Jim, This is the Ralph de Palma Packard at speed January 25, 1920 issue of the Chicago Sunday Tribune. If you want it PM me your address.
KV, Thanks for the pics and starting this beautiful thread. Must race cars shown at Amelia Island have a proven history like AACA?
Lines of design. When you're planning your next build, try and carry forward some of the lines from the great cars of this era. I'm building a Speedster using a 46 Ford Ch***is as the start point, it will be pinched and lengthened. I have a file of photos of the great cars form the teens til the 40's set up in a slide show, I have it set up to run fast so that the images just flash onto the screen. A design is burning its way into what ever gray matter I have left.
KV may know but I remember when we were invited with the Packard and they wanted to know some of the history but that may be more icing on the cake than an actual requirement. The Mercedes which I am really fond of does not have any real solid history but it is a great looking piece and it is not something you see every day. No one would be ashamed to have it at a show that appreciates these old racers, at least by my way of thinking. When we have had the Packard at shows we have at least two or three name shows ask that the car be shown. On the other hand they have to write something on the placard and I am sure they want to avoid an obvious fake. By the way if some of the racecars out there had to prove their provenance beyond a shadow of a doubt a decent number of them would have to stay home. I would rather see them out where they can be enjoyed.-Jim
Great photos all, thanks for posting. Now let's see some proper cars, meaning Alfas, or course: We never tire of the mighty Tipo B 2300 Le Mans by Touring And another variation on the 2300 theme. We will finish off with a Maserati: the 8CM no. 3011, ex-Whitney Straight. Cris
great pictures! any more of the chrysler nosed sprint car in the back round? and the Isotta and the Itala?
Just to be fair to the American Iron, this Allard with the Hemi was very impressive and this Bocar with the big block Chevy had an incredible sounding engine and I was out at the crack of dawn to hear most of these cars start up and drive on the field. Many of these racers sounded great but that Bocar played a tune that I enjoyed-Jim
Oh man, I was just starting to pull out some Bugatti slides and now you want Alfas! OK, no problem. All photos are copyright Kurt Oblinger. Please respect copyright. Kurt O.
I was wondering about the sprinter also, isn't that a bowtie on the wire wheel? Thanks for the explanation of the race cars, Jim Dillon.
Thanks Jim. Here are some photos I shot of George Wingard's 1914 Mercedes GP car from Monterey 1986. Please respect copyright. Kurt O.
Note on the BMW It was not built by BMW but the ONS. BMW had the car since the end of WWII It was in a fine original state. They painted it removed llthe mechanicals and displayed it at a couple museums on loan. When they put the car back in running order they completely rebodied it.... same shape but all new..... I think they thru away to original body.
Wow - what a great thread! Could you point me towards a thread/magazine/book telling the story of the Packard discovery, recovery & rebuild please Jim?
Steve, the story has not really been told although Robert Neal wrote an article for the Cormorant (Packard club magazine) shortly after the two of us do***ented the car. Its history as raced has been researched by historians in South America and somewhere I have some info. Sometime I will have to write the story. The whole thing that got me involved in early racing to begin with was this car in a sense. My grandfather worked on the car when he worked in the experimental department at Packard and told me about it. In tracking down anything on the cars Packard "experts" told me there was no such car ever built. These experts conceded of course there was DePalmas 299 OHC car but no Twin Sixes. The car had some problems initially with vibration (which kind of was my grandfather's specialty he acquired at Chalmers) and Packard ended up buying the rights to the vibration damper in 1915. Packard was not going to advertise a race car frought with problems so it was under the radar a bit. Then the war came along and shelved the project and after the war someone in South America with pull I imagine ended up buying the car(probably a Packard dealer-many racecars went off shore when they became obsolete). Long story, sometime I might bore you with more details. My first post on the HAMB was dealing with this car and it is on that thread with the race car found in half that resurrected itself a few days ago. Let me know if you want to know anything specific. -Jim
Hi Jim, Thanks for your reply to my post. It will be great to read the story of the Packard someday. Magazines here in the UK used to write in detail about these sort of cars but they seem to have dried up recently. I find the stories of what happened to vintage racers after their "glory years" had p***ed and until they were discovered in recent years fascinating. Do you have any "as found" pictures of the Packard that you could post please, and it would be great to see some more shots of the engine!
Steve, I am having a day from hell apparently but will dig up some photos and post them. If you look at post #83 on the thread running about the old race car found folded in half... that has been around the last couple of days you will see the car with the #28 on it. This is a photo I took the day it came out of the container from South America and it is natural aluminum except for the tail which was heavily damaged and has a bunch of body filler and was painted to match the bare aluminum. It had been under a tarp in the jungle of Uraquay for many years but was in remarkably good shape. Will get some photos of the engine and some other photos when I get a minute or two.The other two photos are of the 299 12 cylinder OHC racer that resembled this car. The one photo is at Sheepshead Bay and the other with the hood off is at Indy prior to qualifying for the 500 in 1919. I own the engine out of that car which I stumbled on while looking for anything that remained of the Twin Six racers that everyone seem to tell me did not exist. Glad I stumbled on it.-Jim
I could hang and look at this thread all day.If Breeder ever cashes in on the big lottory he should collect cars like these.
****, first thing imma do is take ya to get a haircut! nah, all my lotto moneys goin for a 1320 , with a drive in, huge 50's diner, and a stip mall area that looks like a street from the mid 50's!!! all in one place, then ill sell of land around it for all ya hot rodders for build houses! then maybe, ill buy a car like this! wish me luck buddy!
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