10k: Bathtub Straight-8: 1950 Packard Eight 2-Door
In 1949 the Packard Motorcar Company celebrated its 50th year of building sleek cars, but by 1957 the Packard name was gone for good. In 1950 Packard entered 7 models in the 1st Carrera Panamericana road race held in Mexico from 1950-1954. In the same year this 1950 Packard Eight 2-Door “Bathtub” left the assembly line and began its long journey to where it sits today. Find it here for sale in California’s garlic capital, Gilroy, CA for $10,000 via craigslist. Tip from KBZ
This Packard has been lowered, rides on wire wheels with whitewalls and has a single straight pipe…but it has original 63 year old paint, which unfortunately is mostly covered with filler/primer where body work has been partially completed. We would honestly prefer if it still have the original dents/dings and no primer, because as it sits now it definitely needs a paint job. Before it could have been considered “a patina’d survivor” but now it is an unfinished project.
The power under the hood of the 1950 Packard is a 346 cubic inch (5.7 liter) inline-8 that puts out approximately 160 horsepower. The straight-8 ultimately gave way to much lighter V8s, but not before putting up a long fight.
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| Photo from ferrarilife.com |
As previously mentioned, numerous Packards competed in the Carrera Panamericana in the early 1950s and famously one took the life of two Mexican road racers (José Estrada and Miguel González) ultimately leading to the banning of future races in 1955.
In truth this Packard isn’t going to be a great Daily Turismo for anyone sane, but it could be an awesome project for not too much money and would look great with a new paint job and a set of era correct CA yellow plates.
See a better straight-8 powered bathtub? email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com
Could you transport bathtub gin in a bathtub Packard?
Those wire wheels make this car. Nice!
The problem with Packard, back in the day, is that they refused to change. At one time they outsold Cadillac as the premium luxury car of its time. But as GM upgraded the Cadillac with a V8, Packard stuck with the straight 8 and Cadillac took over the luxury market. They were great cars in their day, well made and pretty bullet proof, unless you drove it into the side of a cliff, of course.
Packard was doing fine until James J. Nance wrecked it by moving downmarket, buying Studebaker , destroyed all their old tooling , then sold the whole mess to Curtiss-Wright. Ford was so impressed that they hired him to run Edsel.
My very first car as a 16 yr old in 1970 was a 1950 Ultramatic 4 door. It sat in my grandfathers garage, owned by a doctor I think, and somehow had a mechanics lien on it. It was absolutely cherry with a mohair interior. When I first saw it, I went nuts
My dad sold it to me for $250.00! I remember we hauled it home and dumped Mystery oil down the cylinders and cranked it over a little every day for a week. One day I fired it up and I was one happy 16yr old. While my firends were driving MG's, Pintos and Vegas and VW's, I was driving a Packard! I remember yelling at my friends and their friends to be careful in the back and not spill any beer on the seats!
She was a beauty and I have a polaroid of it sitting in my driveway. It met an ignominious end when the tranny wynt out, I couldnt pay the scam artists at Aamco when they rebuilt the tranny without , so my Dad taught me a lesson by letting it sit in the Aamco yard exposed to the elements. By the time I got it back, the Coromorant was gone as well as the hubcaps.
Ah well.
~ that's sad yet i vaguely recall my father leaving me and a favorite ride to a similar fate.
I can't see a straight-8 without thinking, "Mmmmm, imagine that with 4 side draft Webers!"