1939 Packard 1700 Six Club Coupe

Packard was the leading luxury marque at the start of the Classic era. It was one of the oldest car companies in America, dating back to the first Packard rolling out of the factory in 1899. The company had begun life as the Ohio Automobile Company based in Warren, Ohio. It became the Packard Motor Car Company in 1902 and moved to Detroit, the heart of the burgeoning auto industry, in 1903.

As an exclusive producer of expensive, luxury cars, Packard was struggling through the Great Depression. In an effort to expand production volume in 1935, the company introduced a new line of mid-price cars called the One Twenty. Priced at around $1,000, the car drove Packard to eighth place in U.S. sales by 1938. The car was very well built and featured Packard's first application of independent front suspension and hydraulic brakes, and it carried the prestige of the Packard name. In 1937, Packard added a six-cylinder engine that by 1939 displaced 245 CID and produced 245 horsepower, and rode on a 110-inch wheelbase chassis called the 110.

This Club Coupe bears the highest serial number of any 1939 Packard Six known today and is possibly the last of all 1700 series production. It was stored in Chicago for over forty years following the death of the first owner in the early 1940s. The current, and third, owner acquired the car in 2000 after it had been restored in the 1990s.