Automotive Archives - Page 2 of 6 - Richard M. Langworth

“Queen Mary”: We Love Our 1950 Packard Eight Club Sedan

5 November 2022

Performance may be described as “comfortable.” Zero to 60 must take 20 seconds, and we've not pushed her over 70. But at 60, 1950 Eight is just cruising. Gas mileage averages about 15 mpg. But hey, remember, this is 1950, and gas is only 15 cents a gallon. (A fun feature at gas stations: Packard’s “whistling gas tank” stops whistling when you’re nearing full, captivating locals. Nothing like that on an Audi A6.)

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Absent Friends: Dave Brownell, Randy Mason, Don Peterson

5 July 2022 Comments 2 Comments

Parry Thomas was buried in the graveyard of Byfleet, near Brooklands, the great oval racetrack where he built his fame. His marker reads: “Life is eternal and love is immortal, and death, which is only the horizon, is nothing save the limit of our sight.” A wreath of violets, anonymously sent, carried the legend, “Ride On, Ride On, in Majesty.” Ride On, Don, Dave and Randy.

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Brooks Stevens: The Seer Who Made Milwaukee Famous

10 June 2022 Comments 2 Comments

Picture Stevens, trailing a silk scarf, driving a very loud open sports car with what the British call “assurance.” Picture an army of gendarmerie, including aircraft. Failing to catch him, they block the road ahead. Now picture the nearest constable (seven feet tall as they all are). Jerking his thumb at the Excalibur’s sartorially splendid driver, he shouts: YOU—OUT! Kip paid his fine. It was substantial.

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Collector Car Values: Clunkers and Others—A Sampler

21 April 2022 Comments 1 Comment

For 30 years I've written the bimonthly Values Guide for "Collectible Automobile," which for 40 years has consistently turned out quality articles and fine photography on collector cars. I write without a byline, hoping to avoid being denounced by owners who think their car is worth a lot more than the market says it is. But sometimes we make a mistakes....

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Why Packard Failed (2): The End of the Road, 1954-56

26 March 2022 Comments 6 Comments

In reality, Packard’s crucial mistakes were made years before. After the war, when a company could sell anything on wheels, Packard could have reverted to type, rebuilding its reputation as a luxury automaker. Instead it pursued the lower-priced markets that had saved it in the Depression. Stemming from this marketing mistake was a series of product decisions that flew in the face of Packard’s proud heritage.

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Why Packard Failed (1): Patrician and Its Relatives 1951-53

15 February 2022 Comments 2 Comments

James J. Nance's efforts to supplement the Patrician with more luxury Packards paid off in 1953—a testimonial to his determination. Advertising assumed a decided up-market look, and the results were agreeable. Calendar ’53 saw 81,000 cars, up by a third and the best since 1950. Sofari sogoody, as Churchill once said. But what next?

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Bud — Presiden Juneau. Actually, we propped him up at the Reagan Library during a 2012 Packard Club tour. (Photo by Jay Hubbard)

Packard Tales and Memories of Bud Juneau

10 December 2021 Comments 0 Comments

Clarence B. “Bud” Juneau, the Packard Club’s longtime Vice President for publications, passed away March 25th, leaving his many friends bereft. This was my contribution to a special edition of The Packard Cormorant, Fourth Quarter 2021, published in his honor. —RML

Memories of Bud

Bud Juneau gave me my first real job. I don’t mean “work,” the things we do for some entity which pays us. I mean what we do individually, hoping for pay and solely responsible for success or failure. For me, this began with Bud.

In 1975 I resigned as senior editor at Automobile Quarterly and set out to be an independent motoring writer.…

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Sean Connery Remembered: James Bond and His Motorcars (Update)

25 October 2021 Comments 1 Comment

Fifteen minutes to nine:

The Red Phone in the Bond flat gives its loud, distinctive jangle. It’s the Chief of Staff. “At once, please, James. Special from ‘M.’ Something for everyone. Crash dive and ultra hush. If you’ve got any dates for the next few weeks, better cancel them. You’ll be off tonight.”

The archetypal, irreplaceable 007 In 2020 Sean Connery, the original James Bond, died at 90 at his home in Nassau. “He’s one of the few actors on the planet I truly mourn,” a friend writes. “He was great man and dignified, and stayed that way his whole life.”…

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Graham Robson: “He Was Always, Triumphantly, in Touch”

15 August 2021 Comments 2 Comments

Graham Robson shared and typified Alistair Cooke's philosophy—and mine. "We shall go on to the end," as Churchill said. And sure enough: Last April Graham wrote me about another book! It was his last message: I am commissioned to prepare a monumental four-part Encyclopedia of Classic Cars 1945-2000." In 2025 he would have been 89. Alas that task must now fall to someone else. But it was so very typical of Graham. He was forever pressing on, oblivious to time and age—on and on, as alive and vital as ever. As a BBC colleague said of Alistair Cooke: "He was always, triumphantly, in touch."

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“The drone of the engine went on as a background of gigantic sound….The song of the car bayed over wide spaces of country, was bruised and battered between the walls of startled village streets, was flung back in echoes from the walls of hills.” —Leslie Charteris, from an AQ tribute to “The Saint’s” fabulous, fictional Hirondel. (Painting by Ted Lodigensky, author’s collection)

Automobile Quarterly: The Memories (AQ Vol. 10, No. 1, 1972)

21 June 2021 Comments 1 Comment

If I have written anything worthwhile over 50 years it's thanks to my five years as a minor player at Automobile Quarterly. Between Don Vorderman and Beverly Rae Kimes, I learned things that couldn't be acquired in a school of journalism. The foregoing began with an email to a friend who acquired an old issue. I just wanted him to know the treat he was in for.

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