Packard Proving Grounds: Part IV. The “Graduation" Certificate

During the early weeks of production on any new model, at least five such Packards were taken to Utica, to be driven 250 miles for operational evaluation and then thoroughly inspected for workmanship. Subsequently, one of them would be taken for a thousand miles for quality checking, both full throttle on the track, plus round after round on the torture roads. Another car might put up 2500 such miles, yet another made to endure 25,000. On two such occasions, a Packard was driven at top speed, day and night, for the seven days to reach 15,000 miles, as effective as any test possible of performance and stamina.

All this resulted in a goodly many Packard miles being racked up, both on experimental and pr-production cars, as year passed year. During 1933 alone, the company reported test driving at Utica totaled 769,573 miles – a distance more than thirty times around the world at the equator. For the first four years of its production, every Twin Six or Twelve produced was drive 250 miles at the Proving Grounds in a break-in test including maximum speed checks and a thorough inspection, with a certificate signed by Milton and Vincent issued thereafter and a sticker with the acceptance date glued to the right side of the glovebox behind the instrument panel – or the car was returned top the factory for correction of any defect or weakness noticed. Every new owner got both his car and the “graduation’ certificate.

 

No one was ever killed at the Packard Proving Grounds, indeed no one was ever injured. During the same time GM had several men killed at their proving grounds.  “at one time we were testing tires for Goodyear…one man drove steadily at top speed just to blow tires. He did this constantly for three months and never had any trouble when the tires blew.”