nothing else like it

The Forest Grove News-Times, Jul 15, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Courtesy photo / News-Times

The hood of Washington resident Cheryl Luce’s classy convertible, otherwise known as a 1926 Packard boat tail speedster, hides a powerful engine.

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From the outside, it’s the beautiful, handcrafted body of a 1926 Packard boat tail speedster. But this classy convertible hides a big secret – a secret that hisses. Well, not hisses so much as roars.

That’s because the hood conceals a 10-cylinder, 505-horsepower Dodge Viper engine.

“There’s just not another car like it,” said owner Cheryl Luce. And she’s not pulling your camshaft: This is the only “Vipard” out there.

Luce, who lives in Battleground, Wash., purchased the car from a man who had bought it at an auction. The car was “freshly done,” she said, but was missing front fenders. To add those, she took it to the man who built it: Peter Portugal.

When Portugal, originally an architect, began working on the car, it was just a rusted-out, ’26 Packard cowl, the part of a car that sits just below the windshield of a car and supports its windshield and hood. But despite the corrosion, he found a number on the cowl, which allowed him to track the part and build the rest of the car.

Portugal designed the car from the frame up the way he believed Packard should have been built, knowing he would give it the power of a Viper engine. He even designed its pipes and tuned it so that it doesn’t sound like an ordinary Viper. He finished it in 2007.

When Luce showed up at his California shop in 2008 asking for fenders, Portugal designed them from a 1931 Packard fender.

“He worked with that until he found the style he was working for,” Luce said. And this car is all about style.

Portugal handcrafted all of its steel and wood. To Luce, that’s what makes it special.

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