Something different today: the Cussler Museum

[Pilgrim]

One of my car guy neighbors and a couple of friends are going to the Cussler Museum today.  It's open limited hours and only May-October.  It's adventure author Clive Cussler's collection of 100+ rare automobiles, and it's about 60 miles from me.  Cussler passed in 2020 but the museum continues.

Here's the website:  https://www.cusslermuseum.com/

Today's featured car: 1948 Packard Custom 8 convertible.  BTW, this photo was taken at the foothills of the Rockies. The hills you see behind the Packard are actually the first step from the Great Plains into the Rocky Mountains, and they run all along the Front Range in Colorado.

[gearHed289]

That's a real piece of art there. I don't know much about anything pre mid-1950s. Last summer I played at the Gilmour Car Museum in Michigan with a Van Halen tribute band. We got a private tour after they closed for the night. Lots of great stuff!

[Pilgrim]

Wow, interesting place.  A supercharged Bentley, some Dusenbergs, a Talbot and a couple of Delahayes, and a lovely blue Bugatti.  I'll see if I can post a photo or two.

[uwe]

That 1948 Packard Custom 8 Convertible looks like something the great Ray Dietrich (the man who gifted us Thunder- and Firebird in their original, iconic reverse look) might have had a hand in. Among other auto makers, he designed for Packard in the 20ies, 30ies and 40ies too.

He did Harry S. Truman's Lincoln Cosmopolitan Presidential Convertible around that time as well, you can still see the Art Deco in those designs, but a new design era was already waiting in the wings.

[Dave W]

That 1948 Packard Custom 8 Convertible looks like something the great Ray Dietrich (the man who gifted us Thunder- and Firebird in their original, iconic reverse look) might have had a hand in. Among other auto makers, he designed for Packard in the 20ies, 30ies and 40ies too.

I don't think he worked with Packard as late as in the 40s, but many of the Packards of that era were updates of his designs.

[uwe]

His golden era with Packard was certainly the 20ies (not that he was ever a Packard employee, he only had employee status with Chrysler - where there was a lot of infighting with engineers and he was eventually sidelined - and Checker as automakers in his career I think). But through his various design companies he also provided individual designs on a project basis to Lincoln, Ford, Checker and Packard, even as late as the 40ies.

I never knew he even did designs for Mercedes-Benz!



By the time he worked for Checker in the late 30ies, he had left behind that lavish 20ies design language he was initially known for.

[Pilgrim]

1939 Bugatti in the original blue, Ettore's favorite color....

1929 Blower Bentley....the supercharger is the front part between the tires and two carbs are mounted on the side. It's driven by the front of the crankshaft. 

Either of these cars could be hand-cranked to start.

[uwe]

Essentially, two Volkswagens then. Purchase and rule.