Packard Museum hosting car show

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One of the first Packards to be exported will be on display.

By MAYSOON ABDELRASUL

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — A look at the Mahoning Valley's car-building past will be on display at the 18th annual car show at the National Packard Museum this weekend.

Packards from all over the country and from Canada will be displayed outside the museum for all to come and see.

Mary Ann Porinchack, executive director of the museum, said people that own Packard cars are coming from Florida, Texas, North Carolina, New Jersey and many more states to show off their cars and check out others.

Last year there were about 200 cars, and the museum had to turn people away because there was no room. She said this year, they reconfigured the museum's grounds to hold more cars.

"We are prepared for over 200 cars," she said.

One of the cars that will be parading on the south lawn of the museum at 1899 Mahoning Ave. N.W. is a 1903 Rear-Entrance Packard. It is one of the first Packards ever to be exported.

The first Packard car was made in 1899, and the Packard family and the Packard Motor Car Co. made its last car in 1958.

Others on display

Another car on display is a 1932 Packard Shovelnose Roadster, officially called the 900 Series Light Eight. It is painted in two-tone blue and comes complete with a golf bag door.

A restored 1937-115C Packard station wagon also will be displayed this weekend. It has a rare Baker-Raulang body made in Cleveland.

Porinchack said the cars in the museum are rotated three times a year. Once in October, then in January, they add a motorcycle exhibit, and then once more before the annual car show.

"We keep things changing continuously," she said.

This is the eighth year the car show has been held at the museum. It used to be held at Courthouse Square in downtown Warren.

The only cost is for entrance to the museum Saturday and Sunday. Anything outside the museum, where the cars will be paraded and displayed, is free and open to the public.

Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens and children ages 7-12. Children under 7 get in free.

Friday, July 20, 2007