1931 840 Deluxe 8 Roadster

1931 840 Deluxe 8 Roadster 43
Peter & Margaret Whelan

This car was imported from USA about 12 years ago. It
was very tired and rusty, with most wood rotted, but a
totally original car.
Very little history is known of this car other than it came
from a barn in Connecticut USA, where it was stored for
25 years and the previous owner told me that prior to that,
it was stored in a shed at the rear of a church for a further
20 years. He was informed that its last owner, before being
stored, ran a repair garage, where the car was used as a
pick up tow vehicle. It was very tired and worn out car
before it was retired.
Eight years of endless hours of restoration of basically every
mechanical part, along with the whole body re-wooded with
coachwood; rust cut from panels and replaced; upholstered
and painted to complete what you see today.
The 1931 – 840 is based on a 140” wheel-base and was the
last roadster that Packard built. It was during the
depression and very few were built – only 154 in total and
only a few original cars survive. This is the only one in
Australia. The 840 is a very different car to the previous 6
& 7 series. It has a very different manifold and head that
was only available on the 734 speedster. It has auto-
vacuum controlled Bijur lubrication system and saw the last
of the vacuum tank being the first model with a fuel pump.
What we have here is a wealthy man’s sports car of the
1930’s in America brought back to life for generations to
come to enjoy and admire.