Museo Stradale

Dominic's Auto Museum
One man's passionate quest to survey finest motorcars in the world

Photographed: Saint Michael's Concours d'Elegance, 2008. Owner: Adeline & Ralph Marano

Curmudgeonly Analysis of a Car Too Beautiful to Deserve it: The concours d'elegance crowd isn't short on superlative praise. Truth be told, the more you read and research about the great marques and their great cars, the more you realize there is a veritable Pantheon of great marques and, subsequently, a horde of great cars whose number must exceed all members of Greek and Roman deity combined. So you run into the phrase, one of the greatest, all too often. Thus I ask, where are the mediocre? Where are the fine cars devoid of superlative praise, but truly beautiful and interesting in their own right? Every car does have a story, but automotive historians—particularly those loyal to a marque—often hoist cars upon reverential pedestals without just cause. For proof, peruse Dennis Adler's The Art of the Automobile: The 100 Greatest Cars, which is a fluffy survey of what was expensive and custom-built in the classic era. There's no ethic, no scrutiny, and no restraint in the assortment. It's a very pretty volume and probably wasn't taken too seriously to begin with, but a more appropriate title would probably be, The Art of Inflation: 100 Cars You'll Pay Too Much For at Auction.

Right, then. I am here to confirm that, as beautiful as this Packard Twelve may be, it is more unremarkable than remarkable. Ah, you say, but is it not among the first streamlined automotive designs of the Art Deco era? I reply: Among them, yes, but first, no. The Aero Sport Coupe project followed directly on the heels of Pierce-Arrow's Silver Arrow show cars, which debuted in 1933. And while the designs are similar at a glance, the Aero Sport Coupe is far less radical. Basically what you see is a Packard 1106 Sport Roadster with a closed body—same chassis, same basic LeBaron design cues—whereas the Silver Arrow successfully blended both the streamlined aesthetic and the rarely attempted ala spessa approach of merging body panels into one continuous form. Popular opinion was positive for both cars when they debuted, but Pierce-Arrow went a lot further in predicting future design trends.

Well then, you say, but was not Packard the more successful automotive marque? I reply: Irrelevant. Edward Macauley, newly appointed head of Packard's styling department, figured the press stirred by a vogue, aerodynamic Packard would impel enough sales to offset the cost of construction. Ultimately, Packard's reputation was good enough (and their coffers full enough) that Macauley's calculation was moot. Packard was in decent shape, and that wasn't likely to change based on his plans for a new show car. Therefore, it can't be said that the Aero Sport Coupe was of any value to the solvency of the marque.

In contrast, the Silver Arrow was extremely important to Pierce-Arrow, with a production variant expected to enter the market as the company's flagship offering. The Silver Arrow also debuted Pierce-Arrow's new V-12, the company's first large capacity motor. Compared to Packard, who first debuted a V-12 in 1916, this was big news.

Hopes were high for Pierce-Arrow, but the design of the Silver Arrow show car proved too complex for regular production, and the company was through within five years. So today, the Silver Arrow show cars represent both the peak of Pierce-Arrow ingenuity, and also the company's ultimate demise. It is a superlative example of major period design trends and period economic conditions, whereas the Aero Sport Coupe is but a very nice Packard.

Fine, you counter, but the Aero Sport Coupe is a design example of famed Streamline movement purveyor, Alexis de Sakhnoffsky! Yes, I concede. However, so much of the car is textbook LeBaron, with cues devised by Raymond Dietrich and Werner Gubitz, that de Sakhnoffsky's influence is better expressed in polishing the overall form. Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky was a consultant on the project, tapped by Macauley, who as a newbie fighting off charges of nepotism, (his father, Packard President James Alvan Macauley appointed him), sought others to dabble in Packard design before he began to pen his own ideas. The Count might have made the Aero Sport Coupe a more cohesive form than the Sport Roadster, but he would do much more for other employers, not the least of which was the Canadian beer industry. By 1937, a fleet of dynamic streamlined White refrigerated semi trucks was ready to speed beer across North America. So how flattering is it to say that de Sakhnoffsky did for Labatt's Blue as he did for Packard? (Actually, in terms of rolling art in the industrial design world, it's quite flattering, but it does put a bit of candor to prestige.)

If you wanted to grasp at straws, you could point out that the Aero Sport Coupe is a custom bodied classic era Packard, to which I'd say it's actually a semi-custom, being that LeBaron was primarily a design firm and, by 1934, had been divided among new owners. Most LeBaron designs, including all 1106 Sport Roadsters and 1106 Aero Sport Coupes, were built at the Packard factory. Further, the Aero Sport Coupe isn't any more rare than the Sport Roadster. Although fewer Aero Sport Coupes survive today, about the same number—five or so, depending on the source—were originally built of both the coupe and roadster.

Noting that four examples survive brings up another curmudgeonly point, that people all too often apply the term unique to different cars of the same model just because they exhibit slight differences. In reality, all four of the remaining Aero Sport Coupes are clearly recognizable as the same model. This lovely blue example is, in fact, identical to another black example, save for a lack of sunroof. The third, a deep green example, bears some claim to the term unique as it has a completely different hood section formed like a hard tonneau cover, and lacks rear quarter windows altogether. A fourth car, also black, rounds out the field, although it is a bit rustic in comparison to these first three cars of mention. Perhaps the lack of finery on this last example sets it apart. With only a compliment of antique green wheels to identify it from an earlier, more austere Packard, it hardly seems born from the Streamline age. But, in summary, I'd not like to hear any of these Aero Sport Coupes referred to as unique on account of their vast similarities to each other, and to other models in the Packard LeBaron range.

Morphology: So, curmudgeon, what do you like? Well, I like the degree of curvature expressed in the fast-back design. The way the curve meets the rear skirts with restrained overhang is actually quite progressive. Although the curve is not so drastic, it is more familiar to the seminal Stout Scarab than to the Silver Arrow, and is enhanced by the way the rear skirts curve around the back of the car. This whole arrangement is clean and tidy, again differing from the complex Silver Arrow. The taillights are handled nicely, too, sitting in the same position as on the Sport Roadsters, but getting attractive cylindrical shrouds that hold the tidy aesthetic firmly in place.

Nearly everybody likes the subtle lip on the leading edge of the rear skirts, visible just below the running board. This lip extends the cylindrical shape of the skirt, offsetting the roofline above. The running gear is also more fluid. On the Sport Roadsters, the boards are somewhat slanted, flaring slightly into the front skirts, whereas here the boards are horizontal, curving with a bit more flare into the front skirts. This treatment keeps the lines of the car lower, making it appear sleeker. In contrast, the Sport Roadsters always seem to pounce forward.

Because the car is closed, some play can be had with the split windscreen—this, a subtle chrome crest and crease extending from the fore of the hood. With the top up, the Sport Roadsters present a contrasting angularity. I should also point out that both the Sport Roadsters and Aero Sport Coupes feature forward opening suicide doors, but the hinges are hidden on the roadsters, while they're exposed on the coupes.

Otherwise, historians always look to those two false cowls on the body, aft of the bonnet. These false louvres are attributed directly to Alexis de Sakhnoffsky and are said to extend the lines of the car, (much in a style the French would call, trompe l'oiel). I just don't buy into it. The lines of the car perfectly suit its proportions, even on a relatively short (for Packard) 134.875 inch wheelbase. So why would you want to extend the appearance of the car? There's no basic design flaw that needs to be counteracted by this device, and in the first place the design's greatest strength is its simplicity. So I see these extra louvres as an interesting talking point, but otherwise unfortunate.

Exit the Curmudgeon: This is where I amend by saying something positive. Though less a prognosticator of industry wide trends than the Silver Arrow or Stout Scarab, the Aero Sport Coupe still had a quiet influence on special designs yet to come. It pre-dates some similar domestic exercises in streamlining, particularly on the large chassis of Cadillac and Lincoln, and many more European examples as well. Notable among those that followed in Europe are the Mercedes-Benz 540-K Autobahnkurier of 1937, which features a similar cleanliness of form and a nearly identical body line extending from the door over the rear quarter window, and the Delage D-8 Aerosport Coupe, also of 1937, which in addition to bearing a francophone version of the same name, carries strikingly similar proportions.

This observation brings me full-circle to my assertion that there is nothing remarkable about the Aero Sport Coupe. In conclusion, there is something quietly remarkable about the car—something born from the cleanliness of the design, which must be a natural by-product of combining LeBaron's already sleek foundation and de Sakhnoffsky's refined aesthetic. The resulting stylistic cues were not mainstream, but from one design to another helped fashion some of the most striking, exclusive sport coupes of the classic era.

In terms of those greatest cars, the Aero Sport Coupe does touch numerous historical high points from its success as a special show car to its association with some great names of automotive design. Throw the car into a database, and you can cross-reference it till the cows come home to roost, (or whatever it is they do these days). But, though it will touch many lists, the Aero Sport Coupe will not top any, save a list of semi-custom LeBaron Packards, perhaps. But that's finicky scrutinering. Ultimately, I think we need to be happy with this car as beautifully mediocre—something indisputably rare, but highly specialized in its differentiation from other equally remarkable cars of the classic era.

Sources:

"Packard: the complete story" by Michael G. H. Scott, TAB Books, Inc., Blue Ridge Summit, PA, c. 1985, pages 82-120
Note: Scott reports that three 1106 Aero Sport Coupes were built, and on page 86 provides a vintage photograph of one of the three at a scrap yard, burned to a crisp after catching fire en route from Washington D.C. to Tennessee. In spite of this research, we seem to have four Aero Sport Coupes roaming the continent today.

Family Classic Cars, At the time of writing, they were selling a green 1106 Sport Roadster. But be careful, the website will talk to you.

RM Auctions, They have seen to a couple of these ultra-rare Packards.

Coachbuilt.com, An incredible resource for custom coachwork information.

EevaMoritz.com, Somewhere on this site was a very nice feature on de Sakhnoffsky.

Packard Info, A thorough site of Packard information - somewhat obscure, but good.

StreamlineDesignWorld.com: No link provided, as it's difficult to find a place to land on the site.

EyesOn.org, A flash site with show information, in addition to all the boring history.

AutomotiveHistoryOnline.com, Well that's explicit.

Supercars.net, For many years a go-to site for information.

Jay Leno's Garage, You could waste hours, days, years on this site. The green Packard 1106 Aero Sport Coupe is somewhere here, but if you go looking for it, don't forget to call your mother once in a while.

HowStuffWorks.com, Actually has some decent automotive articles, including this one for the 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow.

 

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