1938 Packard Twelve Landaulet
Custom coach by Rollston for 26-year-old Doris Duke
The cars were designed and built as one unit including the fenders, running boards, hood, and body.
One of very few surviving late Packard Twelves fitted with truly custom coachwork. This Twelve was custom bodied by Rollston, New York’s most famous and costly coachbuilder, for socialite Doris Duke.
This car was delivered to Duke Farms in Hillsborough, New Jersey, and was used to transport Miss Duke on her regular trips between the Duke Farms in Hillsborough, NJ, and her summer “cottage,” Rough Point here in Newport at the south end Bellevue Avenue.
Similar in style to a Rollston body produced for the Duesenberg Model J, number J-577, the body featured a one-piece windshield, as well as a lavishly appointed interior with a clock and speedometer. The design also featured storage for cocktail accouterments in the rear passenger compartment. Controls for the radio were placed literally at Miss Duke’s hand, in the right rear armrest.
At the age of 26, Miss Duke, heiress to the American Tobacco Company fortune, was already the world’s wealthiest woman and was a prominent figure in society and gossip columns, and famously a Newport resident. She ordered this Packard Twelve Landaulet, and after being at the center of newspapers and tabloids for nearly a decade, she was exhausted with being seen everywhere she went. The landaulet design allows the rear portion of the roof to be folded back, which gave Ms. Duke complete privacy if she wished, or fresh air and a view from the outside if she was in the mood to be spotted by paparazzi.
Fittingly, given its early history, the car was first shown at the Newport Concours d’Elegance in 2009, winning Best Pre-War Open Car.
Specifications:
Engine: 430 CI V12
Horsepower: 175 @ 3200 RPM
Transmission: 3 Hydra-Matic Synchromesh
Front: Independent with coil springs and tubular shock absorbers
Rear: Live axle with leaf springs and tubular shock absorbers