Vintage shots from days gone by!

Thanks EhDubya! Started digging, though, and found that it DOES resemble the first of the cars that came to be known as "Panther" (minus the multi-directional spotlight, for one thing!). Here's some info from Hemmings about the first Panther; I'll try and find a vintage pic of that:

"Ed Macauley may have been the son of Packard President Alvin Macauley, but by many accounts he got his job as the director of styling at Packard due to his eye for design, and his legacy includes a number of striking cars, including the so-called Macauley Speedster . . . Built in 1952 to replace Macauley’s 1933 Brown Bomber – one of Packard’s first experimental cars – the two-passenger Macauley Speedster coupe, also known as the Packard Panther, used a curious short greenhouse and long-deck design on a 122-inch wheelbase that made it look rather like a Henney flower car at first glance. Packard did release a series of publicity photos, prompting many automotive historians to believe that Packard built it as a companion to the Richard Arbib-designed Pan American concept cars, which later influenced the design of the Packard Caribbean. Yet Packard built it expressly as Macauley’s personal car, with a mishmash of production Packard details (1953 rear bumper, 1952 grille and crest, 1951 lettering, Caribbean hoodscoop) and one-off details that would never see production (body-length fluted chrome sill trim, a rear window wiper, McCulloch-supercharged 359-cu.in. straight-eight engine)."

 

------------------
I was going to write one my "Alternate
Captions" for this pic, but I honestly couldn't
come up with anything more bizarre than what
this pic actually shows!!!!
-----------
Mart3406
===========

 

--------------
ALTERNATE CAPTION - " 'Street Racing???'
Oh no, Officer...not me.....not ever!!!"
------------
Mart3406
================

 

No luck yet finding a VINTAGE pic of the first Packard Panther, but here's another angle
on the "Phantom II" Packard Special Speedster, built for Ed Macauley. It comes fom Dan
Strohl at Hemmings, via Dave Greenlees of The Old Motor, the great, dedicated online
early auto journal you already know.



Original cutline: A 1952 Packard Special Speedster is seen above along with the following
description on the back of the original Packard Company photo; Twenty-fifth series, model
2501 (modified 200 deluxe club sedan, model 2565), 8-cylinder, 327 cubic inches, 122-inch
wheelbase, 2-person “Phantom II” built in Packard shops for Edward Macauley.

 

You know, Mart, I was thinking the same thing! "Auto Wash Bowl"??? Heck, I think they should bring these BACK. Put them right next to Magic Mountain, and let people just go at it!


<!-- / message --><!-- edit note --><HR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e5e5e5; COLOR: #e5e5e5" SIZE=1>Last edited by jimi'shemi291; Today at 06:36 AM. Reason: add

 

ALTERNATE CAPTION - "The 'Great
Recession' of 2013 and the 'Austerity
program' that followed, had an
absolutely devastating effect on
'traditional' hot-rodding!!!!"
----------------
Mart3406
===========

 

Hey look, Mart! He's got his rig "bagged"!

 

TURNS OUT Macauley's '52 speedster was an updated replacement for the earlier "Brown Bomber" cars. AND, the speedtser (apparently within a year) was somewhat modified and RENAMED as the first of the Packard "Panthers." SO (minus silly spotlight), it is, in fact, THE SAME CAR. I'll give more details when I track down the source the info came from.

 

Heard that the young lady in the paper bikini in post 1177 got arrested for RUSTLING

 

This is an original factory photo of Macauley's 1953 two-seat
special. Swivelling roof spotlamp, disc wheel covers, shaved
deck, and rear-fender dual exhausts have all been changed
in the intervening years and decades.



Alright, took me four hours, but I ran onto something HAMBer SunRoofCord told me quite some time ago, clearing up (for me) what can only be called the "evolution" of the Macauley Speedster of '52 into the first "Panther," ca. 1953. The original source was Publications International's "HOW STUFF WORKS." The entire, well-done and well-illustrated article can be found by searching:
HowStuffWorks "1952-1954 Packard Panther and Pan ...

auto.howstuffworks.com/1952-1954-packard-panther-and-pan... - Similarto HowStuffWorks "1952-1954 Packard Panther and Pan ...
The 1952-1954 Packard Panther and Pan American cars were made under Edward Macauley's watch. Learn the history of the Packard Panther and Pan ...


Here's a relevant passage:

"The Packard Panther was designed largely by staff designer John Reinhart. After Reinhart had conjured up Packard's all-new 1951 line, Ed Macauley asked him to help spin off a "speedster" version, continuing the firm's prewar practice of building swoopy two-seaters with bits and pieces from contemporary production models. Riding the 122-inch-wheelbase junior chassis, the first Panther was a foreshortened coupe, with a permanent hardtop fashioned from what appears to be a 1953 Patrician sedan roof.

"When it first appeared in 1953, the Panther wore the current-production rear bumper, 1952 hood crest, 1951 Packard lettering on a 1952 grille, and a hood scoop borrowed from the Henney Company's own two-seat Packard, the Pan American. Painted black and bearing a partly blacked-out grille, this one-off was later given the Panther name, with big block letters on the grille. Whether it was first used here or was just a reaction to other influences is not certain, but the letters were undoubtedly of Packard origin, as we could see when we
[*] photographed the car at the Packard Club national meet last summer.

"One of the faults in Reinhart's 1951 body design was its shallow greenhouse area and high sides. (For this reason, Reinhart nicknamed it the "high pockets" shell, and fought unsuccessfully with management to lower the beltline before production.) Macauley successfully disguised this on the two-seater with a broad, ribbed, chrome-plated brass applique along the lower body. It came off pretty well, but would have cost the world to implement on production cars. Also fitted were custom wheel covers bearing 1951 Patrician cloisonne center emblems. Curiously, Ed mounted a swiveling spotlight on the roof.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/FONT]
"Only one Macauley Panther was built. Although originally powered by Packard's 327-cubic-inch straight eight hooked to the firm's self-shift Ultramatic Drive, it now carries a Chrysler V-8 and TorqueFlite automatic. Several styling features have also been changed along the way. Gone are the rooftop spot, the prominent chrome highlights along the front fenders (to match the original ones at the rear), and the dual exhaust outlets ducted through, special holes under the taillights. The enormous rear deck was shaved in Ed Macauley's time, but now bears a conventional 1953 trunk handle. Six chrome dummy louvers have been added to the side of each front fender, while the wheel covers have been replaced by Packard/Kelsey-Hayes chrome wires.

"Ed Macauley drove his Panther into the late Fifties. Though it apparently spent some time in Connecticut's former Melton Museum, its interim history is obscure."


[Note: Again, the quoted passage and the color photo are by "How Stuff Works," * and I thank them -- and SunRoofCord -- for aiding my old, tired gray matter!]

 

buck baker?

 

It's just so damn sexy. so much hotter than my 65 was..

 

The same maker of the Pines Winter Front grille for the '36 Ford also made the chrome 3 bar decorative pieces the mount to the hood and side panels. Very rare now...

 

Awsome pics ! Here is a 5 window chop done by Jiggs Shamblin in akron, ohio in the early 50s.

 

Here is an 812 Cord we have up in a new post today. We also have all of Gordon M. Buehrig’s Cord 810 patent drawings.

 

How about,
"This photo shows a Northern Hemisphere installation, in the Southern Hemisphere the cars must circle in a clockwise direction"

 

Thanx all. I recall Torino / Fairlanes, but it's been so fetched long I could not remember what Galaxy / Custom / LTD's looked like. Tom S.

 

thanks, Jim, exactly my first thought, flower car! same opinion about the spotlight, just wrong in time and space!!!

 

thanks for the link, that's about enough information to make an exact rebuild!! another mistery solved for me!

Carsten

 

And the car looks real neat too ! <label for="rb_iconid_7"></label>
Tom S. in Tn.

 

Soon, probably after the first of the year we are going to have a fund raiser for the McPherson College Restoration Program on The Old Motor, where people will be able to donate directly to the school towards tools or buy an item for them.

Below is a list of some of the things they need, keep it in mind for when we have the fund raiser.
Just remember the young fellows we help today will be carrying on for us in the future.

We will announce it here and on The Old Motor.

In the mean time contact me here if you would like to buy any of the following for them and I will put you in touch with their fund raising department.

Automotive Restoration
Equipment & Tool Needs List

Applied Diagnostics
Exhaust gas analyzer $4,000
Automotive Electric Lab
Battery Chargers &#8211; 4 $550
Battery and electrical system scanner $2,300
Simpson Multi-meters &#8211; 12 $3,500
Fluke Digital meters $1,200
Chassis & Drive Train Labs
Spring Compressors $250
Fluid collection tables &#8211; 6 $450 each
Engine
Software and parts for Dyno $2,500
Motorcycle lab
Tire machine $1,500
SAE/Metric/Whitworth hand tools $2,500
Paint Lab
Divider curtain $3,000
110v TIG welder $2,400
Paint guns &#8211; 2 Iwata $750 each
Battery powered supplied air system $2,500
Dust collector $1,500


Sheet metal/ Welding Lab
Torch kits and carts &#8211; 2 $1,500
Yoder Power Hammer $7,000
Tubing bender $350

Trim Shop
Industrial sewing machine $2,000
Wood Shop
Hand tools
Sanders
Drill bits
Biscuit Jointer
Saw blades
$3,000
General Shop Equipment
Large steel top tables &#8211; 5 $950 each
Lab Computers &#8211; 8 $800 each

 

"Somebody forgot to turn off the water valves in the car wash last night"!!!!

 

Same guy do the "Chanelling job"???????

 

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<a href="http://s1294.beta.photobucket.com/user/barraweather/library/" target="_blank"></a>

 

My parent's 1969 Dodge Dart Swinger and 1951 Chevrolet Deluxe in the spring of 1971... I own the '51 today. The Dart rusted and fell apart!

 

How much oil film was on the water after just a few cars went through it?

 

Richard Widmark???

BB