Packard was born at the turn of the 20th Century and would be largely known for producing a variety of luxury automobiles for nearly 60 years. The Super Eight was one of them, using a 384 cubic inch inline-8 engine during its heyday before and after World War II. This 1940 example is a convertible sedan, having four doors and removable B pillars. While the engine has been refreshed, the cosmetic aspects of the auto will need some attending to. Located in Glendale, Arizona, this classic is available here on eBay where the bidding holds at $22,800.
The Super Eight was the larger of the two eight-cylinder luxury automobiles produced by the Packard Motor Car Co. a few years ahead of their ill-fated merger with Studebaker. It shared frames and some body types with the top model Packard Twelve. From 1933-36, it was a larger luxury car but scaled back in size and design in 1937. The car was renamed the Super Eight One-Sixty starting a Packard naming convention change in 1940. Production came to a halt in 1942 for the war effort but the car returned in 1946. The Super Eight was retired for good in 1951.
According to the seller, this Super Eight is one of only 149 built in this body style and fewer than 20 are known to have survived. The seller has owned it for about five years and a refresh of the engine was done 3,000 miles back, including new pistons, hydraulic lifters, rings, and a reconditioning of the rods. The manual transmission has an R11 overdrive. The seller proclaims this to be a car produced late in the 1940 production cycle, suggesting it may have some upgrades intended for 1941 models.
While you could drive the car as-is, restoring the body and interior would seem like almost a must. Much of the exterior chrome is in poor condition and the black paint is quite tired (we don’t know if it’s original). The trunk floor is pitted and has some pinholes, but nothing that can’t be saved. The doors may have been repaired previously and the convertible top needs replacing. The removable B-pillar pieces come with the car. The motor is said to be a 356 CI but sources quote 384 being the displacement of these Packard motors.
Beauty, I could see myself cruising in this with a good cigar.
This would make an awesome Sunday put around car or great parade car.I’d love to own it. I’d probably do the interior up a bit and try and buff the paint out and chrome the bumpers.You’d be the only kid on the block with it that’s for sure.
The last convertible. There is a book by that name, best seller in the ’70’s if I remember it right, about a car like this (well actually about love and sex). I would love to own it, but, it is probably too long to fit in the garage. But you could drive it all day at 70 mph (with better tires) given the overdrive and the basically bullet proof engine. Now at 70, with the top down, the rear seat passengers would get pretty buffeted by the wind, but around town, going out in the evening for ice cream in Palm Springs, or Palm Beach, or whatever other classy, or not so classy, small city or town you lived in, it would be just wonderful.
Looking at the dashboard sure brought back memories for me, as we owned a 1940 Packard in 1950. That was about the only car we ever owned that we were crowded (there were 7 of us kids plus the 2 parents). 5 of us boys sat in the back and the two youngest sat up front. Try that today…. lol
9 main bearing on that straight 8 motor. You could balance a nickel on its edge with the motor idling, and it would not fall. That smooth. These full classics are probably some of the best engineered vehicles ever produced. The downside is that those who love them are passing on a daily basis. The younger generations just are not that interested in “old” cars. I’m in my mid 70s’ and would like to have it, but the limited amount of enjoyment I would get before passing, offsets the desire.
Not a bad price for an open Packard. My marriage would not withstand the purchase however…😬
But you would look cool cruising to your lawyer’s office.
…but then she would say she wants half while while digging out the sawzall. Can’t live with em…can’t live with em.
These cars are the best to drive and just ride in. Solid, heavy, well engineered and eventually they do go fast. When I was eighteen I was looking for my first car. Hitch-hiking home from college one Saturday I caught a ride through Hyannis, Ma. where the road passed a well known used car lot. There were ’50somthing Fords and Chevys, a few Mopar items and the usual luxery Cadillacs and the like sitting there for sale but way in the back I could see the top of something way older. I looked at that top until is was out of sight and later arrived at home in Dennisport all excited about the car I hadn’t seen very well. later that evening I told my father about the car and the next day we drove up to see it. Turns out it was a 1935 Packard Coupe with a straight eight engine and two side mounts which I later learned was an expensive option for a coupe.Turned out the car was for sale on consignment from a man in Oysterville, Ma.for One hundred dollars in running and driving condition. Dad would buy me the car and I had to come up with the money for the registration and the insurance. Turns out that was more expensive than the car and once we got the Packard home it sat in the yard for six months before I could get the money together. It was a terrific driver and was solid through and through. I drove that Packard with 137000 miles on it for three years and then had to store it since we were moving to Florida and there was just no money for the gas in that thing. This ’40 sedan is a great car for the price and you won’t be disappointed if you buy it. Sure it will be some work but it will be very much worth it. If I were younger than 80 and had the room you’d never get a chance to buy it. This is a rare beauty for someone with an appreciation of the old timers and the engine and transmission and rear end will last you a life time. Please buy this car and restore it, SOMEBODY.
I agree with your sentiments Pete…. and I’m closing in on 81… not enough money and not enough garage space…. otherwise, I might be cashing in some of those old “war bonds” lol…
Beautiful, work of art. Damn that would be cool to take to the beach.
WOW! You still have war bonds? Ha! Mine are long gone but my heart is still into old cars with Packard as my favorite. This ’40 would be so cool to ride around in but I’d have to leave it outside when parked. That just wouldn’t be right. If I just had a place to keep it I might give it a go. Back in my better days this car would have sold for 50k plus I think. Now they aren’t so popular so this one is priced really well. Be interesting to se what it goes for in the end.
Hang in there Old Ranger. Ya never know what’s coming up tomorrow.
Love it; with more space and $ to restore it….Packards are my favorite.
I’ve been told in the past by some Packard folks that 1940 is the best year for these in terms of reliability and quality, compared to the earlier 120s. These are super elegant when restored and I bet this is a rare instance where you might even come close to breakeven if you do some of the work yourself. Although I am tempted by this one, every car I restore I end up not enjoying anymore because I always see flaws that no one else sees. I can’t enjoy driving them once they are done. It’s my own personal curse.
Ebay ad says “new hydraulic lifters”. In 1940, I never thought they were that early.
I wondered about that too Wayne from Oz. On mine there were solid lifters that you could adjust by removing a panel on the side of the engine. Maybe Packard went to hydraulic lifters after 1935. The engine that’s pictured looks just like the one I had. More recently I had a 52 for awhile but lost my storage with hurricane Charlie so I had to sell it. It had the straight eight engine too but I didn’t have it long enough to find out about the lifters.
Norman, I served my apprenticeship on Hudsons, and a few Packards came through for repairs, and I don’t recall them having hydraulic lifters.
Wayne & Pete,
The all new 1940 Packard Super Eight 160 and 180 straight-8 engine, with the 9 main bearing crankshaft, DID in fact have full hydraulic valve lifters. For it’s time, it was one of the quietest running automobiles. Years ago I had a postwar Custom 8 sedan with the same motor as on this 1940, and that car had only driven 1,100 miles. Standing only a couple of feet from the front fender, it was impossible to hear the motor running!
And for the record, the feeBay add says it’s a 356, and that is correct. Not a 384, the last year for the 384 engine was 1939.
I’ve worked on many of these and even owned a 1940 Custom Super 8 series 180 7-passenger limousine. It is very true that Packard eight motors were so smooth it was very easy to balance a nickel on edge on top of the cylinder head, while the engine was at idle! Over the years I won many cash bets that I could do it.
Bill, thanks for the clarification.
Cheers
Wayne
Were the straight 8s prone to brake failure or maybe just brake stupor due to being nose heavy ?
They weren’t any more trouble than any other car but if you let them sit for a few years the system would go dry somehow and you’d have to pump them up again.The problem now is that the re-manufactured replacements have different fittings for hookup so you are in for some serious changing around to get the new one screwed into place. Also the master cylinder was under the front seat along with the battery back in the day. A bit more difficult to work on.
64 Bonneville, if you bought that car, it might regenerate you, and give you an extra decade, or, hopefully, more.
Norman “Pete” McGill, you say “eventually they do go fast”, but I can say that, in 1960, for $15.00, I bought a ’38/9, or so, Cadillac LaSalle, that was running, licensed, and had a half tank of gas in it. Bought a new battery, and, on a Sunday morning, took it for the first drive, intending to leave it at a relative’s GM dealership to have some work done. Driving along at 50 mph, look at the speedo, and, all of a sudden, I’m doing 80! Get off the throttle, tootle along the highway, and WHOA! DOING 80 again! Try to settle down, and come to a T intersection, realize I’m dong 75, at the same instant I realize that Pop, with Mom beside him, with their two teenage daughters in the back seat of their nice ’57 Chevy, out for the popular Sunday drive, have pulled out from the stop sign, right in front of me, and that big bloody tank of a LaSalle is going to go right through that car.
I jump on the brakes, and, THANK GOD,that LaSalle pulls viciously to the right, down into a shallow ditch, and Pop is doing, maybe,10 mph, and I MISS THEM!
I’m a mile from the dealership, so, at 15 mph, and shaking like a leaf, I get there, park it, and never drove it again.
Those big straight 8s had torque galore, and they were smooth, and one just didn’t realize how quickly they could pick up speed. I sure wish I could add this one to my growing list of projects, and I’m 80+. (18 in my head, though) :>))
Great story Old Car Guy and thank the Man Upstairs for no injuries on that one. The old Packards were much the same way. Lots of mass going through the air make a certain sound that you get used to but the LaSalle was aerodynamic to the point that you didn’t hear the air as much as in other cars.I often found myself going 55 or 60 when I should have been doing 45 because the car just didn’t make much noise in the air stream. Really comfortable and almost soundless. Don’t let age stop you and your projects. You don’t know when your going to meet your maker so keep up the good work until you just can’t lift a screw driver again. If the project isn’t finished then find a young kid just starting out and give it to him to finish. Finished or not the kid will never forget you as long as he lives and the car will most likely run on and on.
SOLD please restore !!!
Winning bid:US $32,800.00[ 41 bids ]
That’s a good price for a running Packard. Hope the buyer will restore it and enjoy it. I know I would.