Last Of The Line: 1958 Packard

[Turboomni]

Last Of The Line: 1958 Packard "Packardbaker"

 

[commando1]

Beyond description. Don't even try. Just love it.

This alone could be a Forum:

How embarrassing. There were a lot of angry employees by that time.

 

[goldfish65]

Reminds me of how my Mom will say sometimes, maybe a restaurant which has seen better days but they have a nice fresh flower on each table, "they were really trying." Her family also owned Packards, too bad many circumstances converged and led to their demise.

 

[Carmine]

Don't make me explain why Chrysler should have bought Packard in 1955.

 

[polara71]

Don't make me explain why Chrysler should have bought Packard in 1955.

 

[Carmine]

I wonder if this one in the coments section came from that big classic car fire a while back?

 

[Carmine]

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And... done.

Chrysler's friendly acquisition of Packard in the early 50s

 

[polara71]

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I wonder if this one in the coments section came from that big classic car fire a while back?

 

[1978 NYB]

Very sharp Packard!

 

[JC68vert300]

The catfish faced Packard, strange, yet beautiful.

 

[jct]

not my tastes but damn does that car have a tons of flare o_0

car is worse than the Fiat Multipla.

how come the headlight buckets look like an afterthought?!

 

[Jeff]

Like the last Duesenberg that was recently posted here, I can only say Thank God! There is a reason they are the last ones. Good riddance!

 

[bluefury361]

A 1958 Packard hawk would be my first choice of all 1958 automobiles.
588 built. They were a luxury version of a Studebaker Golden Hawk.

 

[LeBaron1973]

not my tastes but damn does that car have a tons of flare o_0

car is worse than the Fiat Multipla.

how come the headlight buckets look like an afterthought?!

If i recall correctly, it was a cheap way for a company with little financial resources to add the extra two headlights.

Studebaker-Packard was almost broke at that time as Curtiss-Wright which had run SP at the government's request, had taken the modern factory which made military material when they ended the management agreement and reneged on taking a large shareholding.

The Packard Hawk was a custom car for Curtiss-Wright's Roy Hurley who requested it put into production. The use of its catfish front in the sedans was the best SP could do at the time as the South Bend factory couldn't make wide-bodied vehicles like Packard did, as the factory wasn't designed for such wide cars.

 

[commando1]

"The 1958 Packard was one of the busiest designs of the Fifties. Due to lack of funds, fiberglass headlight pods and fins were tacked on to the largely carryover ’57 sheetmetal. The design of the 1958 was handled by Studebaker stylist Duncan McRae. I have no idea what he was thinking."

 

[Jeff]

I have no idea what he was thinking.

"Fins? They want fins! I'll give 'em fins!!"

 

[Dodgy Dick]

Fugly!!

 

[MarPar]

Last Of The Line: 1958 Packard "Packardbaker"




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A face only a mother could love

 

[SportFury]

This car is exactly like the one a Professor in college drove daily in the early eighties. There was a Packard Hawk in the same small town for about a year.

 

[bluefury361]

The fins on the Packard Hawk are steel, not fiberglass. Same as all Studebaker Hawks from 1957 to 1961. They bolted onto the 1/4 panels which were used from 1953 to 1961 which were also bolted to the body's as apposed to being welded on.