One of the most dramatic body styles on the magnificent Eleventh Series Packard Twelve, the 1108 Individual Custom sport phaeton was designed by the great Alexis de Sakhnoffsky, incorporating a “false hood” extended back to the firewall, sculpted ovoid pontoon fenders, and floating running boards, as well as a very low windshield. A disappearing fabric top hid away under a flush-fitting tonneau, and the body finished in a sleek fastback tail. Elegant yet rakish, it was priced at nearly $8,000, nearly twice the cost of a standard 1934 model. Unsurprisingly, only five original examples were made, four of which survive as part of prominent, long-term private collections and museums.

The best alternative for the avid collector, therefore, is one of the five painstaking recreations built by Fran Roxas of Alsip, Illinois. For decades one of the US’s most respected restorers, known for his meticulous craftsmanship, Mr. Roxas used original Packard drivetrains to build a quintet of cars that were faithfully executed to be absolutely identical to original LeBaron sport phaetons in most every detail.

The example offered here was the third, and was finished in a stunning very dark blue with complementary blue leather upholstery and chromed wire wheels shod in wide whitewall tires. Completed by Roxas in 1987, it was purchased in 1992 by his client Melvin Olshansky of Glencoe, Illinois. In 1997, Mr. Olshansky exhibited the car at the Meadowbrook Concours d’Elegance, at the time one of the country’s top three most prestigious concours—and won Best of Show, no minor achievement!

Well-preserved since completion, with the master restorer’s work still in fine order, this is a magnificent tribute to inarguably one of the finest of all Packards—a simply stunning automobile that would be an ideal piece for any Full Classic collection, and superb to experience on the road without the concern of driving an original 1934 masterpiece.