Search | Car Forums | Gallery | Articles | Helper | AF 350Z | IgorSushko.com | Corporate |
| Latest | 0 Rplys |
|
Show Printable Version | Email this Page | Subscribe to this Thread |
|
Thread Tools |
01-24-2003, 09:27 AM | #16 | ||
AF Enthusiast
|
Quote:
|
||
01-24-2003, 12:36 PM | #17 | ||
CFA
Thread starter
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: London
Posts: 9,529
Thanks: 0
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
|
Quote:
i suspect you already know about Abarth |
||
01-24-2003, 01:11 PM | #18 | ||
AF Enthusiast
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Aalesund
Posts: 1,879
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
|
Quote:
|
||
01-25-2003, 06:57 AM | #19 | |
Banned
|
Yeah, they were sure not the fastest things back then. The "goddes of speed" ornament looks pretty good.
|
|
01-25-2003, 07:52 AM | #20 | |
CFA
Thread starter
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: London
Posts: 9,529
Thanks: 0
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
|
The Goddess of Speed?!?! :hehehe:
you gotta be kiddin me! |
|
01-25-2003, 08:50 AM | #21 | |
AF Enthusiast
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: canberra
Posts: 363
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
To my mind, Packard was easily a Rolls Royce competitor. Indeed I've read that the supposedly vaunted R/R Phanton II (I think) was a later and blatant engineering copy of a Packard V12, yet apparently not its equal. Packard had many 'firsts' to their name, including the first vehicle to be air-conditioned. They were always in the upper echelon of fine cars but were like all hit hard by the Depression, which is when they broadened their product lines with a 'Junior' Packard range somewhat downmarket into Buick territory. These saved the company yet cheapened the 'Senior' edition's name in the public's eye.
Postwar Packards were very well engineered pieces and, excluding Duesenberg, had what must be the mutha of all straight-8s, a mammoth and milky smooth 357 (?) CID featuring nine main-bearings. In the early 50s the old firm was revitalised with dynamic new management and tried to again capture its place expressly at the top of the market. Despite dwindling sales they still had sufficient capitol reserves to produce a new (and final) model-series which featured a big new V8, their own automatic trans, and novel torsion bar suspension - interlinked front to rear. However Studebaker (by then almost bankrupt and hemmoraging cash) in a highly dubious deal took over Packard - in reality to gain access to Packard's financial reserves - and bled it dry. I think genuine Packard product died in 1956 or thereabouts although Studebaker milked the famous old name for a couple of years with Packard-engined rebadged Studebakers. Somewhat mercifully, the marque disappeared altogether in 1958 By no means their finest or largest (it's the only photo I've stored of a Packard) but here's a cute 1930s boat-tail speedster |
|
01-27-2003, 03:39 PM | #22 | ||
Old Mod
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: None
Posts: 1,525
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
Quote:
The "new" Packard is nothing more than two mockups (one runs). The "company" (technically just the name, logos, and the prototypes and parts) was being auctioned off on ebay last year. |
||
01-27-2003, 05:33 PM | #23 | |
CFA
Thread starter
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: London
Posts: 9,529
Thanks: 0
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
|
auctioned on ebay? :hehehe:
somehow i dont see that happening to Rolls Royce anytime soon... hehe.. how much did it fetch anyway? |
|
01-27-2003, 09:24 PM | #24 | |
Old Mod
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: None
Posts: 1,525
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
Rolls-Royce is an operating entity. Packard, on the other hand, is not...and hasn't been since 1958.
The owners wanted a million dollars for it...it brought just over 1/4 of that. I never heard if they sold it. |
|
01-27-2003, 09:28 PM | #25 | |
Old Mod
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: None
Posts: 1,525
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
Come to think of it...Rolls-Royce was auctioned off a few years ago. In 1998, Volkswagen won the bidding for the company for about $800 million. Unfortunately, that didn't include the grille, the mascot, or THE NAME! BMW ended up in control after paying the owner of those three items about $60 million.
|
|
01-28-2003, 04:43 AM | #26 | ||
AF Enthusiast
|
Quote:
As for the new packard I was only aware of a prototype, and that the rights had been bought. The Prototype had full time all wheel drive, and a V12 aluminium engine. With 440hp/440ft-lbs of torque. |
||
01-28-2003, 12:14 PM | #27 | |
Old Mod
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: None
Posts: 1,525
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
That is the "new" Packard. There is, apparently, another non-running example.
As for Chevrolet ruining Packard, it seems difficult for me to follow that logic. Packard's buyers didn't care about Chevrolet and probably wouldn't even acknowledge that the "lowly" brand existed. Chevrolet (as well as the rest of GM) had started a styling war in the 1940s and 1950s, but CADILLAC should be put more at blame for the intense competition in the styling department. Packard's problem wasn't Chevrolet, it was small size of the company compared to the giants of GM, Ford, and Chrysler who provided the closest competition to one of the last independent US brands. |
|
01-28-2003, 12:53 PM | #28 | ||
CFA
Thread starter
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: London
Posts: 9,529
Thanks: 0
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
|
Quote:
|
||
01-28-2003, 12:55 PM | #29 | |
CFA
Thread starter
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: London
Posts: 9,529
Thanks: 0
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
|
Hybridsol>
that is one ugly looking thing! :apuke: |
|
01-28-2003, 01:01 PM | #30 | |
AF Enthusiast
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Aalesund
Posts: 1,879
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
|
|
|
|
POST REPLY TO THIS THREAD |
Thread Tools | |
|
|