The origins of the Packwood Special can be traced to California aerospace engineer Steve Mulholland, who gathered components over a two-year period with the plan of building his dream machine. When he bought a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing in 1958, the dream quickly faded and Mulholland soon ran an ad in the L.A. Times offering the project for $1,000. Bill Packwood of Pico Rivera, California, spotted the ad and bought the package, which included a rectangular beam frame, a 354 Chrysler Hemi engine, a Jag C-Type gearbox, Borrani wire wheels, Porsche Speedster bucket seats, a modular aircraft wing tank for fuel, a Victress C-3 Coupe body, and lots and lots of parts.
Packwood built the car in his family’s garage while attending Long Beach State University where he received a B.A. degree in Political Science and Economics. At this time, the racing scene was really hopping, and Bill was blessed by frequent visits from his good friend Woody Sanders and other local Southern California talent who were always glad to lend a hand. According to both Bill and his younger brother Rodney (who’s done a phenomenal job retracing the car’s history), the original constructor of the frame remains a mystery. Bill Packwood said, “For a long time I thought Bill Pollack had built the chassis, but when my brother Rodney spoke with him, he told him that wasn’t the case at all.” Packwood used a Ford straight axle up front and a Lincoln unit at the rear. Stopping power was by Lincoln drums at all four corners. Engine master John Simon helped with tuning and headwork on the Hemi, which breathed through four Stromberg 97s on a Weiand intake manifold. Lou Gable fabricated the exhaust system.
Packwood finished off the car with the lovely Victress Coupe body that he received from Mulholland and painted it in 1960 GM sateen silver. Total build time was 400 hours at a cost of $2,200. According to Packwood, “The car was registered in California as the Packwood Special and was issued license plate VRB 131.” Sure, Bill intended to drive it on the street…but, come on, he had other ideas!
Packwood and his Hemi-powered monster both made their racing debuts at a Cal Club event in Las Vegas in 1960. According to Packwood, “We drove the car up from Pico Rivera, no trailer; we really drove it. We hadn’t run it, so we were really breaking it in, too. I remember it was cold and the car didn’t have a heater; it didn’t have any windows. I remember going up the Cajon Pass. I’d run the rpms up and down, trying to get it broken in correctly. I finished 3rd in the novice race. That was my first race ever. Come to think of it, it was my first time over 100 miles an hour.”
The car’s second outing was at the November 5–6 SCCA event at Pomona. Packwood recalls it was very rainy and that he let Don Hulette take the car out for a few laps. He also remembers how impressed he was by how much an experienced driver could get out of his garage-built, 5,800-cc B-modified.
The car was later run at the Palm Springs event on January 21–22, 1961. Packwood spun it into a hay bale, sustaining body damage to the left rear. He said, “I remember sitting on a hay bale with Jim Hall. We were both interested young guys, and we were just sitting on the bales watching the different lines that people were taking through the turns.” Apparently, Hall was a quick study, as he won the feature in a Cooper Monaco.
Just before Packwood enlisted in June 1961, he sold the car to Carl Tate. Shortly thereafter, Road & Track covered Packwood’s creation in a December 1961 article entitled “Four Specials.” Some time in the early ’60s, Tate traded the car to Les Dawes (of La Dawri). Says Rodney Packwood: “That’s when the car vanished. It seems that Dawes had the car in storage for a while, and later sold it to a kid driving a moving van.”
The fate of the car remained uncertain until the mid-’80s, when Rodney saw an ad in Hemmings’ Motor News for a nondescript Victress Coupe. Rodney immediately phoned his brother who made the trip from San Francisco to LA to examine the car.
Bill recalls how keyed up he was to see this Victress that Peter Zobian had for sale: “I was so excited. I remember the anticipation. I couldn’t wait to see if this was my old friend, but when I saw the car, it was like running into an old girlfriend who’d been mugged with all her teeth knocked out…the engine was gone and the seats were gone and the C-Jag transmission was gone…She was in bad shape.”
There was, however, no doubt that this was the Packwood Special, and Bill went over the car head to toe with Zobian, pointing out the many unique features, including: the general chassis design and construction, the unique mounting of the rear end, the Borranis, the roll bar, the special European-style pop-out door handles, and the recessed taillights which were constructed using Bon Ami (cleaning detergent) cans. And yes, you can still read the label on the cans!
Bill didn’t buy the car…a decision he regrets to this day. Instead, the car was scooped up by aerospace engineer Dan Verstuyft who was living in Arcadia, California, at the time. Verstuyft recalls, “When I went to look at the car, I instantly fell in love with it.”
For as far back as he can remember, Verstuyft has been a Chrysler Hemi–lover. “When I was going through high school, my dad worked for a Chrysler agency. Since then, I’ve owned a 1958 300C convertible, a 1957 300C convertible, a 1961 300G hardtop, and a 1957 300C hardtop.” As to how he came to buy the Packwood: “Here was a car that looked good, and I could put the Hemi engine in there. It just had so much potential.”
Now 68, Verstuyft has been racing the same Porsche Speedster off and on since 1967, and is currently actively racing historic stock cars, but he’s also been thinking about the Packwood that he’s had for more than 20 years.
The car remains the same as the day he brought it home…in need of a total restoration. Verstuyft has always considered the Packwood Special his “retirement project” and has recently started to make plans with a friend to begin work on the body. So, stay tuned for more on the Packwood Special!
Bill Packwood is happy to correspond with racing enthusiasts young and not-so-young. You can contact him at [email protected]
Dan Verstuyft is also eager to talk Packwood, and can be reached at [email protected]
Do you know of a Hidden Treasure? If so, send your photos and stories to Mark at [email protected]
