Amazing Packard always ready for a star turn

Gracing a recent cover of The Professional Car magazine is a rare museum-preserved 1942 Henney Packard ambulance owned by Louis C. Farah of Burbank, Calif. That a specialty vehicle intended for work could have survived with just 17,045 miles is practically miraculous. The car drew attention as one of the 100 entries in a 2005 effort in California to set a Guinness World Record for the longest hearse procession. The l-o-n-g car had been in Stanley Zimmerman’s Automobile Driving Museum in El Segundo since 1969. The Packard was delivered new to a small-town flre department in Ohio, then went to a private ambulance service before becoming a collectible.

Farah pursued ownership early in 2020 when the car was offered by a collector thinning his collection. Obtaining it seemed natural since Farah supplies rare vintage ambulances to Hollywood fllm companies. The car was soon his. In the glove box was a group of paperwork on the car. Farah considers this Henney Packard “by far his most exciting acquisition,” according to the story. This car is also the inspiration for a 1:43-scale Esval Model. The vehicle has already appeared in the television series “Why Women Kill”and is a reliable adjunct to any television or fllm production that needs a period ambulance. Farah says the car performs well, and we can imagine it gains more than its share of attention when on roads or in front of cameras.

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Walt McCall, editor, wmccall@sympatico.ca www.theprofessionalcarsociety.org