Packard Pacific

Packard Pacific
1954 Packard Pacific
Overview
Manufacturer	Packard
Model years	1954
Assembly	Packard Automotive Plant, Detroit, Michigan, United States
Body and chassis
Class	Full-size luxury car
Body style	2-door hardtop
Layout	Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive
Powertrain
Engine	259 cu in (4.2 L) 4-bbl. L-head I8 (212 hp)
Transmission	2-speed Ultramatic automatic
Dimensions
Wheelbase	122 in (3,099 mm)
Length	211.5 in (5,372 mm)
Width	77.9 in (1,979 mm)
Height	62 in (1,575 mm)
Curb weight	4,040 lb (1,833 kg)
Chronology
Predecessor	Packard Mayfair
Successor	Packard Four Hundred

The Packard Pacific is an automobile manufactured by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan for the 1954 model year. It replaced the Mayfair and was sold exclusively as a two-door hardtop.

In the early 1950s, Packard used a numeric naming scheme that designated Packard's least expensive models as the Packard 200 and 200 Deluxe, while two-door hardtops and convertibles were designated Packard 250 and its mid-range sedan the Packard 300. For model years 1951 through 1953, the 250 hardtop was named the Mayfair; for model year 1954 only, the hardtop was given the model name Pacific.

The Mayfair, Packard's first hardtop offering, was created for the 1951 model year in order to keep in competition with Cadillac, Buick, and Imperial from Chrysler, whose hardtop sales were booming. The Mayfair was named after the exclusive Mayfair district of London. In renaming it as the Pacific, Packard associated the model with its personal luxury car offering, the Caribbean. Both the Mayfair and Pacific shared the same straight-eight engines (a 327-cubic inch for the Mayfair and a 359-cubic inch for the Pacific) with top-of-the-line, or "senior" Packards, but were mounted on the 122-inch wheelbase of less expensive, or "junior" models. The Pacific came standard-equipped with Packard's Ultramatic automatic transmission.

The Pacific and Mayfair were distinguished by high levels of interior trim: for instance, leather upholstery was provided, and the cars' interior headliners were ornamented with chrome strips intended to suggest a convertible top. The cars were also given innovative exterior color schemes; most were given two-tone paint jobs (for example: "Carnation" (white) and "Amethyst" (lavender)), which were considered fashionable at the time.