Life, 1923-10-25 · page 4 of 34
Life — October 25, 1923 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is an advertisement, not political satire. It promotes the Packard Single-Six automobile, positioned as an exceptionally high-quality American luxury car. The text emphasizes the vehicle's reliability and performance—it costs under 900 pounds in England, achieves 25+ miles per hour, and climbs hills admirably despite lacking a large engine. The author expresses genuine admiration for the car's engineering while humorously lamenting it's American-made rather than British. He claims it ranks among the world's best automobiles and suggests it would be worth showcasing to manufacturers in Coventry, Birmingham, and Manchester—England's motor-industry centers. The tone blends genuine product praise with lighthearted national rivalry, typical of early 20th-century automotive journalism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
~PACKARD SINGLE~ SIX It has to be a pretty good Yankee car that can overcome my initial prejudice; but when after doing that it contrives to fill me with an uncontrollable lust for possession, then I can assure you it is some- thing right out of the common rut. The Single-Six Packard costs (in England) something under nine hundred pounds, and is, in my humble opinion, as near being the very best car in the world as makes no difference. This is heavy praise, I know, but it can’t be helped—I must speak as I find. If I had leisure and one of these cars, I would like to drive it round Coventry and Birmingham and Manchester, and other places where motors are mostly made, and take British managing direc- tors out for a run, just to show them, you understand. The plain fact is that this is a car in which I simply cannot find a fault. It is as docile as an angel, but goes like the very devil. It is supremely well sprung, it is uncannily silent, it is a miser on petrol, it steers no heavier than a wisp of cigarette smoke, it climbs like a chamois— in short, it just does anything that it should, and does most things a good deal better than you would think possible. Mind you it is not one cf these undergeared contraptions, for without any fuss or flurry it will do its modest seventy on the level, nor has it got a huge engine, yet it will do White Hill, Henley, with four up, at a minimum of twenty- five miles an hour. The Hindhead brings it down to about fifty-five! The Single-Six is, of course, not to be confused with the Twin-Six. Yes, believe me, people, the six- cylinder Packard is a very wonder- ful car indeed. I wish it were made in this country, and I can’t for the life of me see why it shouldn't be, though owing to the higher cost of raw material over here it would naturally come out more expensive. I heartily wish the Packard were British. It is easily amongst the first half dozen best cars in the world, at a figure which has hitherto been associated with, comparatively speaking, mediocrity. —Reprinted from The Tatler, England ; issue of April 11 comicbooks.com