1934 Packard 1101 Eight Coupe Roadster

In the luxury car market, Packard accounted for 42.7% of the total sales. Cadillac and Lincoln were even worse off but better than Marmon and Peerless as they called it quits in 1933. Pierce-Arrow was on its way to going out of business.

Packard's accomplishments were truly remarkable, but they amounted to only 8,000 cars and they were spread out over three different engines and five different chassis.

Raymond Dietrich had laid down the basic lines of Packard's cataloged and custom bodies while working for Murray Corporation subsidiary Dietrich, Inc. in the late Twenties. Ray Dietrich's concepts were embraced by Ed Macauley, appointed Packard's styling director in 1932 by his father Alvan Macauley, Packard's President. Alexis de Sakhnoffsky joined Packard as a part-time consultant through the early Thirties, contributing his own sense of form, flow, and streamlining to the development of Packard coachwork, work which was implemented with talent and skill by Werner Gubitz.

Most of the Packard bodies were built in-house, as their extensive catalog of finely-styled designs satisfied the needs of most of their customers.

This 1101 Standard Eight Coupe Roadster is finished in two shades of cream with burnt orange wheels and upholstered in tan leather with a tan cloth top. There are dual side-mounted spares with mirrors, wide whitewall tires, a rumble seat for two additional passengers, and a luggage rack. There are decorative chrome-plated lock ring wheels.

The car wears an older restoration that has been subsequently renewed.

In 2009, this Packard 1101 Standard Eight Coupe Roadster was offered for sale by Bonhams Auction Company at the Exceptional Motorcars and Automobilia at the Quail Lodge Resort in Carmel, Ca. The car was sold for $113,490 inclusive of the buyer's premium.

By Daniel Vaughan | Nov 2009