Packard 223 Two Seater Roadster Fire Chief
This fire chief car has very nice, so-called 'blind wheels' or disc wheels
instead of the then usual spoke wheels, which are less strong.
Fire chief Augustin J. Cote from the town of Woonsocket in the US state of Rhode Island
was once described by a colleague as a 'Packard man'.
In 1926, he purchased this Packard six-cylinder as his first auxiliary car, one of the first such cars in the state.
The car, equipped with two warning lights and a front siren, as well as a large searchlight and a bell,
is cherished by Cote. He is rarely behind the wheel himself, but lets himself be driven by one of his two assistants.
Whether summer or winter, the hood is almost always down.
The Packard serves until Cote's retirement in 1954, after which the car is sold to a private individual.
The latter carries out a thorough restoration of the then almost 30-year-old car,
but stripped it of its fire equipment. Around 2005, the Packard is restored again
to its original version as a fire chief's car.
Photographed by me at the Louwman Museum in 2013
and now edited with this background.
lev&dig (Hans Levendig), photography & photoGraphics.. Read more…