Packin' it In

Packard station wagon? Did Packard build station wagons? Well, of course Packard built station wagons. Prior to World War II there were wood-bodied wagons in both the One-Ten and One-Twenty lines, and who could forget the stylish 1948 Station Sedan, though it was more of a half-timbered affair. In the twilight years, 1957 and 1958, there were also station wagons, though these were more Studebaker than Packard.

The car above notwithstanding, Packard Motor Car Company omitted any form of wagon from its 1951 to '56 catalogs. Perhaps the company brass felt they didn't need one. Packard's new "low-to-the-road styling" for 1951 included copious luggage space in its sedan configuration, nearly 90 percent more commodious than that of the 1948-50 "Pregnant Elephant" models. If that wasn't enough, the entry-level 200 series included a Business Coupe, basically a two door sedan with no back seat. When combined with the already-huge sedan trunk, the carrying capacity was mammoth. Apparently, it wasn't needed either, as the Business Coupe was gone by the time the '52s appeared.

But what of this unusual Packard wagon, part of The Auction at Hershey 2004? It's striking, but the lines are more abrupt than you'd expect, either from the factory or one of the custom shops like Coachcraft or Bohman & Schwartz. Its workmanship wasn't up to coachbuilder standards, either. At first I thought it was a cut-and-applique job on a 1951 Patrician sedan, but if so the rear door configuration has been significantly altered.

Packard is blessed with a populous partisanship. There are two major clubs, Packard Automobile Classics and Packards International, and two museums, the National Packard Museum and America's Packard Museum. Does anyone know the history of this interesting wagon?

Doin' the Continental

Wayne Graefen is a car journalist's best friend. He travels widely, is always on the lookout for remarkable vehicles, and takes lots of pictures. This time he's come up with the Continental drift.

These days Continental is synonymous with Lincoln, but when this Continental was built no one at Ford Motor Company had contemplated such a model. This is a 1933 Continental Flyer, built by the Continental Automobile Company, a division of Continental Motors. Continental? Didn't they build engines, not cars? Well, yes. Through the 1920s Continental was the chief supplier of engines to manufacturers of so-called "assembled cars," those built from parts supplied by outside companies ("outsourcing" is nothing new).

Continental's Muskegon, Michigan, plant had been supplying engines for the DeVaux automobile, built in nearby Grand Rapids. But in 1932, when the DeVaux-Hall Motors Corporation failed, Continental took over its Michigan assets to settle unpaid bills for engines. Building the last few DeVauxs in the plant, Continental brought out their own car for 1933, in three models: an entry-level Beacon four-cylinder model, a Flyer (the type photographed by Wayne), and a top-of-the-line Ace. All cars, of course, used Continental's famed Red Seal engines. 3,310 were built in 1933, and a further 953 Beacons were sold in 1934 before operations ceased. Continental Motors was acquired by Ryan Aeronautical Company (builder of Lindberg's Spirit of St. Louis) in 1965, which in turn was purchased by Teledyne in 1969. Today Teledyne Continental Motors builds piston and turbine engines for light aircraft.

Wayne snapped this Flyer coupe at a Veteran Motor Car Club of America meet at Fredericksburg, Texas, in July 2003. A bit down at the heels, it was solid and complete. It sold quickly.

Special K

You've heard the stories - the Duesenberg that sold for $300 in 1952, the Rolls-Royce limo that once changed hands for $150. Yes, there was a time when even the automobiles now considered Full Classics™ by the Classic Car Club of America were just old cars - cheap old cars at that. Those days will never come again, you say. Think again. The good old days could be now. Consider this 1985 Chrysler Executive Limousine.

Chrysler Corporation has a long heritage of roomy people movers. From the 1930s there have been long-wheelbase cars in all lines, even, for a time, Plymouth. Jim Benjaminson, stalwart stanchion of the Plymouth Owners Club, owns this rare 1940 P10 Deluxe 7-passenger sedan, one of three known survivors of 1,179 built. At the top of the line were the Crown Imperials, like this 1941 model and this 1956 Forward Look example (thanks to Dave Duricy and The Imperialist). Sometimes they were just "ordinary" Chryslers, like this 1953 New Yorker eight-passenger sedan I snapped at Hershey in 2002. An original car, it was first owned by the Philadelphia Electric Company and used for executive transportation.

The Executive Limo is of a genre known as the "Little Limousines." Based on the plebeian "K cars," the Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aires that were mainstays of Chrysler's 1980s catalog, the Little Limos were modified by American Specialty Cars, contract constructor to the auto industry. Brainchildren of Chrysler's Special Vehicle Projects executive Bob Marcks, they were introduced as 1983 models. Both an Executive Sedan and an Executive Limousine were built through 1984, after which just the Limo was continued. Power came from a normally-aspirated Mitsubishi-built 2.6 liter four, as used in most Chrysler minivans. For 1986, the final year, the 2.2 liter turbo four from Chrysler was substituted. Richard Nixon had one in his later years. A complete history of the cars can be found at the Imperial Club website.

This 1985 Executive Limo, one of 759 built that year, is owned by Dennis David, an automotive writer and photographer. It features fold-down jump seats and a sumptuous rear sofa. He reports that it belonged to a Connecticut funeral home, but was taken out of service in 1992 and has only recently been retrieved from storage. Dennis, also a sagacious appraiser, feels that the Little Limos comprise some of the most undervalued special-interest cars from the 1980s. Will they become 21st Century Fractional Classics? This car has already met one crtierion. Dennis reports that it once changed hands for $100.

Out of the Crypt

Passengers entering this vehicle usually don't see it from this angle, as their eyes are closed. The coachwork, which may look unusual, is British, and the chassis underneath it is Buick, not terribly common for a hearse. In the United States, most hearses now look something like this Superior Crown Sovereign, or the S&S Cadillac Medalist, both products of Accubuilt of Lima, Ohio, successor to old-line hearsebuilders Sayers & Scoville, Superior, Eureka and Miller-Meteor.

According to Gregg Merksamer, Publicity Director for the Professional Car Society and the CarPort's expert witness on automobiles funereal, Cadillac has the lion's share of the hearse business. The market is changing, however, and more and more funeral directors are using alternative vehicles, some converted from minivans. This Chevrolet Venture, for example, (rear view) converted by Eagle Coach Company of Amelia, Ohio, can be equipped with virtually any feature of a "big" hearse, including slide-out floor with rollers and polished bier pins . Additionally, a funeral home can order removable landau panels, making the "hearselet" less funebrious in "first call" service. Eagle, by the way, offers a full line of "specialty vehicles," including hearses based on the Chevy Suburban, no doubt popular in Texas.

The 1937 Buick hearse that instigated this feature was seen at Beaulieu Autojumble, the British equivalent to Hershey, in September 2002. Recently disentombed after decades of storage, it was being offered for sale. Although it attracted many onlookers, it did not seem to draw eager buyers. Its current whereabouts are unknown. Gregg reports, however, that Buick hearses are not unknown in the USA. In 1994, he spent a couple of days with this Superior Buick Sovereign commercial glass coach, while on a job writing its owner's manual. He reports the 260 hp LT-1 engine was "absolutely muscular," despite the car's extra ton of curb weight. Although the Buick Sovereign was discontinued when rear-drive GM cars disappeared for 1997, Buick funeral vehicles will continue. Eagle Coach has just announced a hearse version of the Buick Terraza.