1952 Packard Pan American Show Car

Following the December 1950 appearance of General Motors' Le Sabre "dream car" (see my post about that here), other American automobile makers soon began coming up with their own versions of what are now called "concept cars."  Some of these, even from GM (the 1953 Pontiac Parisienne, for example), were little more than customized production cars.  One of those was Packard's 1952 Pan American.

Some background in formation on the Pan American can be found here, here and here.

The Pan American was essentially a customized 1951 Packard 250 convertible.  It was built by the Henney Motor Company, maker of ambulances, hearses and other special body type conversions of production cars.  It styling has been credited to Richard Arbib, who was an employee of Henney at the time.  The Pan American was well received, and at least five more were built, some of which survive.

The Pan American, which was too expensive to productionize, led to the more conventional Packard Caribbean extra-sporty convertible line produced 1953-1956.

Gallery

Publicity photo of the Pan American.  The 250 convertible body was "sectioned" (a horizontal strip removed).  Its hood was replaced by one with an air scoop.  The grille was given different upper framing and grid elements were placed in the central units.  Its back seat was removed to make it a two or three passenger car.  The initial Pan American had no convertible top, partly because its construction was a rush-job to get it into the New York auto show.

View showing grille details.

As a design, the main shortcoming was that the removal of the back seat was not accompanied by a shortening of the wheelbase.  That is, its tail -- the zone abaft of the passenger compartment -- is a little longer than it should be in terms of good proportions.  The addition of the "continental" spare tire kit seen here added to this problem.

1951 Packard 250 Convertible, for sale photo.  This was the kind of Packard used for conversion to the Pan American.

Mecum auctions photo of a 1953 Packard Caribbean.  Its body and ground clearance are stock.  The main difference is the hood with an air scoop and lack of side trip aside from the chrome at the bottom edge and surrounding the wheel openings.

Quarter view, same car.  The round rear wheel opening is a Caribbean exclusive for 1953.   Caribbeans had continental kits as standard equipment for 1953 and 1954: later Caribbeans did not.