THE 1930 PACKARD 734 IS A FINE EXAMPLE OF WHAT MIGHT BE THE EARLIEST MUSCLE CAR

It’s always a good argument starter when the subject turns to proclaiming which automobile manufacturer can lay claim to building the first factory hot rod. Some might argue it was the Pontiac GTO in 1964, while others go back a little further in time to Oldsmobile, who debuted the V-8-powered Rocket 88 in 1949. And then there’s the prewar examples like the Buick Century, based on the mightiest Buick engine of its time shoehorned into Buick’s lightest body and naming it for its ability to hit the 100 mile-per-hour mark. 

Since the dawn of the automobile and in the spirit of competition, manufacturers have endeavored to produce a special model equipped to offer high-speed capabilities and tour comfortably in style. In January 1930, Packard, a luxury marque with roots tracing to 1899 and renowned for being a conservative firm, out of character quietly announced the 734 Speedster — an in-house custom-built hot rod offered as a sedan, a sport phaeton, a two-seat boattail runabout, a four-seet runabout roadster with a rumble seat, or as a Victoria coupe.

John Groendyke’s 1930 Packard 734 Speedster Phaeton has a well-documented history, beginning with its delivery on May 17, 1930 to the L.R. Mack Agency in Albany New York. There are no gaps in this 734 Speedster’s history; the original owner, Sanford Lockwood Cluett, travelled 300 miles across upstate New York from Buffalo to Albany to take ownership. Cluett, an Alumni of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, New York, graduated as an accomplished inventor and was a member of a preeminent upstate New York family. Mr. Cluett’s uncles established the textile mill that produced Arrow shirts, and Sanford invented “Sanforizing”, an exclusive patented process for Arrow shirts. At his passing in 1968, Mr. Cluett held over 200 U.S. patents.

In 1951 Mr. Cluett sold the Packard to Victor Minon, Sr. of Schenectady, New York for $300. It is believed soon after acquiring, Mr. Minion had the Packard Phaeton repainted in blue and ivory enamel. In 1958 Minion sold the Packard Phaeton to James H. Kellogg-Clarke of Buffalo for $2,500. In 1959, after one brief year of ownership, Mr. Kellogg-Clarke passed the Packard Phaeton on to Thomas R. Mix of Boston, Massachusetts. 

Better known as Tom Mix, as a college student Mr. Mix worked for Foreign Motors and stayed on as an employee until 1964, when he  bought the dealership outright. Quoting from Tom Mix’s obituary was noted in Jonathon Sierakowski’s historical research book summarizing the five surviving examples of the 734 Speedster Phaeton. Tom Mix was, “a visionary in Boston’s foreign automobile industry, establishing relationships with Rolls-Royce, Bentley Motor Cars, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Land Rover, and Peugeot.” Quoting historical researcher Jonathan Sierakowski word for word, Tom Mix, “was ahead of his time in selling shares of Foreign Motors to his employees; at the time of his death it had become a 100 percent employee-owned dealership, the only one of its kind in the country. He was quite proud of one particular young man he had hired, Jay Leno, who worked for Mr. Mix delivering cars up and down the East Coast.”

For business Tom Mix’s dealership handled selling imported luxury cars, but his true passion was for Packard automobiles. He collected dozens of Packards, including coach built examples by Darrin. It is interesting to note Paul Aldrich, a longtime employee of Tom Mix, recollects that the first time Mr. Mix first saw the 734 Speedster Phaeton was in 1951 at the Automobilists of the Upper Hudson Valley meet, and never forgot it. 

The 734 Speedster Phaeton was so ingrained into Tom Mix’s life that in death a color photo of the Packard was printed on the cover of his funeral program. Tom Mix passed away on August 1, 2006, on November 2, 2006. Fred Guyton of St. Louis, Missouri bought the 734 Speedster Phaeton from Mix’s widow and exclaimed to her he was ecstatic to acquire it. Adding to his 76-car collection, Fred Guyton kept the Packard Speedster until his death on February 28, 2018. 

At RM Sotheby’s May 4-5, 2019 Fred Guyton estate auction held in St Louis, the 734 Speedster Phaeton was purchased by John. The Groendyke Collection, which is managed by McPherson College graduate Dustin Whitney and automotive expert Richard Crump, lent a helping hand, undertaking as much restoration work in-house as possible. The Groendyke Collection’s restoration shop, headquartered in Groendyke Transport’s prewar terminal building, provides the perfect architecture for restoring classic cars.

Mr. Groendyke, Dustin, and Richard were quite pleased to discover although the Packard had been repainted several times in its history those were superficial paint jobs with the car never fully disassembled.  A true survivor, as the Packard’s disassembly continued, all the numbers were verified to be in the right sequence, and traces of overspray in the original Stanley Green were found in hidden places, confirming the car’s original factory colors. 

From the drop of the gavel in St. Louis the Groendyke Collection’s intentions for the Packard were to undergo a no-expense-spared restoration in hopes of a strong debut at the Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance in Northern California.  

To establish provenance and ensure authentic as possible restoration guidelines, Johnathan Sierakowski of Sierakowski Classic Car Advisors and Ted Davis advised on the Packard restoration while Dustin and Richard blew the 734 Speedster apart, down to its ID No. 184100 bare frame. All body styles of 734 Speedsters were on a 134.5 inch wheelbase and used 733 frame rails custom boxed for rigidity. Dustin painted the completed frame and chassis components using PPG Delfleet Essential, a single stage industrial rated polyurethane. Genuine new old stock shock absorbers were sourced from Ted Davis’ personal inventory. Small parts no longer available are reissues made and supplied by Ted Davis and Charles Collier of Packard Twin Six in nearby Oklahoma City. 

It is interesting to note the majority of the 734 Speedster’s restoration work was done in the Groendyke Collection’s hometown of Enid, Oklahoma, including concours winning bodywork and paint. For fit and finish the Packard was entrusted to Harold’s Hot Rod Shop just a few miles away from the Groendyke Collection. 

Harold Clay’s shop received the Packard’s body and fenders, which were mounted to the rolling chassis to prevent any distortion of the panel gaps from movement. The old paint was hand-stripped chemically down to bare metal, sanded, metal-prepped and sprayed with PPG DTM (direct to metal) epoxy primer. With the exception of new wood in the cowl, which was replaced by Dennis Francis of Wheels of the Past in Cushing, Oklahoma, the original woodwork was discovered remarkably intact. 

Ninety percent of the sheet metal was perfect, but there were rust holes discovered between the rear fenders and body. Harold hand-formed new sheetmetal patches and welded them in to produce undetectable grafts. After block-sanding and guide coating numerous applications of PPG 2K primer surfacer, Carter Paint Co. in Enid custom-mixed 1930 Packard OEM colors Stanley Green and Gemnite Green. After the paint cured, Harold invested three weeks time cutting and buffing the paint into a flawless show-quality finish. 

The Groendyke Collection’s 734 Speedster arrived from RM Sotheby’s Guyton auction a survivor in basically unmolested condition, but there were a few mechanical substitutions made during the Packard’s lifetime to keep it on the road. Those alterations had to be reverted to authentic original equipment specs using rare parts in order to be competitive at Pebble Beach. 

The “Cylinder Wars” – competition from other luxury car brands – was fierce in 1930. Cadillac had just announced a new V-16 engine and Packard had discontinued their V-12 in 1923, so the only choice for the company was to hop-up the straight-eight they had. Under the hood the Packard’s engine was meticulously assembled to exacting specifications by engine builder Richard Crump. Buddy Rice bored the block and honed it to fit Egge pistons. An unoriginal Stromberg carburetor was replaced with a Detroit Lubricator two-barrel carb fitted as original equipment on Packard 734 engines exclusively. Crump even went so far as to install Buddy Rice authentic reproduction hardware onto the engine to elevate detailing the engine to show winning standards. 

The original four-speed transmission in Groendyke’s 734 was fitted with 1931 internals, which were chosen for the more desirable gear ratios than the ones that 1930 models used. In keeping with Packard’s high-performance touring theme, the brake drums were finned for cooling, gathering air through the spokes of 19-inch chrome wire wheels. Second generation wheelwright Dan Sommer of Novi, Michigan re-chromed and restored the original wheels, lacing up polished stainless steel spokes, an upgrade over OE chrome plated steel spokes which proved to be prone to rust. Reproduction 700×19 Firestone bias-ply tires were imported from England. 

Exiting Oklahoma for a while, Groendyke’s 734 Packard was shipped to RM Auto Restoration of Blenheim, Ontario, Canada for upholstery, pinstriping, and a new top. The leather interior was trimmed in period-grained hides and padded with vintage-type materials. The steel windshield frame too rusty to reuse, so a new one was fabricated mostly from scratch by Dan Sommer. At some time in the 734’s history prewar-era Ford passenger car gauges were installed. The correct gauges for a Packard 734 were shipped to California and restored by Palo Alto Speedometer. The Groendyke Collection’s go to for chrome plating is Jon Wright’s Custom Chrome Plating (CCP) of Grafton, Ohio. CCP offers two quality grades of work: “high quality” with a set price and “show quality” where the set price increases based on how much extra labor is involved to deliver absolute perfection. Destined for Pebble Beach, the Packard features CCP show-quality chrome throughout.

The restoration process began with test-driving the Packard as it arrived from the Guyton auction to identify its faults, correct the faults, and then disassemble. The ground-up restoration of the Groendyke Collection’s 734 Speedster Phaeton commenced in 2019, with reassembly completed in 2023. Shortly after completion the 734 debuted at the Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance on August 20, 2023, competing in Class D where it won 1st Place, Best in Class.

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