John DeLorean was recruited by Packard Engineering in 1953, DeLorean and his team delivered a new “Twin-Ultramatic” transmission for the 1955 Packards and one year later they created the “Touch Button Ultramatic“ version.

Buried in a wooden shipping crate at America’s Packard Museum is a transmission with a story nobody tells.

the Packard transmission team recognized an opportunity to improve the transmission. 

After multiple years of testing and refinement Packard announced the availability of their automatic transmission which they christened the “Ultramatic Drive”. 

It’s worth noting that the transmission was designed and manufactured using entirely in-house engineering resources – something that no other American independent automaker would accomplish. 

As delivered, the transmission combined a fluid coupled torque converter for smoothness with a two speed axial drive. This provide the owner with two power ranges; a high range for normal driving plus a low range suitable for driving at low speeds through mud and snow. Additionally the engineering team created a lock up feature in the torque converter that improved fuel economy at highway speeds. The next time you drive your automobile remember to thank Packard engineering for this innovation – it continues to be used in automatic transmissions to this day. 

On May 31, 1949 the first production Packard with Ultramatic made the drive from Detroit, Michigan to Indianapolis, Indiana

Over the next several years the Packard Engineering team set about improving the transmission.

When John DeLorean joined the team he was presented with a problem. Packard customers thought their cars accelerated slowly when the transmission was used with the normal high range. Slow enough that some Packard owners were using the low range to accelerate away from a traffic light and then manually “shifting” the transmission to the high range. Yes, manually shifting from the low range to the high range produced better acceleration but it would also damage the transmission after a while

This resulted in a second version of the transmission called the “Gear-Start Ultramatic Drive” which was made available with 1954 Packards. While it still had two ranges – low and high – it included a third option that would start in the transmission in the low range and then automatically shift to the high range as the car gained speed. 

This significantly improved vehicle acceleration from a standing start and made Packard customers much happier.

This fantastic update included push button control of the transmission. It was quite the swan song for Packard and a big win for DeLorean’s team.

this resulted in DeLorean being promoted to replace McFarland as the Head of Research and Development at Packard

https://packardprovinggrounds.org/john-delorean-and-the-fantastic-ultramatic-drive

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10236550522675680&set=a.1590567076712

1915 Packard rumble seat! Thank you Billy O!

reminds me of the flip lid on the 1911 Autocrat

Sightseeing bus operated for many years in Skagway, AK. A 1910 Packard model 30 and the bus still exists, now owned by the National Park Service.

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/42/

before dealerships, car makers delivered the car to you (in some cases) like Winton, Packard and Studebaker

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/55

1933 Packard Twelve Armoured Sedan Limousine by Rollston for the President of Dominican Republic

https://wayne.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/auto-industry/search/searchterm/1933%20Packard%20president%20of%20Dominican%20Republic

https://wayne.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/auto-industry/id/1129/rec/1

https://wayne.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/auto-industry/id/761/rec/2

Packard snowplow with tire chains

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/274

Quite the sleek racecar

Interesting tour bus in the Smoky Mountains, it's got dual rear axles, and the name under the drivers window "Miss Oconolufty" (likely refers to the Oconaluftee River/area in North Carolina)

 #47 "Miss Oconolufty" was a 1935 Packard Twelve 17 passenger dual rear axle,

and there was also a  #21 "Miss Nantahala" 1933 Packard Super 8 10 pass, 

I think this is the Biltmore 

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/380/

https://barnfinds.com/1941-packard-90-open-top-tour-bus

https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A152955

https://www.vintag.es/2023/04/1941-packard-90-tour-bus.html#google_vignette

the 1928 Packard "Vincent Speedster"

In 1927, Jesse Vincent, head of Packard Engineering, was given permission to build a special speedster to demonstrate the abilities of the 2 1/2 mile banked oval at the newly-constructed Proving Grounds. 

He used the opportunity not only to impress celebrities and dignitaries, but to serve as a testbed for much of the Speedster-series drivetrain parts. 

It was constructed using the lightest single-six chassis, the largest (and highly modified) straight eight engine, and a special lightweight and aerodynamic aluminum body. 

It was clocked at over 129 mph on the oval track, and was often used by Vincent to commute from his home on Grosse Pointe! 

In 1929, Charles Lindberg drove the car at 112 mph, saying it was the fastest he had ever gone “…on the ground.”

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/514/

wow, impressive Packard busses!

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/650/

here's one to add to the list of cars that are ugly from the factory, the 58 Packard Studebaker station wagon

it doesn't look so bad above, in the photo I took in 2011, https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/08/couple-stand-outs-at-todays-annual.html but below?

Ugly

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/rare-packardbaker-1958-packard-station-wagon-rocks-original-studebaker-v8-261818.html#

this 1931 Packard Deluxe Eight 904 was originally delivered to Sweden and sold there, bought in the 90s by a car collector from Yugoslavia, but living in Poland. The colored windows create an atmosphere of constant sunset inside the cabin

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=25908196665437472&set=pcb.10162620365598757

1926 Packard with an interesting factory feature, that's dangerous to have functional now, the Fuelizer, a 1920 invention

the Packard Automobile Company engineers perfected a device which is simple and solved the problem of heating the 1920s low-grade of gasoline to insure complete combustion. 

The Fuelizer consisted of a chamber surrounding the intake manifold, in which a small amount of gasoline is exploded and then drawn into the manifold thus raising the temperature of the gas to a high degree.

The gasoline is drawn into the Fuelizer chamber by a small pipe leading from below the butterfly valve, is circulated at high velocity in the chamber by the explosion caused by the spark plug in the chamber, and then goes through a small opening into the manifold where the usual wet and cold mixture from the carburetor is converted into superheated gas which explodes entirely upon ignition.

Franklin also used a pre-heater

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1920/3/13/fuelizer-packards-motor-miracle-innovation-in/

https://www.sae.org/papers/packard-fuelizer-210037

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44720596?seq=29

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10164525320227845&set=pcb.10162575079488757

The surviving 1949 Packard Monte Carlo convertible - cool interior colors match the external, even the rust and patina

 

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/the-mysterious-packard-monte-carlo-part-iii

rumble seat 28 Packard... unrestored. Cool looking! Sold for 75k yesterday on Bring a Trailer

 

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1928-packard-443-roadster/

this was mounted and framed... but the guy selling it seems to think it's worth 800 dollars.

Henry B. Joy, standing, and Col. S.D. Waldron at the wheel, test a Packard car in the snow on Lake St. Clair

Joy had convinced  James Ward Packard and his brother William Doud Packard to move their operations to Detroit, and later, he became President of Packard

https://www.detroitnews.com/picture-gallery/news/local/detroit-city/2021/12/26/photos-detroits-early-auto-giants-daredevils-and-mad-mechanics/8443672002/

Doug's car in high school was this 1937 Packard 120CD. It was his daily driver, plus made for great road trips. He bought it at age 15 for $240 from a barn in PA. He owned it from 1964-1992.

How great! 

When he mentioned it, the vague memory of someone telling me about a cool classic like this being their high school car, and I couldn't recall if it was a conversation I'd had with Doug, or someone else... but when trying to find that story, I did come across the original story... Gary had a 31 Chrysler in high school, he paid 500 for!  https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2020/11/in-1961-gary-had-two-cars-to-chose-from.html

1908 Packard, and one hell of a weather curtain

 

The chauffer's must have been miserable outside in the New England winters

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=27893366276944808&set=gm.1669835173597398

A collection of memorabilia from the first person to drive across the country has been given to the National Packard Museum.

The Tom Fetch collection was given to the museum by David Fetch of San Diego, the great-grandnephew of E.T. “Tom” Fetch, who drove across the United States in 1903 in a Packard Model F automobile. The vehicle, which was christened “Old Pacific,” was built at Packard’s manufacturing plant in Warren.

https://businessjournaldaily.com/packard-acquires-archives-of-first-person-to-drive-car-across-country