This was the last hurrah for Packard’s straight-eight (after 31 years in the market) and for production at East Grand Boulevard. Packard also ended its long run as an independent company, as it was acquired in 1954 by Studebaker to form Studebaker-Packard Corporation.
The senior 1954 Packards like the Pacific two-door hardtop received Packard’s most powerful straight-eight ever, with 212 hp and a four-barrel carburetor, hooked to the latest Ultramatic transmission. Final assembly of all Packards would shift now to a former Briggs Body Co. plant on Detroit’s Conner Avenue, marking the end of 51 years of auto production on East Grand Boulevard.
While the plant suffered years of infamy, the Packard Proving Grounds (pictured here in the background) 20 miles north in Utica, Michigan, has been preserved as a national historic site.
