Packard Super Eight

Packard Super Eight
1937 Packard Super Eight
Overview
Manufacturer	Packard
Production	1933–1951
Assembly	Packard Automotive Plant, Detroit, Michigan, United States
Body and chassis
Body style	2-door coupé 2-door convertible 4-door sedan
Layout	Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive
Related	Packard Station Sedan Packard Twelve
Dimensions
Wheelbase	127 in (3,226 mm) (1939) 120 in (3,048 mm) (1946) 127 in (3,226 mm) (1949)
Length	208 in (5,283 mm) (1946)
Chronology
Predecessor	Packard Eight
Successor	Packard 400 Patrician

The Packard Super Eight was the larger of the two eight-cylinder luxury automobiles produced by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan. It shared frames and some body types with the top model Packard Twelve. The 1933-1936 Packard Super Eight was a big classic. In 1937, it was reduced to a smaller and lighter design. Following the discontinuation of the Packard Twelve after the 1939 model year, a new Super Eight One-Eighty was derived from the Super Eight as the new top car range. The Super Eight was renamed the Packard Super Eight One-Sixty. These two models shared most mechanical components including the 160 HP straight Eight engine.

After 1942, Packard concentrated on the new Clipper styling that was developed for an upper-class sedan the previous year. There were Super Clippers and Custom Super Clipper in the One-Sixty and One-Eighty tradition until 1947. After a heavy facelift, the name Clipper was dropped. The most senior Super Eight One-Eighty became the Custom Eight, while its slightly lower-priced sibling, the Super Eight One-Sixty, once again became simply the Super Eight. Clipper Custom Super Eights and Custom Eights were very close relatives to their respective Super models, distinguished outside by the lack of an eggcrate grille and small rear chrome trim moulding under the trunk lid on Supers. In 1949, a new Super Eight Deluxe was added to the line. This car had also the Custom Eight's eggcrate grille, but not the rear trim.

The entire range of Packard's motorcars was renamed for the 1951 model year (twenty-fourth series), when the Super Eight was renamed 400.

Gallery

• 
  1937 Packard Super Eight Convertible Sedan (model 1502), formerly belonging to Carol II of Romania
• 
  1937 Packard Super Eight Touring Limousine (model 1502)
• 
  1939 Packard Super Eight 1270 Touring Limousine (model 1705)
• 
  1939 Packard Seventeenth Series Super Eight Touring Limousine
• 
  1940 Packard Eighteenth Series Super Eight One-Sixty Wagon
• 
  1941 Packard Super Eight One-Sixty Convertible Coupe (19th series)
• 
  1948 Packard Super Eight Deluxe 4-Door Sedan
• 
  1949 Packard Super Eight Convertible