Packard had a place in the high life
Can you imagine the feeling of buying a car to restore, and later finding it has a glamorous past and a place in the annals of history?
Ross and Robyn Marshall don’t have to imagine it, that’s what happened when they acquired this 1935 Packard Super 8 threewindow coupe.
They now live in Queensland, but brought the car here for a few months to take in the Ellerslie Classic Car Show and Napier’s Art Deco Festival in February, and the Packard Rally this month, which starts in Blenheim on March 24.
The Marshalls will then drive to Hanmer Springs, across to the West Coast and down through Franz Joseph to Wanaka, where 50 classics go on display at the Warbirds over Wanaka Air show on March 30-31.
The couple were living in Knoxville, Tennessee when they bought the car 11 years ago. Ross had a 1933 Buick Doctors Coupe he was looking to sell, and a friend he bumped into at a classic car meet told him about a retired Supreme Court judge who owned five Buicks and a Packard.
“I let it go for a bit, then called and introduced myself. He said ‘I know who you are, you have an old-car store in Tennessee,’ and he’d seen the Buick there.
“I said tell me about the Buicks. It took about an hour. And I said, now tell me about the Packard.”
The news wasn’t that good. “He said it’s a 1935 Super 8 threewindow coupe, and it’s in a million pieces. He said he’d been restoring it for 50 years, and ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever get it finished.’
“I said, if you don’t mind my asking, how old are you? He was in his 80s, and I said I didn’t think he’d get it finished, and suggested he swap it for my Buick . . . ”
Ross first had to back out of another deal, but soon called the judge back. “And he said okay, I’ll do it. That was Tuesday. On Thursday he called and said he’d forgotten to tell me who’d owned the car. I nearly dropped the phone!”
It had been delivered new to aviatrix Amelia Earhart in 1935, with its cut-glass flower vase — Amelia was spokeswoman for Packard at the time — and it has her initials generously scattered about the exterior.
It was allegedly parked at the airport when she left for her illfated final record attempt, and never returned. Her husband kept it for two years in the hope she’d be found.
By the time Ross bought it, it was