Following WWII, America’s independent auto manufacturers worked feverishly to beat the ‘Big Three’ to market with completely new designs, and Packard was no exception. Packard’s first all-new post-war car, the 22nd Series, debuted on 25 July 1947. They were styled at Briggs Manufacturing Company, Packard’s body supplier, under chief designer Albert Prance, and the new style combined the slab-sided modern idiom with a horizontal version of Packard’s traditional grille. The first model to enter production was the Convertible Victoria, which was a body style that had been absent from the catalogue since the war. The new streamlined Packard received its share of accolades in the day. The Fashion Academy of New York deemed it the Fashion Car of the Year, and it was awarded prizes at shows in Caracas, Luzerne, Sofia, and Monte Carlo. The ‘bathtub’ Packards were somewhat polarizing in the period but are recognized today as some of the most beautiful and pure designs of the years immediately following World War II.
