The Fairfield County Concours d’Elegance will host the world’s first display of an example of each Packard Concept Car ever built on September 13, 2009.
New Jersey collector Ralph Marano has agreed to display his entire collection at this important classic car event at the Fairfield County Hunt Club in Westport, CT. The “missing link”, the last ever Packard Concept Car, the 1956 Packard Predictor is coming from the National Studebaker Museum in South Bend, Indiana.
While one or two of these concept cars were built in numbers of two or sometimes four, most of them exist only once. Marano has been collecting Packard Concept Cars for over 20 years and has displayed some of them on and off, winning concours awards where he showed them. “This is going to be the first time ever that all of these cars will be seen together,” says Marano. “They all had their purpose and they all had their time,” says Marano, “so they never were seen publicly together in one spot.”
On display will be the 1948 Packard Vignale, the 1952 Macauley Coupe, the famous 1952 Pan American, the 1953 Packard Balboa, the 1954 Packard Panther, as well as the aptly named Packard Request from 1955. The 1956 Packard Predictor completes the display.
Concours Chairman Bill Scheffler said, “I imagine this will be an historic moment. Our guests have come to expect unique displays which can be seen nowhere else. But something of this magnitude is even new for us.”
Marano’s cars will reach the location of the Fairfield County Concours d’Elegance, the Fairfield County Hunt Club in Westport, CT, on Saturday by special transport from New Jersey. Says Marano, “these cars are very special to me, it will be the first time all of my collection will be on display. I hope that the visitors of this magnificent event will enjoy their beauty and historical significance just as much as I do.”
[Source: Fairfield County Concours]
