automatic transmission and 310 hp v8 engine in the mid 50s... Rolls Joyce still had crank windows, no air conditioning, manual transmission, and les powerful engine. Packard also had a revolutionary torsion bar suspension and an auto- levelizer, which was years ahead of the European competition.
Unbelievebly beautiful...
Super cool review. Thank you,
Nice review!
my grand father swore by Packards . the best.
One day after Ed's Auto Reviews' Packard/Clipper video🤔
Back when cars had real chrome.
Solid value
Stalin had a knock off of the ‘50 Packard;)
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery ❤
I really like this review, I just expect a little more honesty in the comments about that engine bay. Sounds and runs waaaaay better than it looks in there. Looks rational enough, not necessarily bad from a functional lens, but aesthetically looks plebeian for a “luxury car”
🔥 thanks for this one bro
i do not understand the speedometer tho? is it x10?
it would otherwise only go to 11 😂 it must be x10
It is x10. No need to repeat zeros on every label. Can make the numbers bigger that way.
imaging telling packard eingeneers that we achieved the smoothness and quiteness of their 8 cyl engine with a 4 or a 3 cyl
This design was also known as the pregnant elephant: it did not age well. Actually designed by Packard's president's son - maybe not a good idea. Really mucked up the still handsome postwar Clipper which had caused such a stir at its 1941 introduction. They probably did need something new to move away from the early 40's look (and the 50th anniversary added some pressure), but this wasn't it. Looks like they just troweled on sheet metal. The 51 was a better design and would have had more legs - but for the fact of the too high beltline.
I would like to find a Packard sometime
The engine starting system is the same as the Buicks of this era!!!
What was the "Clutch" button for?
Why does it sound like it’s got no mufflers at 1:46?
The microphone was on the exhaust
Ah, okay, the sound just seems in total contrast to the statement about smoothness that precedes it!
@@ShootingCars it still sounded like it had an exhaust leak or a bad muffler.
Ya Know... or, Ya Cannot fathom that Back Seat Space.. On Prom-night, OMG, almost as good as a Wagon-Back Saab 99 from 1975!! Not quite as good, but Close. Listen to Bob Seger a bit more, perhaps...
In this case, 8 is enough.
early buicks started the same way
I could see Dick Tracy cruising around in a Packard
Why do you always give engine sizes in metric? All pre-1980s domestic cars used cubic inches, this one being 288.
multiplying and dividing by 61 isnt that hard......
😍😍 Cool!
Salute!
My father's was a two door.
Grandpa Phil’s car from Hey Arnold. Well his was a 1947.
Idling = purring
Nice 😀
Quality built car. Too bad Packard went extinct.
Sounds like a racer .
Get a new muffler!
Bruhhh rite? wtf, smh.
They where better than rolls Royce. These where the first cars with power windows, where did you get your information?
So why are you chopping out the punctuation in your script? Must I be bombarded with all this blasted video trash?