Packard show drives car enthusiasts to Hyatt Regency Newport Beach
The Hyatt-Regency Newport Beach was the place to be for vintage car enthusiasts Saturday morning, when about 80 attendees gathered for the Packards International Motor Car Club‘s All-Packard Car Show and Parts Exchange.
Once tagged as the American Rolls Royce, the American luxury automobile was built by the Packard Motor Car Co. in Detroit from 1899 to 1956.
Ricardo da Rosa traveled from San Diego in his distinctive blue 1936 Packard Twelve Roadster for Saturday’s show.
“The car runs like a top, you don’t even know its running when it’s on,” da Rosa said. “I don’t drive it as much as I should though, for fear of other drivers.”
Da Rosa explained his car needed a lot of loving attention after sitting for 15 years before he found it in Pebble Beach, and it spent more than a year being restored. “The color is what sold me on it,” he said. “Most Packards are reds and forest green.”
It was the first time attending the show for sisters Carole Davis and Nancy Tully, who checked it out while in town to visit family, including a new grandchild.
“We came all the way from Medford, Ore.,” said Davis. “We did not drive a Packard.”
The show marked the 61st anniversary of Packards International Motor Car Club, a nonprofit social club headquartered in Santa Ana that’s committed to the preservation and promotion of the luxury make.
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