In 1946, Packard applied Clipper styling and name to all its post-war models
The Packard Clipper was a model of the Packard Motor Car Company from 1941 to 1954, and the Studebaker-Packard Corporation for 1955 and 1957. Clippers built for model year 1956 are considered a stand alone make, not a model of Packard.
1941-1942
The Packard Motor Car Company introduced the Packard Clipper model, as part of Packard's Nineteenth Series of automobiles. The car featured "fade away" styling, which means that the front fenders melted into the front doors, and was powered by the same engine used in the Packard 180 series. The Clipper was lower and wider than previous Packards, and was the first streamlined Packard. One body series was offered (model 1951), a four door sedan. The Packard Clipper was priced between the Packard 120 and the Packard 160. Packard advertising encouraged consumers to "Skipper the Clipper!"
For its Twentieth Series (1942), save for its Packard Six and convertible models, all Packards (models 2001, 2002, 2003 "Eight" models 2003, 2023, 2004, 2005, 2055 "Eight" and models 2006, 2007 and 2008 "Super-Eight) became "Clipperized" and adopted the styling cues introduced by the 1941 Clipper.
1946-1947
For 1946-1947 all Packards used the Clipper styled bodies and the "Clipper" name.
1948-1952
The Clipper nameplate was dropped for 1948 as Packard issued its Twenty-Second Series automobiles, which, while proclaimed by the company as "all-new," were actually restyled Clippers. At a time when the company could have sold virtually any car it built, Packard's president, George Christopher, insisted upon concentrating on sales of the company's lower-priced cars, while longtime competitor Cadillac focused its attentions on the upper end of the market.
The Twenty-Second and Twenty-Third Series (from mid-1949) cars wore the "upside-down bathtub" styling that was briefly in vogue in the late 1940s. Unfortunately for Packard, Nash and Hudson, the three manufacturers who embraced this type of styling, General Motors introduced designs that were lower-slung, more tightly-drawn and less bulbous at around the same time. GM's designs quickly caught the buying public's fancy, while the "bathtubs" quickly fell from favor.
Following a round of bitter corporate infighting in 1949, Packard management finally decided to phase out the "bathtubs" and create the all-new Twenty-Fourth Series for 1951. The new "high-pockets" design (so called because of its high beltline) was much more modern and impressive. However, Packard continued to push hard into the lower end of the mid-priced field with its new "200" and "250" models, which was dominated at the time by Oldsmobile, DeSoto and others. James J. Nance became the company's president in 1952, and he immediately set to work on divorcing the lower-priced cars from the higher-end Packards. To this end, he decreed that the 200 and 250 would be consolidated into a new line of Clippers for 1953.
1953-1955
Packard Clipper 4-Door Sedan 1953
Packard Panama Clipper 1955
Packard Super Clipper 1955
Nance originally had hoped to introduce the new "Clipper" as a stand-alone marque, targeting the mid range price field which he felt was dragging the Packard image down. When word was leaked to the Packard dealer network that they would be losing their best selling Packard model to "Clipper", they balked. As an appeasement, Nance rolled the Clipper out as a Packard, and worked to transition the cars toward their own make. Thus, the Packard Clipper name was reintroduced and applied to the company's entry-level models, previously known as the Packard 200, beginning in 1953. Clippers were available in Special and Deluxe trim models, as two and four door sedans.
For 1954, the "Clipper by Packard" was given its own unique rear fender trim and tail lights to further differentiate it from traditional Packards. The cars were also available with a distinctive two-tone paint pattern. For 1955, Packard became a marque in the newly formed Studebaker-Packard Corporation.
The Packard Clipper Constellation was a two-door hardtop automobile produced by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation in model years 1955 and 1956. The 1955 model was a Packard product and sold as part of the Packard Clipper line; for 1956, Clipper was divorced from Packard, becoming a make in its own right.