Recovered Peter Zeimet correspondence — September 14–15, 2009. Peter introduces his second Packard and explains why these old cars fascinated him. Bodies preserved from the surviving emails.
I BOUGHT A SECOND PACKARD
I ALREADY SENT THIS TO YOUR DAD, BUT I THOUGHT YOU SHOULD BE INTRODUCED TO THE NEWEST FAMILY MEMBER – PZ
Jay Leno drives a 55 Packard for his everyday car……………and has for over 25 years. We named it PATRICIAN OF GOD…………….but only because I do not like the name Agnes. It does a lot of strange things. This era of Packard had the electric self leveling suspension. Well, it moves up and down all by itself in the middle of the night…………..or outside Walmart. Crowds gather around it as it raises and lowers itself. Sometimes the back goes up and down……………..and once in awhile the front collapses onto the ground……………then the car levels out and behaves………….for a few minutes. I had to get the mechanic to put in an OFF switch so it does not do it. The battery goes dead. It has torsion bars and NO SPRINGS…………NOT A ONE. It just has these little motors that pull on the torsion bars (which run from front to back and not side to side) whether the car is moving or not.
There are still three Packard dealers open. YUP……………three. I have been ordering parts from all of them. Packards love parts…………the more the better. Hopefully my bassoon will not need so many parts. It also had better not draw crowds outside Walmart. – pete
I hope having two will slow down the addition. It sure is keeping me busy tending to their maladies, so it may just do the trick. IF YOU WANT THE BLACK 1951, I will throw in some fiestaware………………only the best for Danielle, you know – pz
Why Packards
You know your dad had an old Chevy pickup he worked on for years. He told me that a final good bye was said in Utah as the guy could finish it up. Well, that is the case for many cars. The direction I am going is most existing Packards still run on their original engines and are pretty solid cars depite being 50-100 years old. They are machines and that category does mean they eventually wear out. All machines including ourselves wear out, but Packard were inordinately strong.
Both of mine have their original powerplants and drivetrains, glass, fenders, etc. Yes, there has been repair work done and more needed to be done………………but the fact remains they are exceptional candidates to mess with and were still running after decades of use. Not very many machines can make that claim. Not very many Chryslers, Fords, etc. have survived, either. There was no Packard fairy watching out up above, either. They just were good automobiles with miles of style for their period of manufacture.
I have read hundreds of stories written in the Packard club blogs about how the car was grandpa’s and it never wore out. He got it when 25 years old and drove it until 85. Somehow it ended up in Auntie’s back yard and after sitting for a long time, the darned old thing just started up and drove right on out. Cousin #1 drove it to college and then it ended up in another garage……………..BUT WAS STILL RUNNING and looked sort of good even after all the years. As I said before, if Evita Peron and Joseph Stalin could drive them along with many politicians, queens, kings, shaws and arab royalty, they must have been worth the bother. How many Camrys will be trotting about 5-10 decades from now just because they still can? pz
Surviving Packard photographs
- PACKARD 48.jpg — a clear three-quarter rear view of Peter’s red-and-black Packard Patrician parked in the driveway beside the house.
- PACKARD 50.jpg — the same red-and-black Packard almost completely buried under heavy snow in the driveway; Peter sent it in December 2009 with the subject “SERIOUS SNOW.”
These two Gmail attachments visually document the “Patrician of God” during the same period as the September 2009 correspondence above.
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