1930 Packard 734 Speedster Eight Phaeton will be offered for sale at RM Sotheby’s upcoming auction, “The Guyton Collection” that will be held on May 4-5, 2019, in St. Louis, Missouri and the pre-auction estimate of this unique and rare car is $800,000 -$1,100,000. This 1930 Packard 734 Speedster Eight Phaeton will be featured in lot 377 at the auction. “The 734 Speedster Eight of 1930 was a new breed of Packard. It was graceful, quietly elegant, and beautifully engineered, all the things that the company stood for – but rather than pure silence and smoothness, it was built as a performance machine, representing the most power that could be run from the famous Packard Eight. Given more or less carte blanche to ‘see what you can do,’ Packard’s engineering wizard, Colonel Jesse Vincent, set about boxing a 733 Eight chassis for rigidity. It was crowned with an extensively modified engine, featuring a Detroit Lubricator dual-throat carburetor; hemispherical intake and exhaust outlets, at a 45-degree angle, maximizing the larger manifold openings and separating the exhaust and intake manifolds, creating a larger-capacity and free-flowing exhaust system; and a high-compression 6:1 cylinder head. The exhaust manifold was finned, as were the specially forged iron brake drums that allowed for a two-inch-wide braking surface. Available rear axle ratios allowed the car’s 145 hp to propel it above 100 mph in top gear,” states the auction house. Adding more details about this car, RM Sotheby’s says that it is among the greatest, rarest American performance cars of the Classic Era and is one of five surviving 734 Phaetons. The present car is extremely original and never fully restored and it has been widely considered to be the ultimate Packard of its era; a Duesenberg competitor. The auction house adds, “Inspection of the various numbered mechanical components shows that nearly all are numbered within 20 digits of one another and, therefore, are surely original to the car; the exceptions are the front axle, the number boss on which is blank, and the gearbox, which is a replacement unit. All of the stampings are correct, clean, and original, including the Special Order or ‘S.O.’ number on the frame and the original firewall tag; removing the trim at the top of the doors reveals even the original factory number stampings on the brightwork.” https://www.blouinartinfo.com/              Founder: Louise Blouin Read more