CarBrandLogos archive · Packard · 1953
A hand-finished convertible built to remind people what the badge meant.
Discover the storyPhoto: GTHO · CC BY-SA 3.0
The story
Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Packard Caribbean, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.
01
By 1953 Packard needed to be seen at the top of the market again, and the Caribbean was the attempt. Developed from the Pan American show car and styled under Richard Teague, it was a limited-production convertible with a smooth, uncluttered body, full wheel cutouts and very little chrome by the standards of the moment.
1956 Packard Caribbean 1994 Side · The photo, with all rights, was a gift from my father · Public domain
02
The first cars used the old L-head straight-eight, but the 1955 revision brought Packard's new overhead-valve V8 and, more significantly, Torsion-Level suspension: a torsion bar system linking front and rear on each side, with an electric motor to level the car, which gave a ride quality contemporary testers found genuinely remarkable. A hardtop joined the convertible for 1956, along with a larger engine and twin four-barrel carburettors.
Packard Caribbean 1954 in Belgium 2012 · Charles01 · CC BY-SA 3.0
03
Production was tiny throughout, and every car was expensive to build. It was also the end of the line. Packard's own Detroit plant closed after 1956, and the cars that carried the name afterwards were rebodied Studebakers.
1953 Packard Caribbean convertible, Water Mill · Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0
04
The Caribbean is therefore the last genuinely Packard-engineered flagship, and the Torsion-Level cars are the ones collectors want.
At a glance
Produced
1953–1956Body
2-door convertibleTechnical specification
From the journal
Contemporaries from the 1950s
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