Althouse: On the road in rural Wisconsin...

September 26, 2010

On the road in rural Wisconsin...

... you can see right back to 1940.

45 comments:

Linda Seebach said...: Lovely Packard. I wonder where it was going?

Ask the Packard Club:
http://www.packardclub.org/; 9/26/10, 9:50 PM
1775OGG said...: Wonder if that's a 1940 model Packard sedan? Packards were a thing of wonder for us teenagers looking for our first car back in the mid-1950s. That long hood, covering a straight 12-engine both fascinated us and made us laugh.

We usually wound up with a 1941 Ford or Chevy.; 9/26/10, 9:57 PM
Paul Kirchner said...: When you drive a car like that, you get to feel like a movie star--people staring, smiling, wanting to have their picture taken with you.

I remember seeing Malcolm Forbes interviewed on the old Tom Snyder Show. Forbes was known to drive around Manhattan in a $250,000 Lamborghini, and Snyder asked him if he felt he created resentment by doing that. Forbes told him quite the contrary--the reaction of people who saw the car at a stoplight was pleasure, excitement, big smiles. Interesting.; 9/26/10, 10:04 PM
Anonymous said...: Great photos. This reminds me a recent book I read, country driving (http://www.amazon.com/Country-Driving-Journey-Through-Factory/dp/0061804096). Keep it up.

N.B.: The election is in the bag. GOP is over-reaching. Tea Party has already over-reached. How nice. Keep it up. We will win, because our opponents are just not good.; 9/26/10, 10:09 PM
traditionalguy said...: The Packards had a push button on the dashboard. After inserting the key, you had to push the starter button. That's about all I remember, except that in the summer of 51 the high temps reached 105 for a day or two. And air conditioning was not in my world yet.; 9/26/10, 10:09 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Ha.

Althouse didn't link to her post about her family's relationship w/ Packard?

Well, I won't miss this opportunity to (again) mention that I have a 1935 Packard sedan. Mine is bigger model than that one (er...I didn't mean that in the 'over compensating for being too small somewhere else' sort of way--I was just stating a fact). And, on mine all four doors are suicide. So it's even more gangsta.; 9/26/10, 10:10 PM
Mark said...: When I worked by the Federal Reserve building, every now and then I'd see a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, complete with the white-gloved chauffeur, waiting at the curb for... someone.; 9/26/10, 10:16 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Althouse didn't link to her post about her family's relationship w/ Packard?"

You're misremembering. Maybe the Pierce Arrow story?; 9/26/10, 10:21 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: Nice wheels, but I'm a Duesenberg man, myself.; 9/26/10, 10:22 PM
John Lawton said...: The 1940s are closer than they appear!; 9/26/10, 10:26 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Maybe it was a comment.

As I recall one of the relatives experienced some financial stress when a business associated w/ Packards didn't work out well.; 9/26/10, 10:26 PM
Sprezzatura said...: I read the link, I was mixing up the two.; 9/26/10, 10:27 PM
Irene said...: Here's a fact I remember from my school days.

The 1939 and 1940 Packards were the first automobile to offer factory-installed air conditioning.

Luxury!; 9/26/10, 10:31 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Looking at that old link:

I would guess that the measure of 'a lot' for blogpoll participation has been revised upward since the olden days.

"I did a blogpoll that a lot of people voted in"

BTW, I did a comment that mixed up Packard and Pierce Arrow.; 9/26/10, 10:46 PM
Ralph L said...: Packard made straight 8's but the 12's were Veed (the first was called the Twin Six).

In my grandmother's 56 Buick Roadmaster, you turned the key first, but the starter wouldn't engage until you pressed the gas pedal.

WV - arkerst - What happened if you touched the Ark.; 9/26/10, 11:08 PM
HKatz said...: That sky, that blue blue sky - above the car, around the car, in the mirror... love that sky.; 9/26/10, 11:12 PM
rhhardin said...: Keeping the lights on prevents overcharging the battery.; 9/27/10, 1:01 AM
rhhardin said...: White Snakeroot is the Garlic Mustard of autumn.; 9/27/10, 1:04 AM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/27/10, 4:27 AM
Unknown said...: When you get back from 1940, bring the unemployment rate with you, it was better than what we have now.; 9/27/10, 5:47 AM
lemondog said...: Packard Goddess, 1939-42

The mascot was designed and patented by John D. Wilson. US Design Patent 114,358.

Reminiscent of American manufacturing might.; 9/27/10, 6:17 AM
lemondog said...: 1940 Packard on ebay.; 9/27/10, 6:28 AM
ndspinelli said...: Nice to see we have some gearhead/greasers reading this blog.; 9/27/10, 7:00 AM
KCFleming said...: I now believe America's Politico may be right. Not because of popularity, but due to voter fraud.

Because it's happened again. The falsified voting that I saw in SE MN in 2008, has happened again in MO.

"As many as a hundred Somalis voted, nearly all of them illegally, likely all of them for Royster's opponent, in a House district in which only 1,300 people showed up to vote.

Of the fifty-plus Somalis at Jones' polling place, not a single one was asked to sign a voter assistance card despite the fact that they all needed assistance from their "interpreters." Said Jones, "I witnessed myself seeing [the interpreters] fill out the ballots, actually fill out the ballots and actually tell the people ... where to fill it out at, what to sign."

When the interpreters, four of them, were asked why the Somali voters needed help, according to Jones, "Someone said they were blind, some of them said they couldn't read, some of them said they couldn't write. These are the excuses all day long that we had for these four individuals to vote with them and for them." "

Shit, why even bother voting in this country?; 9/27/10, 7:11 AM
KCFleming said...: Link: Sneak Preview: The Hijacking of the 2010 Election.; 9/27/10, 7:25 AM
lemondog said...: Packard history

No bailouts in 1958.

Shit, why even bother voting in this country?

Sounds like a job for the DOJ!

Uh, well, maybe not.....; 9/27/10, 7:27 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: As long as it was a Packard, and not a packer.

And I know the term Green Bay Packer is offensive. To some people. Because Green Bay Packer is a derogatory term for a gay Wisconsinite."; 9/27/10, 8:04 AM
Opus One Media said...: thanks Pogo for keeping the record clean for a zillion straight threads with at least 1 completely inappropriate post.; 9/27/10, 8:12 AM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: We had a '57 Packard for a while in the sixties. One of my dad's buddies was a compulsive car buyer, and we were always getting his castoffs. We had several Opels (looked like miniature '57 Chevies), a couple of Borgwards (ever hear of Borgwards?), and the Packard. My dad even drove a Triumph TR2 for a while, most out of character for a staid man like him.; 9/27/10, 8:39 AM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: @HDHouse

Ya gonna take America's Politico to task also? If anyone is going to be accused of hijacking the thread, it should be him.; 9/27/10, 8:42 AM
Original Mike said...: 1940 eh? Was the ammo plant hopping?; 9/27/10, 8:46 AM
former law student said...: Packard was also a pioneer in aircraft engines, including the world's first aero Diesel. They even built jet engines before they went Tango Uniform.; 9/27/10, 9:13 AM
Lincolntf said...: Thanks for the link Pogo. Just posted it to Facebook for my Libs-in-denial-about-voter-fraud friends.
It's really become a national crisis at this point. Sad that with the billions of dollars and millions of man hours devoted to "fixing" Government, nobody seems interested in the most basic fix imaginable. Stop rigged elections, worry about the other crap later.; 9/27/10, 9:19 AM
KCFleming said...: I do my part, house.; 9/27/10, 9:19 AM
lemondog said...: Someone had a link to the cover of a Fortune Magazine 1945 I thought interesting as it reflected a dynamic and independent US economy with simultaneous production of military, manufacturing and consumer goods .; 9/27/10, 9:19 AM
Big Mike said...: The chrome wheels and exhaust tips look pretty modern.; 9/27/10, 9:51 AM
Big Mike said...: @FLS, I remember reading a story about some company trying to build a diesel engine aircraft realized that the power to weight ratio was too low, so they added a turbocharger. But it was still too low, so they decided to up the boost on the turbocharger. Power to weight was still too low, so they added a powerful supercharger on the intake side of the engine.

Then somebody pointed out that if they took out the diesel in the middle, they'd have a jet engine.

Cute story, even if it's probably apocryphal.; 9/27/10, 10:02 AM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/27/10, 1:11 PM
Big Mike said...: @Sixty Grit, I concur about the hot-rodding, but there's no reason why the owners couldn't have retained the flathead V12, and settled for some of the tuning tricks of the flathead Ford and Mercury V8s from back in the day (e.g., porting, multi-Strombergs).

From what I can gather from the Internet the Packard V12 was a 60 degree block, so I'm thinking that if they stuffed a modern OHV small block under the hood they probably used a small block Ford. A whole bunch of years ago I read about someone who blew up the straight 6 in his E-type Jag and discovered that only a Ford 289 would find inside the frame.; 9/27/10, 2:18 PM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/27/10, 4:53 PM
former law student said...: They use the SBC and Ford rear axle.

That's a lot of steel to move with a 283. The original V12 was 446 cu.in. -- wouldn't a big block Chevy or Olds make more sense?; 9/27/10, 8:05 PM
Big Mike said...: @FLS, we're disagreeing again.

The original V12 (according to wikipedia) only pumped out 160 horses. So a small block, with triple deuces or dual quads, would do better than that.

Take another look at the hood -- there probably isn't much space between the frame rails so they'd need a small block engine to fit.; 9/27/10, 8:38 PM
former law student said...: Big Mike, if this 1940 Packard is Larry Neman's 1940 Packard (of Neman's Painting and Sandblasting of Waukesha, WI), and if Larry carried out his engine plan, then I am more nearly right than you -- he was going to put a 514 cu. in. Ford crate motor into it.

MuscleUpPerformance.com

http://www.muscleupperformance.com/photog/thumbnails.php?album=5; 9/27/10, 9:44 PM
traditionalguy said...: Did anyone have a 1951 Buick Roadmaster with a straight 8 and dynaflo transmission. Its backseat was a huge rolling bed where a 5'10'' person could sleep, or do other things.; 9/27/10, 10:45 PM
Big Mike said...: @FLS, I followed your link, but that car is a convertible while the car Althouse photographed is a sedan.

But the pictures at your link do depict why it would be feasible to stuff a big block V8 into the frame -- they built a new one from scratch. The original frame is pretty narrow.; 9/28/10, 9:08 AM