1949 Packard Custom Eight Touring Sedan

When automobile production resumed after World War II, Packard, like most other automakers, simply brought back the cars it was making before. In Packard’s case, this was the Packard Clipper that was introduced in 1941. The Clipper hadn’t been in production long enough before the war to allow a relatively low-volume luxury marque like Packard to come up with all-new models in the late 1940s like other automakers. In 1948, Packard restyled the 1941-1942 Packard Clipper, eliminating the separate fenders and the narrow tapered hood & grille, with the Packard Eight and Super Eight on a 120-inch wheelbase and the Custom Eight on a 127-inch wheelbase.

1949 saw little change, aside from the mid-year introduction of Packard’s Ultramatic automatic transmission, Packard’s first automatic transmission and the only one developed by an independent automaker without outside assistance. Packard production would hit a peak of 116,000 cars for 1949, making it one of Packard’s best years ever.

1940 Packard One-Ten Club Coupe

Responding to the Great Depression, luxury automaker Packard introduced a line of cars powered by six-cylinder engines in 1937, alongside its eight-cylinder powered standard One-Twenty line. Initially called simply the Packard Six, the smaller Packard line was renamed Packard One-Ten in 1940. The Packard One-Ten series had a 122-inch wheelbase, as opposed to the Packard One-Twenty line's 127-inch wheelbase, and was powered by a 245-cubic-inch six-cylinder version of Packard's L-head in-line engine that was rated at 100-horsepower, not much less than the One-Twenty's 120-horsepower 282-cubic-inch eight-cylinder engine. Packard built 62,300 One-Tens and 28,138 One-Twenties for 1940. The One-Ten line was expanded in 1941, but in 1942 the Packard One-Ten went back to being the Packard Six before World War II halted civilian Packard production. This 1940 Packard One-Ten Club Coupe was photographed in the Days in the Park parade in Rainier, Oregon, on July 8, 2000.