mardi 31 août 2010
lundi 30 août 2010
dimanche 29 août 2010
samedi 28 août 2010
Weekend Reflections
vendredi 27 août 2010
Le Vendredi Sky Watch
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jeudi 26 août 2010
Qu'est-ce que c'est ?
HInts: You've already seen it - and it has NOTHING to do with a Packard...
;-D
Answer à demain.
Update: You've already seen it! It is the moon, flipped and antiqued. «Louis» thought many of you would guess the cup of coffee - and «Louis» was needing a cup when he did this. His favorite guess is B SQUARED's "Inside Nancy Pelosi's head! - probably more true than we care to admit!
mercredi 25 août 2010
mardi 24 août 2010
La lune se cachant derrière le brouillard
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lundi 23 août 2010
Alcatraz Lighthouse
The beam from the lighthouse on Alcatraz Island has yet to succumb to the descending fog. The dome of the Palace of the Fine Arts in San Francisco is visible to the left of Alcatraz.
dimanche 22 août 2010
samedi 21 août 2010
Packard Reflections - The Goddess of Speed
Of the available radiator caps on the pre-WWII Packards, two were particularly famous. The most famous is the Cormorant, and a close second is the one seen here, The Goddess of Speed. Speaking of speed - that's a Ferrari in the background.vendredi 20 août 2010
Packard Watch Friday
In keeping with the theme «Louis» has been using this week, rather than this being Sky Watch Friday, this is Packard Watch Friday. In this case, we are watching a 1937 Packard Super Eight.This example is a two-passenger coupe with a rumble seat. In the late 1930s, Packard introduced a lower priced line of cars as a result of the continuing economic depression. The line, built around the '120' model, was quite successful, but it also had the effect of eroding Packard's carefully built image as the luxury marque to own. The luxury-class Packards continued to be built. The less expensive line unoffically came to be called the "Junior" series and the luxury Packards were known as the "Senior" series. The "Senior" Packards were offered as Standard Eights, Super Eights and (through the end of the 1939 model year) the Packard Twelve. The "Eight" referred to the number of cylinders in the engine. The Super Eight was a larger and more powerful engine than used in the Standard Eight. The Twelve was in a class of its own and many who have studied the history of Packard feel that it was one of the mistakes that ultimately led to Packard's demise that the Twelve was dropped at the end of the 1939 model year.
This Packard Super Eight was on the streets of Monterey last weekend during the Pebble Beach Concours and the RM Auction where the Packard "Myth" was auctioned.
jeudi 19 août 2010
Qu'est-ce que c'est ?
Enter your guesses in the comments. Answer à demain.
Hint: It isn't what it looks like it is! ;-D
UPDATE: Here's the answer - like the Myth, this is a modern interpretation of a 1934 Packard. It was built by Bayliss Coachworks in Lima, Ohio.
The Myth sold at the auction for $407,000. «Louis» would like to know why Roxas decided to sell it.
This 1933 Packard Twelve sold at the auction for $1,622,500 (!).
mercredi 18 août 2010
mardi 17 août 2010
1933 Packard Twelve
More about Packards:
1934 Packard Twelve
The Packard Caribbean - My Dream Car
What might have been
lundi 16 août 2010
The Myth - for real
In this Qu'est-ce que c'est, «Louis» asked you to guess what this car is. As you learned, it is a modern interpretation of a 1934 model Packard Twelve that Packard never built, a LeBaron boat tail fastback, built by noted Packard restorer, Fran Roxas.
Roxas called his creation the Myth. «Louis» learned that this hand-built car was to be auctioned at Monterey, CA on the weekend of the famous Pebble Beach Concours. So, «Louis» et Mme la Vache drove to Monterey and were able to see the Myth for real!
The car is stunning. The craftsmanship is simply amazing. The car looks low in the photographs - and it is! It is only 54" high. Anyone over 6' tall would not only have trouble getting in to the car, they would feel rather cramped once inside. Nonetheless, the interior is elegant in its simplicity. It is fitted with a genunie Packard Twelve steering wheel and instrument panel. Custom made fitted leather luggage resides behind the seats.
«Louis» was in hopes he would be able to see and hear the engine, but that was not to be. The Packard V-12 displaced 445 cubic inches, but Roxas punched this engine out to 500 cubic inches. Enzo Ferrari admired the Packard V-12 and patterned his own V-12 to a degree after the Packard engine. (The difference being the Packard is a long-stroke engine, designed to produce a lot of torque and silky-smooth operation. Ferrari's design opted for horsepower and high-revs over torque and smoothness.) As a tip of the hat to Ferrrari, Roxas fitted the twelve in the Myth with three two-barrel Weber carbs as Ferrari used on many of his engines. Roxas also gave the Myth a Ferrari-like exhaust note.
«Louis'» was quite taken with this car, but he does have some reservations about its execution. As noted in the original post, Roxas had asked Strother McMinn to sketch what the LeBaron-bodied car Packard didn't build might look like. (Packard offered a LeBaron bodied Twelve four door dual-cowl Phaeton, a LeBaron boat tail convertible, and a LeBaron fast back coupe - but there was no fast back boat tail body. McMinn's design was true to the Packard concept of sporty elegance in these LeBaron bodied cars. And there's the rub «Louis» has with Roxas' undeniably amazing creation. The Myth was not built true to McMinn's design. Rather McMinn's design was a starting point. As built, the Myth could have been done by a Southern California chop shop, and as such, has more of a hot rod influence, the polar opposite of the sporty elegance Packard's LeBaron-bodied cars achieved. Packards weren't about hot rods. They were about making a quite, bespoke statement that the owner "had arrived".
dimanche 15 août 2010
Série du pont de dimanche XXI
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samedi 14 août 2010
Weekend Reflections
vendredi 13 août 2010
Le Vendredi Sky Watch
hee hee... Perfect for Friday the 13th!
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jeudi 12 août 2010
Qu'est-ce que c'est ?
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Answer à demain.
Update: hee hee... «Louis» has some smart readers! The first to get it was Sharon, followed by Paula, Tracy and Reader Wil. It is a sailboat on the Bay, a blurred and upside down version of this image:
mercredi 11 août 2010
mardi 10 août 2010
lundi 9 août 2010
dimanche 8 août 2010
Série du pont de dimanche XX
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samedi 7 août 2010
Weekend Reflections
Lights from one of the parking lots of the Golden Gate Fields horserace track reflect in the water as San Francisco winks at us through the fog in the background.
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