Chassis No.: 904080

• Exterior: Black
• Body: Tailback Speedster
• According to America’s Packard Museum, the coachwork on this car was designed and executed by the Dutch Darrin in Paris
• Restored by Harold Sliger with assistance from Dutch Darrin in the 1970s
• Featured in a 1988 issue of the AACA newsletter that displayed a certificate of authenticity and a list of unique components identified by Dutch Darrin
• Recently restored by Fran Roxas with 3-years, 7,000 hours and $450,000 invested

For many years, the provenance of this automobile has been the subject of much research by historians and the curiosity of avid Packard enthusiasts. Differing opinions have been brought forth over several decades about this vehicle’s origins and early history. As the auction house, we will disclose the available information brought to our attention in an effort to provide potential buyers as much information as possible to assist in their decision making process to bid confidently at auction. Please note this 1936 Packard Twelve Gentleman’s Tailback Speedster is being offered by America’s Packard Museum in Dayton, Ohio and the following narrative has been provided by the museum’s historian.

This 1936 Packard Fernandez & Darrin Speedster is one of the most stunning Packards in existence; exquisitely designed, beautifully executed, and perfectly restored. It is a one-off, V-12 Packard sports car, and has recently completed a 3-year, 7,000 hour, restoration, at a cost in excess of $450,000. It is certainly one of the finest Classic Era motor cars, of any marque, ever built. Its jet-black finish is unblemished; its taupe ostrich-leather and Wilton wool interior is flawless; as is its interior and exterior brightwork; its instrumentation all works properly; it runs and drives as new.

According to America’s Packard Museum, this coachwork was designed and executed by the fabled Howard “Dutch” Darrin in Paris, in 1936, when he was in partnership with J. Fernandez, a wealthy banker and furniture manufacturer. It is one of a group of either five or six speedsters (history is a little vague on this point) which Darrin built on various chassis, including Packard, Duesenberg, Delage, and Buick (and perhaps another) in the 1936/1937 time frame, and shortly before Darrin shut down the Paris operation and returned to Hollywood, California in mid-1937.

It is believed that the Buick example exists today and the Delage was spotted on national television with President Jimmy Carter riding in the car. These particular speedsters were all produced by using a cache of Auburn Speedster “bodies-in-white” which Darrin had been able to acquire from the financially troubled Auburn Distributor in Paris, as a starting point. This example is believed to have been originally commissioned by Parisian playboy Count Armand de La Rochefoucauld, Darrin’s polo-playing pal. Howard Darrin’s passion for polo was shared by La Rochefoucauld, who, though not having Darrin’s skill, was still an aficionado of the sport, and owned many of the ponies ridden by Darrin.

It is reported that by early 1937 La Rochefoucauld owned not only a Fernandez & Darrin Town Car, executed on a Hispano-Suiza chassis, but the Packard Twelve Speedster as well. This magnificent motor car, like many others, has acquired over the years a “Legend” in which it is claimed that a Mr. Dick Saunders, in upstate New York, built this piece of rolling art, “in his backyard” using a rope, a tree limb, a dis-used Auburn boattail body, and a Packard Twelve chassis and engine. Or maybe it was first on a Marmon chassis, either with or without a Marmon V-16 engine, depending on who is telling which version of the Legend. Or maybe the Packard Twelve was in the Marmon chassis.

Or maybe the Marmon V-16 engine was in the Packard chassis. Documentation reveals that Mr. Saunders owned 116 Packards throughout his lifetime. He was one of the forefathers of Packard hot rodding and had created many different custom Packard Speedsters over the years. Mr. Saunders was in inveterate tinkerer, whole loved to play “mix and match” with various engines, chassis and bodies. It is documented that Mr. Saunders owned two or more Packard Speedsters fitted with custom Auburn bodies. After Saunders’ death, his boattail was acquired from his estate by a Mr. Harold Sliger, from Illinois. Sliger was smart enough to seek out and find Mr.

Darrin, for advice in restoring his car to its original glory. Mr. Darrin agreed to help Sliger, and advise him on what had to be both done and/or undone, or both, to restore the car to its original configuration. Sliger spent many nights on the telephone with Darrin and his son Patrick, consulting on these matters. When his trucking would take him to California, he would personally visit with both of them for the same purposes. Patrick recalls these visits and calls as he participated in them. Patrick recalls that his father told both him and Mr. Sliger that the car was his creation, in Paris.

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As anyone who has ever attempted to address vague assertions and innuendo once they are in circulation knows, it is more difficult to gain a hearing with facts to set the record straight than it is to create doubt and cast aspersions. Nevertheless, the Packard Museum offers the following facts for your consideration to show that the 1936 Packard Twelve could only have been created by a master designer and craftsman of Dutch Darrin’s caliber rather than by an avid customizer whose specialty was mixing and matching parts from various makes and models in an effort to revive the great classics of the 1930s.

So how do we reconcile the conflicting beliefs and documents held by two parties of good faith in this dispute? We list the undisputed statements of fact from both sides to fully disclose all known information. Statements of Fact Provided by America’s Packard Museum The issue of authenticity was addressed and should have been laid to rest as a result of the research conducted by respected automotive historians Ed Blend and Robert Turnquist, with Dutch Darrin when he was still alive, and later published in the in the AACA magazine in Vol 52, No 4 (1988) article by Mr. Blend. In that article, and based upon extended interviews with Dutch Darrin himself, and others, Mr.

Blend concludes, as follows: “With total restoration/reconstruction completed, it has been proved beyond doubt—Darrin’s number system, plus stamped and cast parts bearing his logo, and his personal attestment as well—that the car is authentic and of true heritage.” Dutch Darrin wrote a letter of authentication in 1978 that states: “I would like to authenticate the validity, and vicissitude, of Harold Sliger’s, 1936 Packared Twelve: Fernandez & Darrin Boattail Speedster as being one of my creations.” During one of their interviews, Mr. Darrin provided to Mr. Blend and Mr.

Turnquist an extensive listing of particular Packard and Fernandez & Darrin parts and numbers which were among those used in the 1936 Speedster, and were still there. It is undisputed that Patrick was a part of these discussions and that he witnessed the personally, and that his father, on several occasions either with Sliger or himself, spoke at length about it being “his” car. If Mr. Darrin had not built this magnificent motor car, in Paris; if, indeed it had been cobbled together in somebody’s back yard in Upstate New York; if Darrin had no previous connection with it; how, then, would he have such a document?

It is undisputed that Dutch Darrin bought five or six Auburn boattail bodies-in-white from the Paris Auburn Distributor during the throes of the Great Depression. One became a Duesenberg speedster, another a Packard Eight, a Buick, and a Delage. No one seems to know with certainty if a sixth car was purchased by Darrin, or, if so, what became of it.

It is undisputed that the 1936 Twelve Boattail contains features that are Darrin’s own styling cues such as: the stamped or cast “D” for Darrin on door hinges, bumper back bars and clamping devices; evidence of the European method of lead-filled body moldings with nailheads soldered in place in the tailback; several body alternations that would require the use of special sheet metal tooling; reverse bent 90 degree sheet metal that would be impossible to perform by hand and require a coach builder’s genius and tooling to accomplish; and also significantly the Darrin-patented “jiffy top” across the back of the seat It is undisputed that according to Robert

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