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I bought the 1951 Packard “200” Sedan in Melbourne in 1975 in complete but partly dismantled virtually rust free condition. After storing it in my shed for 20 years my two sons and I did body off restoration and fitted it to run on duel fuel (petrol and LP gas) and I registered the car on fill registration in April 1995 just prior to the Bright National Rally, where I won the trophy for the best “Post War Car”. After a frustrating trip to Tasmania in early 1996 with major motor and transmission problems, I spat the dummy and fitted a 1979 model Holden 308 cu. inch V8 engine with Turbo Hydro “400” auto transmission, I then secured an engineer’s report to make the engine swap legal for the Vic Roads registration. In 1979 after attending the National Rally at Orange we
continued to Townsville and then to Alice Springs and Broome and down the coast of Western Australia and home via the Nullarbor.
In 1999 we drove up the centre of Australia to Darwin and then down the east coast of Queensland and New South Wales.
In 2004 we drove to Adelaide and loaded the car on the Ghan to Alice Springs. We then drove to Darwin and across to Broome and again down the coast of Western Australia to Perth and home over the Nullarbor. In 2007 we drove to Toowoomba to attend the 12th
National Rally and came home via Brisbane, Armidale and West Wyalong.
We have driven the Packard 87,600 miles in the last 13 years and I am delighted that Peg and I have been able to drive our Packard on these rather long trips to see our wonderful country. Peg and I are both looking forward to attending the forthcoming rally at Mittagong in 2009.

1951 200