History RARE 1 of 3 Packard Found! - Hot Rodded in the 1950’s

In 1940 Packard had 3 Convertible Coupes built by the coach builder Rollson. This particular one was first owned by Carl Bellinger who did the unthinkable, he hot rodded and raced this amazing Packard. Mr. Bellinger had his personal mechanic Richard Tona help maintain and even paint the coupe through out the years. Richard was able to use the car as he wanted while Carl traveled for work as a test pilot. Many years later Carl gifted the car to Richard after he moved to the East coast. Richard eventually gifted the car to his son Tommy who is now sharing the story of this amazing car. If anyone has any history of this 1940 Packard at Muroc Dry Lakes please send us an email!

 

Here are all of the photos we have been given of the 1940 Packard by the Tona Family

Taken in the 1980s when Tommy had his Cousin transport the car from California to Florida.



A few photos of the Edmunds 2x2 intake and extra finned head. The car currently has a polished aluminum smooth head installed.


Carl Bellinger was a test pilot so he had airplane gauges fitted to the dash to replace the factory ones.



Lastly a photo drawn of Carl's custom Packard. We had a comment on our YouTube video that the drawing was by George Hildebrand who works for Rollston and LeBaron and then eventually Republic Aviation Corp. We are trying to connect the history of the drawing to the work done on the Packard.

 

Wow...saw that it's now on our sites.

 

What an awesome story! Thanks for sharing!

 

Kool.

 

Super cool car, nice to know it's with the family of one of it's original owners/builders. Hope to see it made roadworthy again, either in restoration form or preservation form.

 

Unreal this is simply amazing

 

Thanks for the history lesson .

 

Hell yes! I keep saying to my co-workers, more and more treasures are going to start appearing.

 

Very cool

 

Several years ago, I commissioned this design study based on the 1947 Clipper (there never was a convertible version of this body from Packard). It would still be a great looking car!

 

@50Fraud

Tony, Beautiful design and absolutely gorgeous artwork/illustrations!

Ray

 

I had that video playing yesterday morning. I wasn't close enough to catch all the conversation, but the feeling I had was that there is no plan/path to get the car back together and drivable.
It seemed to be some family history taking up storage space. I find that disappointing.
Did I miss something by not watching videos more closely?

 

@pprather

Phil,

I had a similar take on it, not alarming, but aware. Hopefully, a plan will be forthcoming.

Ray

 

Watching the video I kept thinking about how rare speed equipment for a Packard must be.

 

Thanks, Ray. The Photoshop renderings were done by my friend John Vernon. Regrettably, John is no longer doing Photochops of custom cars.

 

Like everyone sometimes life gets in the way. Tommy at one point started to work on restoring it at some point in the 80s/90s but had a falling out with some family and the car sat at his family's body shop. Tommy is now working on purchasing a property to create a work shop for this car and others. I really think us coming to film and document the car help re-ignite the flame and hopefully the car no longer sits.

 

You better clean your computer screen. Definitely not Mr. Gasket.

 

You are correct.
I need confine myself to stuff like Fords and Plymouths.