AboutDick Benjamin Expertise I can help on most American passenger cars built between 1930 and 1970, and Imperials through 1983.
I have over 50 years experience in restoring and maintaining antique and classic cars, including 20 years operating a classic car repair shop. I am now retired, but I am willing to help with any questions of a technical or mechanical nature. I have more experience with Packard, Studebaker, Hudson, Imperial and other luxury makes, but I do have reference material and experience with most makes.
I do not know anything about modifying cars - if that is what you want to know about, pick someone else. I keep them the way the factory built them, and I advise you to do the same, to maintain the value of the car and also for your safety.
I can only handle mechanical or technical questions - I am not a body/paint expert!
Experience
Past/Present Clients Currently support a technical advice service for the Imperial club, responsible for the technical data section of the Packard Club website. Served as a technical expert for "Expert Central" before it was recently absorbed by this service.
Question WHAT 3 1940'S AMERICAN CONVERTIBLE CARS WOULD YOU SELECT AS THE BEST ENGINEERED AND MOST RELIABLE CARS TO RUN IN THE "GREAT RACE" (WWW.GREATRACE.COM). WE ARE LOOKING TO BUY A CAR BUT ARE UNAWARE OF WHICH MIGHT HAVE THE BEST RECORD AND THE BEST CHANCE TO MAKE IT COAST TO COAST WITHOUT BREAKING DOWN. WE ARE WILLING TO INVEST IN A REALLY FINE CAR. YOUR ADVISE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
Answer Without question, the best engineered cars in the pre-1955 years were those built by Packard. However, they made no convertibles after 1942, until 1948. If you must have a convertible, and a 1948 is not too new for the race rules (I don't know the year cutoff), your best bet is a 1948 through 1950 Packard Convertible, with 3 speed/overdrive standard transmission. Their automatic (available from mid-49 on)is a very good one, but if it breaks, you will have a hard time getting someone to fix it in a hurry!. This is a powerful, very well made, and rock solid reliable automobile. Second choice would be a 1940 to 1942 Packard - these are very similar to the later cars mechanically, so they are just about as reliable. Almost nothing goes wrong with a well restored Packard, even when driven hard.
You said 3 cars, so I guess I will pick the Nash Ambassador as my second pick, and for third place, I suppose it's a toss-up between Hudson and any car from the Chrysler corp, even a Plymouth.
Working from the other end, I would definitely avoid the Cadillac (only 3 main bearings to Nash's 7 and Packard's 9!) Ford products are somewhere in the middle, but they have weak cooling systems,a difficult to work on driveline and poor brakes. Studebakers are pretty reliable, but if anything does break, you might have more trouble finding spare parts. Chevrolets have poor engine lubrication design and a poor driveline, as does Buick, so I'd avoid either of those. Olds and Pontiac are OK, but I'd avoid the hydra-matic transmission - another failure point that would be difficult to get fixed in a hurry.
These are just my opinions, of course, but I have worked on cars of the 40s most of my life (I'm in my mid 70s), so I've probably got as much experience with these cars as anyone else you will find.
