The Packard Pan-American is a

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not ...

produced for the Packard Motor Car Company of

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in 1952. Conceived as a moderate-performance two-seater by Hugh Ferry, president of Packard, it was built by Henney, which was responsible for fitting custom

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and

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bodies on Packard chassis.Flory, J. "Kelly", Jr. "Packard Pan-American", in ''American Cars 1946-1959'' (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Coy, 2008), p.1022. A status symbol for a carmaker at the time, this sort of car was a very unlikely project for Packard. With styling by Henney, it was based on the 1951 Series 250 convertible, and ready in time for the 1952 New York International Motor Sports Show.

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and channelled, in a fashion reminiscent of the 1953 Skylark, and wearing the trademark Packard grille, it "was elegantly trimmed throughout". Packard spent

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

10,000 ($ in dollars ) building the Pan-American, and management tried in vain to imagine, let alone develop, a market for a roadster projected to cost at least US$18,000 ($ in dollars ), at a time when the top-line Lincoln Capri six-passenger convertible went for US$3,665 ($ in dollars ),Flory, p.440. the premier eight-place Cadillac Series 75 Fleetwood US$5643 ($ in dollars ),Flory, p.456. and even Packard's Patrician 400, their most expensive production model, was only US$3,767 ($ in dollars ), and a six-seater. As many as six examples were built. The Pan-American did inspire a successful six-place model, the

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, which debuted in 1953.

Notes

Sources

* Flory, J. "Kelly", Jr. "Packard Pan-American", in ''American Cars 1946-1959'', p. 1022. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Coy, 2008. {{Packard Pan-American Cars introduced in 1952 Concept cars

See also

Notes

Sources