Swiss Air

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Packards all have an air about them. From first glance, one can usually tell a Packard, if not from its distinctive radiator shape then from its hexagon-adorned hubcaps. What, then, are we supposed to make of this 1935 Packard, which was deemed Best of Show at last Saturday's 20th annual Greenwich Concours d'Elegance in that Connecticut town? Looking perhaps more like a Hispano-Suiza, it carries a body by Hermann Graber of Bern (which the Swiss will tell you is pronounced GRAHber, not GRAYber), and badged profusely under his own name by Werner Risch of Zürich, the Swiss importer and distributor. Even the hubcaps bear the Risch label, replacing the hexagon, and the vee-shaped Packard grille of 1935 is dispensed with, replaced by an earlier flat radiator, itself disguised with a stone screen. Deceptively, it is on the Series 1201, basic Eight chassis, not the Super Eight or Twelve platform. From the Ralph Marano collection in New Jersey, it wowed the judges from its very entry to the field, resulting in the Best of Show honors.

The people, on the other hand, went for familiar beauty. People's Choice was handed down to a 1932 Auburn 8-100A Speedster owned by H. DeWayne Ashmead. Auburn Speedsters look wonderful in any color, even black. Most unusual Classic might be the 1934 Duesenberg of Sonny and Joan Abagnale. Outfitted with supercharged engine and a luggage rack on its Rollston body, it could be the world's fastest stagecoach. The Greenwich Concours d'Elegance, actually two shows in one, reconvened on Sunday with (mostly) postwar European sports cars.

(Text and pictures by Kit Foster)

UPDATE by editor: regarding Peter McGuire's remarks about original 'metallic' fish- scale based paint, read this brief history at the Consumerist

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