It was referred to as the “Gentlemens car built by gentlemen.” The Packard Model 18 Runabout of 1909 preceded both the Stutz and the Mercer as one of Americas earliest sporting motorcars. The Model 18 and the Model 30 (the numbers indicating horsepower) were more elegant in their design than the more race-oriented Mercer or Stutz models that appeared in the 1910s.
The Packard’s handbrake and three-speed gear change were mounted on the outside of the driver s compartment. The roadsters were built on a Model 18 chassis shortened from 112 to 102 inches (2.84 to 2.59 meters). Another interesting fact is that in the early 1900s, all motorcars, regardless of where they were manufactured, whether in the United States by Packard or in Germany by Daimler, were right-hand drive. Left-hand drive didn’t appear on American automobiles until around 1915.
802 model 18 units were manufactured in 1909.
Photo: Infrogmation of New Orleans [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Packard (1909)
Model/Name
18 Runabout
18 Touring
18 Limo
18 Demi Limo
18 Landaulet
30 (UB) Touring
30 (UB) Limo
30 (UB) Landaulet
30 (UB) Demi-Limo
30 (UB) Close-Coupled Touring
30 (UB) Runabout
POWER - CONTROL - PERFOMANCE |
|
|---|---|
| - $3,200. plus an additional $25 for the elegant white color scheme (1909) | - 265.7 cu in - T-Head Inline 4-Cylinder Engine |
| - Normal | - 18 HP |
| - | - |
| - | - 3-Speed Selective Sliding Gearbox |
| - | - |
| - 1909 | - Wheelbase: 2,590.8 mm. |
| - 2-Wheel Mechanical Drum Brakes with Transmission Brake | - |
| - 34 x 4 | - |
| - Solid Front and Live Rear Axles with Semi-Elliptical Springs and Friction Shock Absorbers | |
