Hello... this is an interesting topic, so I had to join and make a post. I am familiar with the real Packard Predictor concept car of 1956 and knew this car from when it was new. It has always been one of MY favorites as well. Additionally, a good friend made the original large scale model upon which the actual car was built at Ghia in Italy. I wrote the first complete history of this car for The Packard Cormorant Magazine ( Summer 2008 issue which is still available by mail order) which is the official magazine publication of The Packard Club (www.Packard Club.org ). The article is crammed with history never told and lots of photos. I even saved and converted an original snippet of film from the actual first uncrating of the car at the Packard plant in 1956 (you can also see this on the Packard Club web site).
Now, being an old model builder myself (and winner of many car contests back in the 1960s- some of my cars were even in magazines then), I would like to suggest a far better car/kit to base a Predictor replica on: AMT's 1958-1960 Continental. Here you a nearly accurate roof, similar dimensions (the T-bird was wayyyy smaller), similar windshield, much more accurate proportions. AND you can convert some pieces from other kits- if you could find them all today. The nose shape is easily adapted from both 1963-65 Corvette (if you read my history article, you'll know exactly why)... and combine that with some Edsel pieces. I would use 1957 Chevy decklid for the rear. A whole lot less to have to create and more a process of modification rather than creation.
By the way, there were three known large-scale models (one of which was the very large original and two slightly smaller others made afterward). I have photos of all.
RE: (and it seems this ought to be a totally separate topic from Predictor) The Russian ZIL (actually ZIL-111, not just ZIL) and Chaika have about the same relationship to each other as the actual Packard and Clipper of 1956, but no, the ZIL-111 and Chaika were not made from Packard tooling... they are just imitations. THis may not be known today, but the Russians LOVED Packards and the Czar owned a few over the years. The ZIL-111 actually morphs a bunch of American car items into one car. A 1956 Chrysler windshield, 1957 Ford side trim, 1956 Ford bumper exhausts (REAL Packard bumper exhausts were much bigger and very round.
RE: The hand-built 1957 prototype test mule, "Black Bess"... the comments my late friend Dick Teague made are being taken totally out of context here. And that car may very well have been hammered out with the help of a actual ball-peen hammer for all I know. It was never intended to be anything but a rough-hewn test mule and having worked with such test prototype cars all my life, I can tell you that they are rarely very aesthetically pleasing- simply because they are not meant to be. However, it is a shame that Black Bess was cut up and destroyed, crude as she may have been.
By the way... I thought you might like to see what a large-scale unbuilt Predictor model looks like that has been sitting stored for many years...
Leon Dixon
