A century ago, in the first decades of the automotive era, prestigious car brands would hold “salons,” private events to which dealers and affluent customers would be invited to preview those marques’ new models. Packard, the preeminent prewar American luxury automaker, held some of those events on the tree-lined boulevard leading to the test track at the Packard Proving Grounds, the firm’s pioneering testing facility located in what is now Shelby Township, about 23 miles due north of Packard’s factory on the east side of Detroit. Last year, the Packard Motor Car Foundation revived that tradition with a show at the Proving Grounds dedicated to Packard’s 1931 models. This year, that tradition continued with Calling All Twelves: A Salon Special Showing featuring Packard’s flagship V-12–powered cars. It was a homecoming of sorts, as Packard would perform quality-control testing of those twelve-cylinder cars at the Proving Grounds before delivering them to buyers.
Designed by the world’s leading industrial architect, Albert Kahn, and built in 1928 at a cost of over a million dollars (about $18.7 million in 2025), the Packard Proving Grounds originally occupied over 500 acres and included a 2.5-mile concrete-paved, banked, high-speed squared oval reminiscent of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It also featured an octagonal timing tower (and reference timing poles), a hillclimb, and flooded and off-road “torture testing” areas. The primary structure was a Tudor-style lodge that housed the facility’s manager and his family, as well as an attached dormitory for engineers, mechanics, and other staff. There was also an aircraft hangar on the site, where aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh would house his plane after landing on the test track’s infield, and a water tower bearing the Packard logo.
During World War II, Chrysler added a Tank Test Center building, which today houses the Proving Grounds’ car collection, archives, and historical Packard artifacts, including the reassembled limestone “PACKARD” archway that was salvaged from the company’s decrepit headquarters at the Packard plant in Detroit, graffiti still intact. Also in the tank building is boat racer Gar Wood’s water speed record-setting Miss America X, which hit 125 mph on September 20, 1932, on Michigan’s St. Clair River, propelled to that milestone by four supercharged Packard 4M-2500 V-12 marine engines producing a total of about 7000 horsepower.
After Packard’s demise in the 1950s, the property passed into the hands of Ford Motor Company, which had a transmission factory adjacent to the facility. When FoMoCo planned to redevelop the real estate, the Packard Motor Car Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, sprang into action and arranged to rescue the approximately 17 acres that contained the site’s buildings, the elm tree–lined boulevard, and about 500 feet of the original paved test track. Now on the National Register of Historic Places, since being acquired by the Foundation, the Packard Proving Grounds have been the subject of an ongoing restoration effort by the group, turning the site into a museum and event facility suitable for weddings and other rentals. Adjacent to the tank testing building, the Packard Motor Car Foundation, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Daughters of the American Revolution have also established the National Rosie the Riveter Memorial Rose Garden, with plaques and rose bushes dedicated to women who earned awards while working at Packard building aircraft engines for the war effort.
Packard produced two series of V-12–powered cars. The original Twin Six, made from 1916 to 1923, helped establish the brand as a maker of fine automobiles. Its V-12 engine also became the basis for WWI “Liberty” engines used in military aircraft and tanks. However, it is the second generation of Packard twelves, introduced in 1932 as the Twin Six but rebranded as the Twelve the following year and in production until 1939, that collectors consider to be the apogee of Packard’s products and prestige.
Packard’s second V-12 engine used a compact 67-degree “V” and implemented advanced-for-the-time hydraulic valve lifters and a Bendix-Stromberg carburetor with an automatic choke. Other advanced features on the Packard twelves included the fingertip-operated, vacuum-powered “Automatic clutch control” to reduce the use of the clutch pedal, and vacuum-assisted brakes (hydraulic brakes were introduced with the 15th series 1937 models). Introduced with 444.5 cubic inches of displacement, producing 160 horsepower and an impressive 366 lb-ft of torque, the engine size was increased to 473.3 cu-in in 1935, with a slight increase in output to roughly 175–180 hp. With that much power and torque, Packard’s flagships were considered silent and smooth.
In addition to offering an impressive range of wheelbases and body styles from the factory, including town cars, limousines, dual cowl phaetons, convertible Victorias, sedans, and two-seat roadsters, a number of V-12 Packard chassis were shipped to coachbuilders like Dietrich, Brunn, LeBaron, and Rollston for bespoke, one-off custom bodies.
As mentioned above, the V-12 Packards have a particular connection to the Packard Proving Grounds. According to company records, for at least the first four years of Twin Six/Twelve production, every single V-12–powered Packard was taken to the Proving Grounds for a rigorous quality-control check, break-in, fettling, and adjustment procedure before delivery to the customer. Paper tags documenting the testing were attached to the outside of the passenger side glovebox, and in a few cases, vintage Packards have been found with those tags intact.
With that connection, it was no surprise that owners of about three dozen Twin Sixes and Twelves from as far away as California, Arizona, Alabama, Mississippi, Washington, and Canada brought their cars to Calling All Twelves. The variety of body styles available was well represented, too, and included both factory and coachbuilt bodies. The cars were also displayed in a variety of conditions, as examples ranging from a couple of automobiles with heavy patina to concours-quality trailer queens were on exhibit. For some owners, it was their only Packard; for others, it was one of dozens they have owned. A few owners each brought two Twelves to the show; Neal and Lois Porter of Lake Orion, Michigan, brought four. Purchase prices ranged from a Packard bought for just $25, when the owner was a teenager, to cars worth seven figures.
“Ask the Man Who Owns One” was Packard’s advertising slogan from 1902 until the firm’s demise in 1958, so at Calling All Twelves, I asked a number of owners what Packard meant to them. “The finest prewar American car,” said one. “Automotive orgasm,” said another.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for a brand that performed highly publicized endurance runs at the Proving Grounds, all of the cars were in running condition. They all took a spin on the boulevard and were photographed on the test track, in some cases returning to where they had been tested 90 years or so ago.
My appreciation for the craftsmanship of this era grows daily.