The unique model is a homage to an unrealized project from the late ’50s, when Packard considered rebadging the Facel Vega Excellence
Detroit-based luxury automaker Packard might have gone extinct since 1958, but even after all those years, some dream a worthy revival. One of them had enough willpower and funds to make it a reality, in the form of a one-off luxury sedan.
The Packard Excellence was realized by JB Classic & Bespoke, a coachbuilding company from the Netherlands that specializes in restoring classics and creating bespoke builds. Local automotive design firm CinovarA was responsible for the design and engineering, essentially making it a Dutch product.
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Reviving A Lost Dream
The exterior is not entirely based on a classic Packard or the more recent Packard Twelve Prototype from 1999. Instead, it borrows styling cues from the Facel Vega Excellence in honor of an unrealized project from the late ’50s. Back then, Studebaker-Packard considered rebadging the four-door sedan by French automaker Facel Vega with its own V8 engine under the hood. However, Daimler-Benz that had a distribution agreement with Studebaker-Packard opposed the idea and it was eventually scrapped.
Fast forward to 2025, and the Packard Excellence has been materialized. Still, its underpinnings have nothing to do with the original. The team chose the second-generation Bentley Flying Spur (2013–2019) as a donor vehicle, redesigning the entire bodywork and adding custom details. According to JB Classic & Bespoke, the whole project took 17,000 hours of work.
British Luxury Vibes
Inevitably, the proportions are very similar to the original Bentley, with a shared greenhouse, pilars, roof structure, mirrors, and interior. However, the bespoke vertically-stacked LED headlights send Cadillac vibes, flanking a three-piece chrome grille, with a foldable “Goddess of Speed” ornament mounted on the nose.
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The profile has sharper dynamic lines and suicide doors similar to a Rolls-Royce. To make this happen, the company had to create a new hinge for the rear doors, together with custom door handles made of hand-formed stainless steel. The boxy rear end is more generic, with C-shaped LED taillights and a Packard emblem on the tailgate.
There is no mention of any mechanical upgrades over the donor vehicle. The second-gen Bentley Flying Spur was available with a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 or a twin-turbo 6.0 W12, but we don’t know which one ended under the hood of the Packard.
While JB Classic & Bespoke didn’t reveal the cost of the build, its one-off nature and the heavy work done on the exterior suggest it is a rather costly homage to a stillborn project.
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Thanos Pappas, a product design engineer by trade, has been wading through automotive journalism for… Read full bio

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