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27/12/2010, 19:10
By MURRAY HUBBARD
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When a car acquires a nickname as unflattering as the `Pregnant Elephant’ there’s a fair chance the image of the company that made that vehicle may suffer. Welcome to the world of the 1948 Packard Clipper. The word `clipper’ is generally reserved for the sleek 19th century ships, endowed with huge sails and known for its speed. The Packard Clipper of the late 1940s was anything but sleek as our image portrays, although it was fast.
This car lives at the Wanaka Automobile museum on New Zealand’s South Island. Packard produced the Clipper just before the US entered WW2 after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, so the car became a victim of poor timing. In 1941 the car’s design was futuristic. But, the hostilities meant the car was put on hold with Packard devoting its efforts to the war effort. By the time the conflict ended in 1945 the car’s styling was passé.
Instead of having an all-new design for the post war era, Packard simply gave the Clipper a facelift. This was a self-inflicted blow to Packard, a company that made its name manufacturing luxury cars, but forced by the Great Depression to go down-market to secure sales. Added to that after the war the Clipper that had looked so modern, so smooth, was now just another face in the automobile crowd with other manufacturers having caught up to the 1941 Packard design.
With history to call on for wisdom it is clear Packard should have kept a design team going on civilian styled cars for when the war ended. In that way it could have been ahead of the pack. Instead the Clipper was caught in a time warp – the third year of production came five years after the car first rolled off the factory floor. It was a critical error by Packard, one which would eventually be fatal.
Less than 17,000 1941 Clippers were produced and just a few thousand 1942 models before Pearl Harbour. It was then late in 1945 before the Clipper production was set going again. The irony of the 1948 Clipper is that it was the post-war facelift that took away the car’s elegant lines and the ballooned vehicle became the infamous `pregnant elephant.’
In the 1930s Packard was an easily identifiable car maker. Like the Mercedes tristar, the Audi rings and the BMW propeller, Packard developed and retained its DNA in both styling and small, but significant, identifiers. The bonnets had an ox-yoke bonnet shape as it interfaced with the grille. A sort of upside-down smile at the pointy end of a very long bonnet. The badge mascot was a pelican and the centre of the hubcaps was a red hexagon and the side of the cars were adorned with an arrowhead spear. In Packard’s halcyon days these cues let all and sundry know this was a Packard – a luxury car to rival the world’s best.
While the Clipper was launched as a four door sedan there’s little doubt had the war not intervened it would have developed into a multi-line model with a wagon, coupe, convertible and even commercial variants such as delivery vans. In fact a coupe model was developed and built – around 40 only – before production ceased due to the war. There were two Clipper models built, a senior on a 127 inch wheelbase and a junior on a 120 inch wheelbase, powered by straight eight and six engines.
With the Clipper Six and Eights the company’s entry-level cars Packard the decision was taken to heavily market these vehicles ahead of the more expensive Packard Super and Custom Super models in the immediate post-war period. Even now that makes sense. If there were post war hiccups with the economy Packard was well placed. What happened of course is that the US economy boomed and there was a shortage of steel, and what steel there was Packard used to produce the least profitable Clipper junior model. Meanwhile, Packard’s main competitor, Cadillac, was selling its high-priced, high-profit models as soon as they rolled off the production line.
In 1948 Packard put the Clipper name in abeyance and released all-new models that were in reality re-styled Clippers. These Twenty-Second and Twenty-Third Series were also part of a fad design called the `upside-down bathtub’ which looked decidedly dated against GM, Ford and Chrysler product. The new entry level models were called the `200’ and `250’ models and sold reasonably well. In 1953 Packard reintroduced the Clipper name with the Packard Clipper, our second featured car, replacing the Packard 200.
With hindsight we now know Packard was doomed from as early as 1946. The decision to go downmarket with low-profit Clipper instead of concentrating on the high-end models – as Cadillac had done – cost it dearly. Packard and another basket case, Studebaker, merged with the proud Packard name simply disappearing, as did Studebaker in the 1960s. The Packard story reveals just how difficult it is to survive in the car industry. Even today manufacturers need to be planning five to 10 years in advance and take on board outside influences in their decision making – issues such as fuel prices, Middle East stability, the world economy and buyer trends, even before they are on the horizon. Those who get it right survive. |
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