The 20th Annual National Packard Museum car show is going on during a couple key anniversary dates. "It's the 110th anniversary of Packard. It's the 10th anniversary of the museum being here," says Jack Gordon, car show chairman.
The Packard brothers started their car company in Warren in 1899 and many family members lived there for years, even after production moved to Detroit in the early 1900s. 1937 was the best-selling year for Packard, with the most models available.
As the week goes on, the Opus II show room will fill up with 40 1937 packards, coming to Warren all the way from Maine, to Walla Walla, Washington.
Stan and Michele Franowsky brought their 1937 Packard V-12 Sport Fanton up from New Mexico. It's a rare ride that's never been shown like this before. "It's just here for kind of a class reunion with the rest of the 1937 cars, but it's happy to be here," says Stan Franowsky.
The Canton Classic Car Museum drove its pair of professional funeral cars in for the show. "Absolutely no problems because you know, there's nothing like driving a Packard. You can just ask the man who owns one. They're absolutely magnificent automobiles, and they are really fun to drive," says Char Lautzenheiser, Director of the Canton Classic Car Museum.
Char calls them rolling pieces of art and Packard's inspired other forms of art. Larry Stephens penned a poem after last year's show. "For we love watching a masterpiece in motion, yes we really do, like the awesome Packard, so rare and so few," Stephens reads from his poem.
The car show continues with food, fun and entertainment through this weekend in Warren.
