As most of the visitors to our Instagram account and the busy readers of our news page know, we are quite big Packard fans here at Gents Barn! Cars, engines, history – we are fascinated by the entire spectrum of this glorious, old luxury brand. As part of our portfolio, we already have a perfectly restored, inline six-cylinder 1M-245 Packard Marine engine in our inventory. We also own the only surviving and completely restored 1M-245 R racing engine from 1947, once ordered by the Shah of Persia. And now the next 1M-245 follows – still unrestored, but 98% complete and therefore important for a possible new build or as a possible spare parts supplier – we are very happy that of the only 1,865 engines built (plus approx. 10 racing versions) now three “survivors” have already found their way to us – and thus, to our knowledge, 1/3 of all Packard 1M-245 models still in existence that were built almost 75 years ago.
We are so delighted that our new Dodge Boat, as far as we know the only one registered in Europe and one of the handful survivors worldwide, finally arrived! On its customised, wooden trailer made of white North-American ash its beautifully showing of its lines from 1930. Once built in what was the largest and most modern boat plant worldwide, today it’s nearly forgotten that the heir of the Dodge Brothers empire, Horace E. Dodge Jr., tried to establish his own empire in the boating industry. Thanks to the wonderful Breuner family, who owned and restored this beautiful boat, “Miss Tessa” is one of the new highlights here at Gents Barn.
Our little “Smitty”, a 1953 Tarz Speedster, built in the former GDR or rather in East-Berlin by the boat builder Fritz Tars, was chosen this year to take part in what is probably the world’s most famous Concours d’Elegance for classic boats! We are, admittedly, very proud, as this selection alone is an award and accolade in itself, but of course we now also need every single vote to receive this year’s People’s Choice Award 2020 – so take part and by September 7th at the latest, oh well, it’s best to vote for our SMITTY today! 🙂 Thank you very much in advance!
