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The 1953 Packard
400 Patrician was aptly christened after the old Roman term for
aristocrat or noble, being Packard's top model in its sedan lineup
since its introduction in 1951. A distinguished and very comfortable
automobile, the company promised a relaxed ride; the low engine
speeds gave it a hush, while the power steering and power brakes
were all of them the best in the industry. Its "Contour-Styled" body
was the design of John M. Reinhart who used lots of glass, including
a one-piece curved windshield and a squared-off lower body which
brought the fenders up level with the hood and deck. |
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1939 Buick
Special Convertible
David Dunbar Buick was a canny Scottish industrialist but an
unlikely auto builder. After making his mark with a process for
annealing porcelain to steel for bathtubs, he turned to the profit
opportunities of the horseless-carriage phenomenon. His first car,
appearing in 1903, was a simple little chain-drive runabout with
flat twin power. One engine feature - overhead valves - was a rarity
then, but has been a hallmark of almost all Buicks since. |
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1935 Cadillac
Eight (Series 20) Sedan
Born in the small French town of Gascony, Antoine Mothe Cadillac was
a young and commissioned officer in the Royal French Army when he
founded the city of Detroit, as a fur trading center, in 1701.
Several honors from King Louis XIV followed. A more lasting
lionization of the Cadillac family name and, notably, its 11th
century coat of arms came 200 years later when well-heeled lumber
merchant William H. Murphy used them to identify the first of what
was to become one of America's most celebrated and respected cars.
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1963 Lincoln
Continental Convertible
A design first fielded in model year 1961, the '63 Lincoln
Continental convertible sedan closed out a 3-year production run of
one of the most stylish and elegant automobiles built in America and
the country's first 4-door ragtop since the 1951 Frazer Manhattan.
The convertible sedan was the first such car Lincoln had built since
1939, and the only production four-door convertible available in the
world at the time. Lincoln rolled out the country's last convertible
sedan, based on this earlier design, with their 1967 lineup.
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1969
Checker Cab
Founded in 1922, Checker Motors
Corporation was long-famous for specially designed taxicabs and
airport limousines as well as a range of private cars that it first
introduced in 1959 and as such, bears the distinction of being the
only American manufacturer that started out with building only
taxicabs and later went on to build private cars. Every other
manufacturer went the other way around; they built private cars from
their inception and would later come to design and market taxicabs
on similar platforms. |
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