1917 Packard Twin-Six

The Packard Motor Car Company was founded in Warren, Ohio in 1899 and moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1905. In that same year, the company abandoned its one- and two-cylinder mid-engine machines as it moved upmarket with more refined four-cylinder offerings. The company's four-cylinder production hit its peak in 1907 with the introduction of the Model 30. The company's upward momentum continued with the introduction of a new six-cylinder car in 1912. Initially dubbed the Six, the model later received the '48' as its name.

Packard's ambitions and ongoing quest to offer the finest in luxury motoring brought about the introduction of a twelve-cylinder model. It was the work of engineer Jesse Gurney Vincent and the result of Packard's experience in building v-type aircraft and marine engines.

The 'Twin Six' entered production by late 1915, and despite the enormous engineering challenges of building such an engine, it was ultimately a success. Unlike the conventional cars of the era, Packard's mighty Twin Six was smooth, powerful, and flexible and would power Packard's vehicles into the 1920s. The engine was installed in a chassis that was an evolution of the company's previous models and was aligned with a smooth-shifting three-speed transaxle. Rear-wheel mechanical brakes provided the stopping power.

With twice as many cylinders as the engine it replaced, Packard's V-12 was only marginally larger in displacement than the smaller of the two Sixes it would replace. Additionally, the crankshaft was smaller than the Six's and the overall engine weighed 400 pounds less than the previous Six. Displacing 6,950cc (424 cubic inches), the 60-degree, L-head engine had two blocks of six cylinders that were cast as a unit with the heads. It used aluminum pistons, and three main bearings, and delivered approximately 88 horsepower at 2,600 RPM. The second series of Twin Six for the 1917 season introduced updates to the engine, including detachable cylinder heads and the relocation of the thermostat to the radiator. Smaller 35x5-inch wheels allowed the vehicle to sit closer to the road.

The 'First Series' Twin Six was produced for 1915 and 1916, offered in two wheelbase lengths, and priced at $2,600 to $4,600, meaning it was more affordable than its predecessors by hundreds of dollars. Nine bodies were offered on the 125-inch '1-25' and 13 commodious bodies on the 135-inch '1-35' chassis.

The 1917 Packard Twin Six was offered as the 2-25 and the 2-35. The '2' represented the second series while the last two numbers continued to represent the wheelbase size, albeit the 2-25 rested on an inch-and-a-half longer wheelbase size measuring 126.5 inches. The 2-35 continued to measure 135 inches.

The body styles on the 2-35 were also offered on the 2-25, including a tourer, salon tourer, phaeton, salon phaeton, brougham, landaulet, cabriolet landaulet, limousine, cabriolet limousine, and an imperial limousine. The two- and four-passenger runabouts remained exclusive to the smaller platform.

The 2-25 proved slightly more popular than its larger and more expensive sibling, with 4,950 examples of the 2-25 built compared to 4,049 units of the 2-35. This was a significant improvement over the 3,606 examples of the Twin Six built the previous year

by Daniel Vaughan | Apr 2022