1940 Packard One-Sixty Convertible

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID W. TEMPLE

              James Hollingsworth of Dallas, Texas, owns our featured example. This is one of several Packards (including a 1941 model with factory air conditioning) in Jim’s collection. Hollingsworth bought the car as a “basket case” in 1976.

Since its lengthy restoration, the classy Packard has accumulated 34,000 miles with a significant amount of that resulting from several journeys across the country. Some of the highlights of those trips include being featured on “Good Morning Detroit” during the 1982 National Packard Automobile Classics (PAC) gathering as well as being driven on the Packard Proving Grounds during the same event. The following year the Packard took a first place award in its class at the Harrah Car Show in Reno, Nevada. Following that, it was driven on to San Francisco to the PAC meet there and then to the Classic Car Club of America (CCCA) meet in Santa Barbara. In 1987, Hollingsworth drove the car in the CCCA Caravan called “The Rush to the Rockies” that took the Packard to an altitude of about 14,000 feet above sea level. Four years later, Jim drove the One-Sixty on an 8,000 mile trek over six weeks through eleven states and Canada while on the CCCA Caravan, “Challenge of the Canadian Rockies.” Hollingsworth found his car to average 14 mpg throughout the trip. Overall, the senior Packard has been driven through sixteen states since its total restoration with all of those trips originating from Jim’s home in Dallas. After all those grand voyages, Jim re-restored his rare piece of Packard history during the spring of 2004 and is now ready to handle the next big adventure which includes writing a sequel to the book he authored and published in 2001, “Packard 1940 – A Pivotal Year.” His next book will cover the years 1941 and 1942.

Though Packard Motor Company is gone, as long as there are collectors restoring, preserving, and driving examples of the company’s fine heritage the future is rosy in terms of keeping its memory alive. If you have any doubt about that, just ask the man who owns several.