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1941-1947 Packard Clipper Planning
A product of necessity, the 1941-1947 Packard Clipper was the result of what we might term Packard's recurrent Five Year Plans. Every five years or so, the conservative old company would take a concerned look at declining sales and mounting competition, overcome its inertia, and decree that something had to be done. Dove wings in place of a license plate on this 1947 complement the Clipper's graceful styling. |
In 1923, Packard had opted out of the Twin Six and truck business to build its first Eights; in 1928 it dropped its Six to make Eights exclusively. In 1932, Packard moved upmarket with its new Twin Six (Twelve) and downmarket as well with the new Light Eight; in 1937 it shifted radically into high-volume production with a new Six to run alongside the popular One Twenty.
"By 1942," we may imagine Packard's management saying to itself, "we will need a full line of newly styled cars to keep abreast of competition." By 1942 they got just that: Clippers across the board, save for the low-volume convertible and a handful of luxury models.
Perhaps echoing its own forward-looking mood, Packard's 1942 brochure asked prospective buyers, "Looking Ahead?" The answer, of course, was to "Skipper the Clipper."
Alas, not many buyers got the chance to skipper a Clipper. World War II brought domestic car production to a standstill in February 1942, and in the process robbed the Clipper of what would have certainly been its peak sales years and a proliferation of body styles -- convertibles, wagons, and long-wheelbase cars.
In fact, notable designers showed how graceful some of them would have been: Dutch Darrin with his one-off Clipper convertible for Errol Flynn, Brooks Stevens and Briggs Body Company with fanciful renderings for Clipper fastbacks, Packard itself with the long-wheelbase models of 1946-1947.
George Hamlin and Dwight Heinmuller, in the 1978 Automobile Quarterly, succinctly explained the origins of the Five Year Plan that produced the Clipper: "After setting an all-time record in 1937 with its first 100,000-car year, Packard had sold half that number in recession year 1938, and only marginally [more] for 1939. The $3 million profit of 1937 had turned into a $1.5 million loss the following year, followed by a modest $500,000 profit in 1939 -- scarcely enough to live on. . . . Packard designs were not keeping pace with the industry when they absolutely had to -- a new experience for a company which never before had to meet styling competition."
To learn more about the design team behind the Clipper, check out the next page.
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