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| 1906 Packard Model S Runabout - from the collection of the author |
The car shown on this photo is a 1906 Packard Model S (Model 24) runabout. The Model S was the only model available from Packard in 1906 and just 728 were built. The car features a four-cylinder engine with 108-inch wheelbase, and interestingly this car appears to have a 1907 type rear fender line. This is the first of Packard’s T-head four-cylinder engines with 350 cubic inches and 24 taxable horsepower. Packard used the European technique of rating their cars at the taxable horsepower. Factoring taxable horsepower varied per municipality, but the actual output of the Model 24 was about 40 horsepower.
According to The Horseless Age of September 27, 1905: “The new engine is of 4 ½ inches bore and 5 ½ inches stroke, and in accordance with the policy adopted by leading foreign makers is conservatively rated at 24 horse power, although it is claimed to develop as high as 40 horse power… The bevel gear reduction to the rear axle is calculated to give a speed of 35 miles per hour at 900 revolutions per minute of the motor… The body is of sheet aluminum construction, as are the mud guards and the bonnet. The dash is of mahogany.”
The car in the photo wears a 1907 Pennsylvania license plate, Number 2671. The state of Pennsylvania first issued license plates in 1906, the city of Philadelphia had been issuing its own plates since 1903. These early plates were actually assigned to the driver, not the vehicle, and approximately 20,000 plates were issued in 1907 – the year on the plate represents the date of issue.
I know of only one complete and running 1906 Model S Runabout that has survived and the car resides in a marvelous collection of early cars in San Jose, CA. Listed by packardsonline.com (Jim Grundy’s excellent listing of surviving early Packards), chassis 2623 is said to have been originally purchased by Frederick Russell of Lawrence, MA. The owner donated it to the Henry Ford Museum where is sat until 1972. It then traveled through the hands of some well-known collectors including Ben Moser, Norm Oliver, Charlie Lemaitre, Dick Teague, and Marshall Mathews.
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| A surviving 1906 Packard Model S Runabout - from the collection of the author |
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