Forty Rod SASS 3935 Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Outside Staples this morning was a 1958 Packard Hawk, showroom perfect. (We had a show this weekend a mile from my place, but I didn't go.) This one was very light cream and gold with a russet gold interior and a red leather steering wheel. From the age of outlandish fins this car and its sister from Studebaker (the Golden Hawk) were way to hell and gone ahead of the rest. Kind of like a street legal Bat Mobile for common folks. My high school football and swimming coach har one identical to the one I saw today and he wife drove a Packard Patrician. I wouldn't have one as a gift, but sure brought back a bunch of memories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocWard Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Uhmmm... Pics??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex M Rugers #6621 Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 Someone in the little town I grew up in had a big ole Packard. I don't remember the model , but it was big , and had a huge engine for the time. Wasn't a 1958 , I don't think ; it didn't have fins. But it was in that time frame , '56 - '60. Rex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abilene Slim SASS 81783 Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 Before they put those stupid fins on it and then a Packard badge, it was a fine looking car. Way ahead of its time. 1953 Studebaker Champion Starliner: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 Did it look like this one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abilene Slim SASS 81783 Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 59 minutes ago, Rex M Rugers #6621 said: Someone in the little town I grew up in had a big ole Packard. I don't remember the model , but it was big , and had a huge engine for the time. Wasn't a 1958 , I don't think ; it didn't have fins. But it was in that time frame , '56 - '60. Rex Might have been a Caribbean or Clipper? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abilene Slim SASS 81783 Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 2 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said: Did it look like this one? Gasp! Gag me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackwater 53393 Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 If you're into REAL performance, this is how you remember the Studebaker/Packards!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 There was a garage called the Greene Street Garage in Waynesburg PA when I was a kid. It was a automobile service garage built as if it was in a city, not a little burg. It had 3 floors for servicing vehicles. A basement, first floor and a second floor. The second floor had a variety of Packards of various years all preserved. Their engines and transmissions were removed and stored. The bodies were wrapped in cheese cloth and clear plastic tarps. I believe there were 10 of them all stored there by the man that owned the garage. A couple were complete and not disassembled. He was living elsewhere. I don’t remember the details of where and why. I just know that when he passed all those Packards were taken away. I have always wondered what happened to them. When I have visited my home I have asked about them but no one seems to know what happened to them after the owner died. Beautiful cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forty Rod SASS 3935 Posted August 29, 2018 Author Share Posted August 29, 2018 3 hours ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said: Before they put those stupid fins on it and then a Packard badge, it was a fine looking car. Way ahead of its time. 1953 Studebaker Champion Starliner: Exner was a design genius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawhorse Kid Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 1958 Packard Hawk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 In my tales of Firelands I make mention of Crazy Hermey. He was an actual character and for the same reason. He drove a Packard. You see, Packard was a good high grade automobile and it rode the best of any and he had a hole cut in the back seat that just fit his nitroglycerin can. He'd come and shoot oil wells with liquid nitro and folks allowed as he was crazy because only the insane would handle that stuff. When jellied nitro came out -- safe stuff it was to handle, anyone could use it -- Hermey did not want to lose reputation nor business, so he'd take those cardboard tubes of what looked like waxy sawdust, he'd throw out a big cuttin' board and a meat cleaver, he'd split the cardboard tube open and roll out that jellied nitro and he made sure people knew that's what it was -- everyone knew what nitroglycerin was, and "jellied" in the popular imagination equated with "jellied gasoline" that was the new innovation the military was using -- anyway he'd cut loose with an insane cackle and commence to cleaving that waxy sawdust looking stuff and people drew waaaay back, firmly convinced that he'd taken leave of his senses. Instead of trickling liquid into a torpedo, setting this inside a messenger with a double fused stick of Big Dan, he'd scoop up a double handful of cut up chunks, dump them into the torpedo (he used a length of common downspout), he'd take the back edge of his cleaver to bash one end shut and then he'd set in the double fused Boom Stick ... he'd crimp t'other end around the protruding fuses ... he'd light 'em off, stand it up and drop it down the hole, knowing it would take about a minute to drop to the bottom of the water filled bore; they'd run water in atop until the bore was level full (packing the explosive charge for you engineers), then he'd stroll back to his car with the cleaver in one hand, cuttin' board under the other arm, whistling, for he knew how much fuse he'd used and how long it would burn. There would be no audible indication of detonation. None. Wells were not uncommonly drilled in pastures; everyone run live stock and pastures were level and easy to haul the rig into and build on site (insert separate lecture on early Appalachian oilfield construction here) so the cattle and horses would stop and throw their heads up and then take out a-runnin', dogs would run in circles barking, and the world held its breath as the ground shivered underfoot. Then you heard it. Come a liquid squirting belch out of that bore hole, it would blow mud and oil and rocks and water in a great filthy geyser for a phenomenal distance. It would blow rocks out that steel-cased bore hole bigger than could be fit back down it afterward. I know. I've tried. Forgive my long winded tale ... but Crazy Hermey drove a Packard, and he had a hole cut in the back seat, for he wanted the easiest ridin' car he could get, to haul that can of nitroglycerin around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex M Rugers #6621 Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 11 hours ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said: Might have been a Caribbean or Clipper? Yes , the one I remember was more along those lines. In my fuzzy memory I'm thinking more like the Carribean. Thanks , Slim. Rex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yul Lose Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 6 hours ago, Sawhorse Kid said: 1958 Packard Hawk The front of that car looks like the mouth of a catfish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackwater 53393 Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 The front of that car is one of the most aerodynamically perfect offerings ever produced! They LOVE ‘em at Bonneville!! In racing, pretty is as pretty does!! That would make a fabulous Top Sportsman car!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nasty Newt # 7365 Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 Packard Hawk would be a pretty good alias. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yul Lose Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 6 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said: The front of that car is one of the most aerodynamically perfect offerings ever produced! They LOVE ‘em at Bonneville!! In racing, pretty is as pretty does!! That would make a fabulous Top Sportsman car!! Still looks like a catfish mouth, IMHO, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forty Rod SASS 3935 Posted August 30, 2018 Author Share Posted August 30, 2018 On 8/28/2018 at 6:15 PM, Sedalia Dave said: Did it look like this one? Like I said, a Bat Mobile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forty Rod SASS 3935 Posted August 30, 2018 Author Share Posted August 30, 2018 12 hours ago, Yul Lose said: The front of that car looks like the mouth of a catfish. JFWIW, that tan stripe under the windows is leather and matches the interior. I wonder how that held up in wet and cold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bad Bascomb, SASS # 47,494 Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Had 3 Studebakers. 1953 hardtop coupe, salmon and cream color scheme, flathead 6 w/3 speed overdrive. 28 mpg doing 70 with full load in trunk & back seat. Favorite was a '53 coupe which was chopped 4" with 3 speed floorshift (big deal at the time, 1962). Last one was a '55 coupe with a Packard V8. Wish I had any one of them now..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackwater 53393 Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 10 hours ago, Yul Lose said: Still looks like a catfish mouth, IMHO, of course. Without a doubt. Still today, they’re sought after for the aerodynamic advantage. Oh!! And I LIKES me some catfish!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Checotah Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 On 8/28/2018 at 8:56 PM, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said: Before they put those stupid fins on it and then a Packard badge, it was a fine looking car. Way ahead of its time. 1953 Studebaker Champion Starliner: I always liked the look of these. Compare it to a 53 Chevy and you wonder. This looks streamlined. The Chevy a box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackwater 53393 Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 8 hours ago, Dustin Checotah said: I always liked the look of these. Compare it to a 53 Chevy and you wonder. This looks streamlined. The Chevy a box. Speaking of boxes, the Fords of that era were called "Shoebox" Fords!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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