Lot 534: 1928 Packard Model 526 Single Six Coupe

Always built to the highest standards, the Packard was unquestionably one of the finest American automobiles of the pre-war era. Right from the moment the first car emerged in November 1899, Packard's innovative engineering and superior build quality attracted the attention of wealthy clients. Indeed, throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Packard ranked alongside Peerless and Pierce-Arrow, this elite trio of the US automobile industry being known as the �Three P�s�.

Dissatisfaction with his Winton motor carriage is said to have spurred James Ward Packard to build a superior automobile. Aided by his brother and two defectors from the Winton company, Packard set up shop in his electrical engineering factory in Warren, Ohio, from which the first Packard car emerged in November 1899. The Ohio Automobile Company's Model A runabout was powered by a 142.6ci, 9hp, single-cylinder engine equipped with a mechanical exhaust and atmospheric inlet valve in the fashion of the time. The Packard's innovative engineering and superior build quality were soon attracting the attention of wealthy clients, William D Rockefeller purchasing two at the New York Automobile Show in November 1900. �Ask The Man Who Owns One� was adopted as the company's advertising slogan.

1901 saw the introduction of the faster, wheel-steered Model C, while the following year brought with it a change of name to Packard Motor Car Company and the introduction of the twin-cylinder Model G. The single-cylinder car continued as the Model F, the latter now larger than before and looking less like a runabout and more like a 'proper' automobile. By 1903 Packard's first four-cylinder car - the Model K - had arrived, and clearly, the single-cylinder's days were numbered. Production ceased in the latter half of 1903, by which time Packard had relocated to Detroit, but the Model F's final year provided the company with some invaluable publicity when Tom Fetch's Model F 'Old Pacific' completed the San Francisco to New York journey in 61 days to beat the record previously held by arch rivals Winton.

Although the company is best remembered for its exotic V-12s and straight eights, Packard's first multi-cylinder car was the Series 1-48 six that joined the existing four-cylinder models for the 1912 season. With the �Twin Six� V-12�s arrival for 1916 the six-cylinder Packard was dropped. When the next Packard six appeared in September 1920, it was a completely different beast: lighter and almost as powerful as its predecessor despite a considerable capacity disadvantage, the �Single Six� had clearly benefited from Packard's experience of aero-engine manufacture in WWI. Following the Single Eight�s introduction in the summer of 1923, the Packard Single Six received the former's innovatory four-wheel brakes in December that year. From then on, engineering changes introduced on the Eight would also be applied to the Single Six, most notably Bijur chassis lubrication, aluminum pistons, and revised combustion chambers and manifolding. Packard dropped the Single Six at the end of 1928, concentrating thereafter on its eight-cylinder range and the new V-12, before introducing a new �115-C� six for the 1937 season as a lower priced companion to the successful 120 Eight.

A 5th-Series model, the car offered here dates from the last year of Packard Single Six production, by which time the �L�-head motor displaced 288.6ci (4.7-liters) and produced 81bhp, and carries the rumble-seat coupe coachwork that was one of five different body styles available on the shorter (126�) wheelbase. The rumble-seat coupe was the leading body style promoted by Packard�s advertising for its 1928 range, and this particular example has been restored and refinished in the same livery as that depicted in the company�s press advertisements.