After 67 Years, Packard’s Misplaced Sedan Lastly Comes To Life As A Coachbuilt Bentley

A one-off Packard Excellence pays tribute to an unrealized Nineteen Fifties undertaking the place Packard almost rebadged the Facel Vega Excellence

Detroit’s luxurious automaker Packard might have bowed out in 1958, however the title nonetheless sparks concepts of what may have been. For one fanatic with the dedication and sources to behave on that curiosity, it has taken form as a modern-day revival within the form of a one-off luxurious sedan.

The creation, dubbed the Packard Excellence, was delivered to life by JB Basic & Bespoke, a Dutch coachbuilder identified for restorations and one-off commissions. Design and engineering got here courtesy of native studio CinovarA, making the undertaking a distinctly Netherlands effort.

Reviving A Misplaced Dream

The design isn’t a straight carry from a basic Packard and even the newer 1999 Packard Twelve prototype. As an alternative, it takes inspiration from the Facel Vega Excellence, a French luxurious sedan that just about wore a Packard badge again within the late Nineteen Fifties.

On the time, Studebaker-Packard explored rebadging the Vega with its personal V8 underneath the hood, however Daimler-Benz, which had a distribution cope with Studebaker-Packard, pushed again. The plan was scrapped, and Packard historical past moved on.

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Quick ahead to 2025, and the Packard Excellence has develop into a actuality. Its foundations, nonetheless, are far faraway from the unique. The workforce used a second-generation Bentley Flying Spur (2013–2019) because the donor automobile, remodeling your complete physique and including bespoke particulars. JB Basic & Bespoke says the construct consumed 17,000 hours of labor.

JB Basic & Bespoke / Jerome Wassenaar

British Luxurious Vibes

Regardless of its bespoke pores and skin, the Bentley DNA is evident within the automobile’s proportions, greenhouse, and inside. Essentially the most putting adjustments are the vertical LED headlights, which convey a whiff of Cadillac, flanking a three-piece chrome grille. At its middle sits a foldable “Goddess of Velocity” mascot, a nod to Packard’s historical past.

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The profile has sharper dynamic traces and suicide doorways much like a Rolls-Royce. To make this occur, the corporate needed to create a brand new hinge for the rear doorways, along with customized door handles fabricated from hand-formed chrome steel. The boxy rear finish is extra generic, with C-shaped LED taillights and a Packard emblem on the tailgate.

There’s no phrase on mechanical adjustments from the Bentley base. The second-generation Flying Spur was supplied with both a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 or a twin-turbo 6.0-liter W12, although it’s unclear which of the 2 powers the Packard.

Expensive Homage

JB Basic & Bespoke hasn’t revealed how a lot this reborn Packard price to create, however given its one-off nature and the sheer labor concerned, it’s protected to say the Excellence is as unique as it’s costly. A tribute not simply to a misplaced model, however to a undertaking Packard itself by no means managed to see via.