From the U.K. “Ol’ Petrol Head” brings us the report on the very soggy

Goodwood Revival, 11 Sept 2016

It was a WET Saturday!

You had to admire those folks who dressed to appropriate the period 1940’s to 60’s, if not the weather.

I’ve never seen so many men in wet tweed suits/plus 4’s, uniforms, and bedraggled women in wet fur coats & summer dresses. I can image the ladies swearing ‘never again’.

I must admit I was in waterproofs & Wellington boots. It was grim.

The weather spoiled the day for everyone.

Highlights:

• A new Lister

• Kids toy E-Type Jaguars and Porsche 911s, battery powered & made to order. Yours for only £4995!

• A smart looking Cobra clone from Hawk Cars:

• Wet track side cavalcade waiting to go. John Surtees, 80+yrs was in one of the lead cars: 

• Cooper Tire Support Vehicle:

• A splendid Jaguar XK140 replica and an XKE replica at a splendid price:

• A soggy day on the racetrack:

• E-Type fresh in from Sweden that morning. 79K on the clock. Hardtop included  £89,995

• ’56 Jaguar XK-140

• Clones! Surrounded by clones! Ford GT40 clone and a Lancia clone:

-00OO00-

Readers’ Cars

We wrote about Packard’s Executive Decision HERE. Since then two readers have shared photos of their Packard Executives with us. First up is Roscoe in Illinois who shows us this stunning Executive hardtop restored with a non-factory original color scheme (but using original factory colors) of Naples Orange and Corsican Black. While these colors were available in ’56, this particular application of it wasn’t. It should have been!

Roscoe’s Executive is fitted with a Bendix Mechanical Fuel Injection system like Packard had planned to use on its stillborn ’57s. Roscoe’s Executive left the factory with the Mojave Tan-Dover White color scheme. The Caribbean twin antennae add just the right touch of sportiness to this beautiful Packard. We will feature this car in an upcoming Gear Head Tuesday post.

Below: The Bendix Mechanical Fuel Injection that would have been used on the ’57 Packards has been installed on Roscoe’s ’56 Executive. We will have more about this car in an upcoming Gear Head Tuesday post.

-00OO00-

Next up, “PacDoc1956” sends us the photo below of the Executive Touring Sedan originally owned by his grandmother. It is fitted with the Pushbutton Twin Ultramatic, Wonderbar Radio and Power Antenna, Power Steering and Easamatic Power Brakes. The VIN is 5672A-1450, thus it is the 450th Executive Touring Sedan built and represents the first third of the run of roughly 1,700 Executive Touring Sedans built the before Packard closed on 25 June, 1956. (Just over 1,000 of the Executive hardtops were built.)

How “PacDoc1956” came to bring this Executive “back into the family” is an amusing story with many twists and turns.

“PacDoc1956’s” grandfather had a ’54 Caribbean which he traded for a ’56 Caribbean convertible. When he arrived at the dealer to pick up his new Caribbean, he was told that it would be ready shortly and that he could wait in the showroom. He walked around the showroom floor, saw another car, an Executive sedan, similar in color to the new Caribbean and told the salesman, “If you’ll treat me right, I’ll take this one as well.” He traded the ’54 Caribbean and a ’52 Cadillac Coupe de Ville for the two ’56 Packards. The Caribbean was for himself, the Executive for his wife. “PacDoc1956” has fond memories of traveling in the back seat of his grandmother’s Executive when he was a child.

In his high school years, he got a call one day from his grandmother. She had gone on a shopping trip to a local supermarket. When she came out of the store after completing her shopping, the car wouldn’t start – dead battery. She decided to give the car to “PacDoc1956” and his brother.

They kept it for about two years, but he was going to college, admits to having a heavy foot on the gas pedal and realized he couldn’t afford the upkeep, so he sold it.

Time passed. After college, he hunted down his grandfather’s Caribbean. It had been taken to someone to repair the transmission before his grandfather died. It had not been seen for some time and he decided that someone should go and see just what its disposition was. He was told that it would be ready soon. After some serious encouragement, he was able drive the Caribbean home. Someone spotted the Caribbean and knowing the connection between the Caribbean and the Executive, told “PacDoc1956” about the whereabouts of his grandmother’s Executive.

“PacDoc1956” met the then-current owner of the Executive. The gentleman said that he was interested in selling the car, and would like to get $500 for it. “PacDoc1956” set about trying to round up the $500. In the meantime, the then-current owner of the Executive traded it to a Chevrolet dealer for $400 (!). Yes, he THOUGHT he was buying a new truck, but the dealer later called him and told him there were none available like what he wanted and he would have to take the incoming new model, but at a higher price. The dealer offered to give the person a check for $400 for the car. He accepted the check instead of just asking for the keys to the car and cancelling the deal. At that point, “PacDoc1956” lost track of the Executive again.

In 1993, “PacDoc1956” was in Anniston, Alabama attending a joint meeting of the local Packard Club and the Lincoln Club at the “Victoria” a restored Victorian home that had been converted into a Country Inn. “PacDoc1956” arrived driving his stately Corsican Black ’56 Packard Patrician Touring Sedan. This elegant Patrician caught the eye of another attendee, J.M.C., who struck up a conversation with “PacDoc1956”. It turned out that J.M.C. had recently bought a Eire Green/Dover White ’56 Executive. “PacDoc1956” quizzed J.M.C. about the Executive. For example, “(Did) it have a windshield that was cracked from the bottom up?” The crack was the result of “PacDoc1956’s” father using a screwdriver in an attempt to replace the rubber moulding around the windshield. Why, yes, it did … “PacDoc1956” produced a trunk key to his grandmother’s Executive that he had managed to keep in his possession all this time. He told J.M.C. that if the key fit and worked, that he was coming after HIS car! The key worked, and “PacDoc1956” was able to bring the car “back into the family”!

J.M.C. adds this detail about selling the car back to “PacDoc1956”:

It was hard giving up that Executive to “PacDoc1956”, but when he told me about putting model airplanes together in the back seat while his grandmother drove him to Britling’s Cafeteria, I had to give in. Somewhere, I have a picture of me handing the keys over to “PacDoc1956” (including a new windshield) in Albany, GA–halfway between Hahira and Birmingham.

The Executive had spent some time in Florida and in other south coast salt water climes and was the worse for wear when “PacDoc1956” got it back, but as you see from the photo above, it has been nicely restored. It happens that J.M.C. figures in our Esquire post and is currently making an Esquire replica out of a ’56 Four Hundred that he is rescuing from having been painted Army Olive Drab with white Army stars painted on it some of you may remember from eBay a couple of years back.

-00OO00-