Tuesday, June 11, 2013

1932 Packard Custom Eight Convertible Victoria by Dietrich

Penulis asmi Diterbitkan June 11, 2013

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I photographed this 1932 Packard Model 904 Custom Eight with Convertible Victoria coachwork by Dietrich at Pebble Beach. It's said that only 4 Packard Model 904's were bodied by Dietrich in the Convertible Victoria style (style number 2672). Introduced in 1929 for the Lincoln and Packard chassis, Dietrich based his Convertible Victoria on the model made popular by Waterhouse.

Ray Dietrich started with Brewster where he meet Tom Hibbard - they left in 1920 and started the LeBaron firm (creating the French sounding name to add some prestige to the unknown firm). In 1925, Dietrich traveled to Detroit (where he felt the future of his custom designs business lie) and after a purchase offer from Murray Body Company was refused, Ray was offered a deal to set up his own firm. According to coachbuilt.com, Dietrich Inc. started small but grew quickly and after hiring a friend of Alvan Macauley's as salesman, business with Packard grew. The Michigan State University Libraries has a fantastic collection of Packard photographs of which I've included two showing the model 904 Convertible Victoria by Dietrich.

The car above is chassis No 194009 (engine No 194018) and has a been through a string of well known collections, including Otis Chandler, John Mozart, and Matt Browning. This car sold in 2009 at Gooding & Co's Pebble Beach sale for $750,000.

Of the other three cars (pictured below), one was a "no-sale" at Bonham's 2012 Scottsdale sale (chassis No 194181 / engine No 194200) - the maroon car. Another car was sold by Gooding & Co at their 2008 Scottsdale sale for $1.2 million - the blue car. The last of this group of four showed up on the AACA's discussion forum - the green car is unknown to me.

photo credit: The Making of Modern Michigan, Michigan State University Libraries

photo credit: Bonhams Auctions

photo credit: supercars.net

photo credit: aaca forums