Back in 1927 Packard had opened their new testing facility in Utica, MI. Col. Jesse Vincent was a Packard mechanical engineer and in today's vernacular, a speed freak. He loved to go fast but Michigan roads were not the place for that. Having set some records and well earned notoriety for speed with his boats he was always driven to get a Packard to also perform in a thrilling manner. He developed a car we call The Jesse Vincent speedster. I had an opportunity to drive this car a bit at Hershey in '08 and it still remains tattooed in my memory, the light steering, instant power, lack of nick-nacks and raw open exhaust. The car was based on a 443 ch***is from, I think, 1928. A body was developed with a narrow p***enger compartment featuring staggered seating and no fenders or running boards. The engine was a 384 C.I.D. straight 8 with a few modifications. A twin throat Detroit Lubricator carb, high compression head, finned exhaust manifold and a vacuum booster pump to ***ist the vacuum fuel system already found in Packard Custom 8s of the time. HP estimates are around 130 @ 3200RPM. The reported top speed at Utica was 128MPH around the their track and Charles Lindberg "piloted" the car to around 110 while in town looking over Packard's aviation efforts. Charles Vincent, brother of Jesse was in charge of the facility so Jesse could play at will. The "testing" rewarded Packard's car line with the very rare 626 Speedster Runabout for 29. There's only 1 known to exist as was more than likely custom built for an individual who insisted on speed. There's other listed in the catalogs but this one is the only known survivor identified as such. For 1930 the 734 Speedster Series was born. The same 384 c.i. engine was offered also featuring the twin throat carb, higher compression, tall gearing (3.36:1) and offered a very snappy and quick car in 4 distinct styles. There was a Speester Phaeton, Sedan, 5 p*** Coupe (Vicky to us) and the Runabout. The runabout was essentially and litterally a boat-tail speedster. That car carried on the initial design of the Jesse Vincent speedster with it's staggered seating, mechanical tach and also featured an exhaust cutout foot operated by the driver when desired. All of us here love hotrods. I was happy to see Ryan's post about the Deusenbergs and even happier with the board's response. I figured you might like to see another "flavor" of factory high performance from a time when it was much less common. The "Jesse": tapered rear body: Staggered seating: HP dept: The resultant 734 Runabout: ***y boat-tailed coachwork: Again the use of staggered seating: Normally we don't tend to link Packard and hotrods together. These 2 examples are definately a link and from a time when others were in the hunt like Stutz and Deusenberg. The 734 Speedster in an icon to Packard enthusiasts and the few that remain are quite valuable, so much so that some have even gone to the trouble of building their own tributes to the line. I'll have the silver speedster here at the shop perhaps next spring and I'll try to do a feature on it as well in the future, but for now enjoy the pics and do a little googling to learn more. You'll be impressed I'm sure.
Pure automotive excellence.. better then staring at the most beautiful female shape and combination of all the best equipment put on one frame.. that 734...ahhhhh ***y
Thank you for sharing. The diversity is refreshing. What was the advantage to the staggered steering arrangement? Was this to provide ample uninhibited room for the driver?
Here are some of my pictures of the Vincent Speedster and others, taken at the Packard museum in Dayton, OH.
Don't you just love it when they get it right? Send us lots of pics when you get to work on it and be sure to share some of your 'discoveries' on how they built it. Thanks, oj
As it was told to me by the docent....They were staggard so that the navigator would not be in the way of the driver's vision. Maybe there is another reason, just what I was told.
Real Speedster bring tons of money for sure as they are cool as can be. I used to get confused thinking that they were all boat tails like this one but the came in roadster & phaeton bodies too. Looks remarkably like this Stutz.
That's correct, there was a series that essentially was the big engine in a small ch***is (sound familiar brothers n sisters?) with some nice trick body styling to accent the long hood and rearward seating position of all of them. I was next to a Speedster Victoria at Pebble Beach in 91 that belonged the the Nethercutt collection. The body was nice and swoopy for a closed car but it was mainly white. IMO, poor choice of color for it. I've never seen anything else besides the Runabout (boat tail). A re-body, or as I call them, new coachwork version will still fetch most of a 1/4 mil and the real thing get closer to 3/4. On another note I just scored a 29 640 runabout (roadster) with a 740 body on it. It's 140" WB and the 1930 body was way ***y compared to the 29. I was looking at the engine today and getting crazy ideas for the whole car. I'll post pics in a "score!" post when I get it outta the trailer. YES IT WAS TRAILERED. Well it doesn't run yet so I hope I get a p*** from you all. Nobody was around to flat tow me and... Here's a couple more versions of the 734 I ****ged off the 'net. The white one I already described and a 734 phaeton at Pebble Beach from Conceptcarz. That phaeton looks fast, don't it?
Went and visited the Citizens Motor Car Co. last summer or so, and saw this beauty. All of the cars are amazing, and so is the building that they are in. Totally worth the trip anytime. I have more pics, though not of this speedster..
Great thread, I love the truely vintage stuff from the Teens and Twentys. I for one would love to see more about Stutz, Offy's, Marmon's, National's, Deusengerg's, and Franklins etc.... Thanks for the pics.
Actually, the top speed at the PPG was 148.174 mph on June 14, 1928 - making it the fastest speed on a closed course. This record was held until the mid-1950's when the record was broken in Monza, Italy. The driver was Leon Duray, who set a record as pole-sitter at Indianapolis a few weeks earlier at 128 mph. You need to visit the Packard Proving Grounds someday. The next event there is Sunday, June 14, 2015 for the Cars "R" Stars event. Proceeds are used to restore this historic site.
Wow. Love the staggered seating. Good way to increase crotch space by deleting the next to thigh, close quarters, bench seating. Awesome cars. Great bump.
great thread. back in late 1977 I worked for **** Kingston in Landcaster, Ca. when he had a restoration shop. He also owned California metal shaping. Marcel Dulay? worked for him at that time and he and his sons built repro Packard boatail speedster bodys for him that we put on shortened long wheelbase frames that we did. they were great looking cars but he never told the people he sold them to that they were copies. we also built one Pearce Arrow boatail that was cherry red and used one a Joey Heatherton? tv special.
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