TEST DRIVE!
On October 3rd, the United States Postal Service (aka USPS) will roll out their latest set of commemorative stamps entitled "50's Fins and Chrome". I've mentioned here that guitars and a love of cars go together quite well. I've loved both since the age of 6. So does rock guitarist extraordinaire Jeff Beck (who restores Hot Rods). Okay, pictured above is the five-stamp set for those of you who either love great designs and imagination as I do, or perhaps you just collect stamps at random as your hobby. That the Lincoln Premeire is pictured above the Studebaker Hawk is no mistake. I arranged for that deliberately to make two points. First, if you are a car lover you can GOOGLE "Studebaker-Packard" or "Studebaker" on Wikipedia and read about a merger that I wish would have survived in my lifetime. I have tremendous respect for these two troubled companies, because even though they were financial basket cases, their designers were First Class and so were the employees who assembled the cars. In Studebaker's case, The Hawk was the last car to wear the "PACKARD" badge in 1958. The S-P merger of 1954 went very badly for a number of sad reasons. But as desperate as Packard was, they refused to turn out anything less than a quality product. That's what I call Guts! Secondly, as Studebaker-Packard found themselves in "hot water", many of the designers defected for The Ford Motor Company. This explains why the Lincoln Premier carried similar lines of a Packard. With all of the hybrids entering the marketplace, I have no doubt that Studebaker (the surviving name of S-P) would have been the first car maker in America to have a model in production. But then, some of the finest ideas and talents are often lost to time...until someone writes about it. ;-)
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Viva Studebaker! Viva Packard!
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Wishing you a Nice Tuesday!
posted by Michael Manning @ 12:01 AM
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9 Comments:
I saw Beck at a Hyde Park concert a few years ago. He was great.
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
:)
dari mcmanus
Oh man - I love those cars! I hope we can find the perfect one to restore one day soon!
D-Man: Golfwidow recommended "Blow By Blow" to me and she has great tastes. Master guitarist, indeed!
Dari: I hear ya!
Morning, Patti: As a kid, we had two interesting neighbors: one raced boats and the other spent about 5 years after work at night meticulously restoring a 1939 Packard. I was about 7 and my Dad and I would be taking our nightly walk through the neighborhood and I can remember saying "Geez, is he ever going to get that car done?"
:D)!
Great looking cars.
Can't afford the gas to drive one today but we could move a family in the back seat and listen to the radio.
Cars back then had style and leg room.
Now they are plain looking and you need a shoe horn to climb into one and surgery to get out.
Those cars sure bring back memories of childhood.
Walker I agree! There isn't any imagination today. My car resembles a homogenized refrigerator rolling dow the street with others that all look the same. Gone ae the days when you said, "Wow, a Pontiac". Now, they are probably going to kill off the name "Pontiac". We live in a lackluster time, my friend!
p m: They were all part of my brother's generation as I came along late in life as the youngest of 4 kiddos. But I always had a love for cars and really great designs. I was largely a 70's kid and yet, many of the cars from the 50's became "Hot Rods". Today these cars sell here in town at Barrett-Jackson Auctions for unbelievable amounts!!!
Saw a 51 Pontiac FireChief in Ny exactly like my Dad had. I so wanted to by it even though it was a rust heap
Bud: I relate! I was walking out of a movie theater about 5 months ago and saw a 1951 Packard similar to what my Dad owned before I was born. I stopped and looked it over. Quite emotional how feelings are connected to things like a car, I know man.
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