1941 Packard 1907 Custom Super Eight One-Eighty All-Weather Cabriolet
The All-Weather Cabriolet format placed the chauffeur in an open-air forward compartment while rear passengers occupied a padded formal cabin, making it one of the more architecturally complex body types available in 1941.
Rollson of New York City (successor to the celebrated Rollston firm) continued to build a limited number of finely hewn bodies over a final five-year span, most prominently among the last cataloged semi-custom designs for Packard’s most prestigious models.
Both Rollson styles offered for 1941 were intended for chauffeur use, with open driver’s compartments and padded formal rooflines. This is regarded as the only known Nineteenth Series example of the All-Weather Cabriolet by Rollson, its coachwork fabricated from an extensively reworked factory Town Sedan body.
The 138-inch-wheelbase Series 1907 chassis carries the 356 CI L-head inline eight, delivering 160 horsepower, backed by a three-speed selective synchromesh transmission. Independent front suspension with coil springs and a live rear axle are accompanied by four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes.
Among the 1941 One-Eighty’s styling advances were headlights faired into the front fenders, flanking a revised grille treatment. A total of 1,858 Custom Super Eight One-Eighty models (Series 1907 and 1908 combined) were produced for 1941 across all body styles.
The car was one of two Rollson-bodied Nineteenth Series Packards ordered simultaneously by Colonel Ezra Parmalee Prentice, this one commissioned for his wife, Alta Rockefeller Prentice, daughter of Standard Oil baron John D. Rockefeller.
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