Regarding that design, he has been quoted in the Packard Cormorant (No. 129, Winter 2007, page 30) and elsewhere as stating that the car looked "...bottom heavy. I wasn't particularly happy with it, but then I hated every design I ever made anyway. You never get what you really want because you have to compromise; the thing could have been a lot better looking had we the option of altering the glass along with the sheet metal." It seems he would have liked to lower the main body to provide another 1 1/2 inches (35 mm) of glass, but Packard engineers supposedly wanted to limit the amount of glass for price reasons.
The situation might have been more complex than that. Packard built luxury cars (along with lower-priced models using the same basic body). If I had been in charge of Packard marketing or product planning an important consideration would have been the design's "image" as a luxury car. To a degree, that would trump the aesthetic considerations Reinhart favored.
Therefore, let's examine luxury car design circa-1950 to see where the 1951 Packard fits.
Unless noted, images below are of car listed for sale. All are of four-door sedans for comparative purposes.
Gallery
1951 Packard Patrician 400 - Bonhams auction photo
Patricians were the top of Packard's line. Side window height is less than one-half the height of the lower body.
1951 Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn
Silver Dawns had factory bodies and were meant to be owner-driven. English luxury cars tended to have large-appearing side windows, though these are proportionally only marginally taller than Packard's.
1950 Daimler DE36 Touring Limousine by Freestone & Webb - auction photo
The same can be said for Rolls' rival.
Jaguar Mark VII
This Jaguar, a semi-luxury car, has windows about half the distance from rocker panel to beltline.
1951 Mercedes-Benz 300 W186
Yet again, similar.
1952 Lincoln
The redesigned '52 Lincoln has windows about the same proportion as Packard..
1950 Cadillac Sixty Special
The redesigned for 1950 Caddy's windows are noticeably narrower than Packard's.
1951 Packard 300
Long-wheelbase '51 Packards such as this 300 had three-piece wraparound backlight windows. These give the car an airy feeling that complements the solid-looking lower body.
1951 Packard 200
But entry-level 1951 Packards had smaller backlights. As seen here, Reinhart's complaint has some validity.
1951 Kaiser Golden Dragon - RM Sotheby's auction photo
Kaiser's attractive 1951 design has tall side windows, perhaps a bit more height than Reinhart mentioned. Their ratio to lower body height was about 58 percent as opposed to Packard's 42 and Cadillac's 35. But Kaiser was not a luxury brand. In the early 1950s a Packard with Kaiser proportions would not have seemed big, solid, important. Perhaps not worth spending luxury car dollars for.
Therefore, let's examine luxury car design circa-1950 to see where the 1951 Packard fits.
Unless noted, images below are of car listed for sale. All are of four-door sedans for comparative purposes.
Patricians were the top of Packard's line. Side window height is less than one-half the height of the lower body.
Silver Dawns had factory bodies and were meant to be owner-driven. English luxury cars tended to have large-appearing side windows, though these are proportionally only marginally taller than Packard's.
The same can be said for Rolls' rival.
This Jaguar, a semi-luxury car, has windows about half the distance from rocker panel to beltline.
Yet again, similar.
The redesigned '52 Lincoln has windows about the same proportion as Packard..
The redesigned for 1950 Caddy's windows are noticeably narrower than Packard's.
Long-wheelbase '51 Packards such as this 300 had three-piece wraparound backlight windows. These give the car an airy feeling that complements the solid-looking lower body.
But entry-level 1951 Packards had smaller backlights. As seen here, Reinhart's complaint has some validity.
Kaiser's attractive 1951 design has tall side windows, perhaps a bit more height than Reinhart mentioned. Their ratio to lower body height was about 58 percent as opposed to Packard's 42 and Cadillac's 35. But Kaiser was not a luxury brand. In the early 1950s a Packard with Kaiser proportions would not have seemed big, solid, important. Perhaps not worth spending luxury car dollars for.
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