1946 Clipper Club Sedan owned by John O’Neill of Baltimore, Ont.

Other than the new Fords and Mercurys, Packard’s Clipper was the only new American design for 1941.
The timing of its arrival couldn’t have been worse.
Coming out late in the year, just 16,600 1941 models were made in Detroit, and even fewer 1942s were assembled before America’s sudden entry into World War II.
Following the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, all U.S. automakers ceased making civilian vehicles to concentrate on military production. (Packard built Rolls-Royce Merlin engines for Britain’s Lancaster and Mosquito bombers, America’s P40 and P51 fighters and V12 marine engines for the U.S. Navy’s PT boats.)
The Clipper design – done by the fabled Howard “Dutch” Darrin – was a perfect blending of Packard’s traditional upright grille with a modern envelope body. It was available as a four-door Touring Sedan and two-door Club Sedan. The four-door looks a little lumpy, especially from the rear, but the swoop of the Club Sedan’s fastback styling is stunning.
As usual, however, Dutch didn’t like what the company did to his design. He had eliminated running boards entirely, but Packard kept them, hidden behind doors that flared outward at the bottom.
The Clipper was created as a lower-priced companion for Packard’s traditional line of luxury cars. But for the first two years after the war it was the only vehicle the company made, which many automotive historians believe was a great mistake and cheapened Packard’s prestige as one of the world’s foremost builders of fine cars.
And by 1946 the Clipper – so fresh before the war – was just another old design, especially when compared to the new Darrin-styled 1947 Kaisers and Frazers and Raymond Loewy’s 1947 Studebaker with its wraparound rear window.
Buyers could have their choice of a straight six engine, available in the Clipper Six, or a staight eight in Standard, DeLuxe, Super and Custom versions. The top-of-the-line Custom Super Eight Clipper of 1946-47, is probably appreciated more today that is was when new and is one of the few postwar cars granted “Classic” status by the Classic Car Club of America.
The Clipper Six Club Sedan in the accompanying photo is owned by John O’Neill of Baltimore, Ont. He had seen one “five or six years ago and thought it was sharp-looking.” Three years ago he found this car advertised in Old Autos, flew down to see it in Nova Scotia, bought it on the spot and had it trucked home.
When new, John’s Clipper was sold in Boston and somewhere over the years had been acquired by a doctor in New Brunswick.
It is in amazing original condition, with 57,000 miles showing on the odometer.
John says the interior is “absolutely correct.” There is no sign that the body wears anything but its factory coat of black paint and the chrome appears to be all original.
John admits that by today’s standards its performance is “sluggish” with the 105-hp six. “It doesn’t have great pickup,” he says, “but cruises nicely in overdrive at 55-60 mph.”
The Clipper name was retired when Packard’s new postwar designs went on sale as 1948 models, but made a comeback as a lower priced marque of its own in 1955. Three years after the company’s disastrous 1954 merger with Studebaker, all Packard assembly was moved from Detroit to South Bend, Ind., where the Clipper name died for good after the 1957 model year.
A year later, Packard itself was just a memory.

Write to Glen at glenwoodcock@canoemail.com