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If I wanted a restored car, I could easily sink 30K or more into my old beast...not the best investment.
Our 1951 Champion was a smoker in its later years, but my parents did nothing to change the oil or maintain it. It was the same as the "loaner car" Studebaker in the Jim Carey movie The Mask. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_24405-Studebaker-Champion-1951.html
That said, the low compression motor with the six volt system always started in the coldest South Bend-Chicago weather and would push other cars to get them going. It went to the junk yard under its own power, but I saved the airplane hood ornament and still have it.
Stude had such a windshield beginning their '41 "Sedan-Coupe" models.
One of the things I liked best about the 1951 Champion was that is was so nice and warm in the back seat in the winter because the heater was located under the passenger's side of the front seat which divided the heat evenly between the front and rear passengers. Since I was a kid in the back seat on the half-hour trip to and from Grandma's house that took place at least twice a month, I appreciated that.
The Champion was replaced in 1963 by a full size Chevrolet Biscayne station wagon and it was cold in the back during the winter months because the parents in the front seat got warm long before us kids did in the back. By 1963, there were 4 kids in the family and a 5th on the way, so they wanted a bigger car.
My Mom did not like the Chevy because it was harder to steer and did not have the nice overdrive transmission of the Studebaker. She disliked the 1963 Chevy so much that by 1967 she talked walked my Dad into getting her a new Chevy Bel Air wagon that had the 283 cid V-8 with an automatic transmission and power steering. No more manual transmissions or manual steering for her.
I don't think Chevy wagons offered rear heaters in the wagons---maybe Chrysler did, however. It was a pretty rare thing back then, and the rear seat in a 9-passenger wagon would have been pretty uncomfortable in winter.
My grandparents bought a new '63 Bel Air V8 wagon with Powerglide. I can remember the '58 Chevy wagon they traded in on it. I remember one day, the glass in the '63's tailgate window was in place but cracked in a zillion ways. I can't remember if that ended up being a warranty fix or not.
I know that GM farmed out manufacture of their wagon bodies through '64, which I think may help explain the very generic look of its rear passenger doors and glass of the '61-64 period, compared to everybody else's.
Here's a blurb from a history website that explains the B-W overdrive history in brief:
"Manufacturers who focused their marketing toward operating economy were all heavy promoters of the B-W overdrive. Studebaker probably made more OD-equipped vehicles than anybody. Other AMC marques (Hudson, Rambler, Nash) were also big users. Ford first offered the Borg-Warner OD on Lincoln Zephyrs beginning in 1941. Fords and Mercurys received the B-W OD as an option in 1949 and the F-series trucks got OD for 1953. (Before 1941 & 1949 Ford, Lincoln & Mercury used a two speed axle to lower engine revolutions – The Columbia axle - not discussed here).
The last time I ever saw the B-W overdrive offered was in 1972 on Ford trucks. Ford cars stopped offering it in 1967 I believe.
It first appeared as an option on American cars in the mid 1930s.
Our family had two Chevrolet station wagons - 1963 and 1967. I remember seeing a metal tag by the door thresholds that said "Body by Fisher" and wondered why some other company was making Chevrolet bodies. This is the first I heard that some company other than Fisher was involved in making the bodies.
I noticed in the advertisement that the Chevrolet six cyliner motor was called a "230." If that means cubic inch displacement cid, then the Chevrolet six-cylinder was just 2 cubic inches below Studebakers 1951 232 cid. V-8 and had more displacement that Studebaker's 224 cid V-8 of 1954. No wonder they had so much more power than the Studebaker 6 cylinder motors.
Naturally, flooring the car downhill wasn't a great option, nor was trying to pull over and stop.
On the plus side, while in overdrive, you could shift without the clutch if you had the right touch.
Of course, you could engage overdrive at any speed---but once you were in OD, your options were a bit limited.
Another thing drivers had a hard time with was how gutless the car was in top gear in overdrive. Being used to torquey motors, we had to remember to either downshift more often or floor the gas pedal to get any power for passing.
1952 Buick
ID Tag:
Buick Motors Division
General Motors Corporation
Flint, Mich
1952 Mod 59
Body No. 995
Trim No. 96
Paint No. 08
Ionia Body
Ionia Manufacturing Company
Ionia, Michigan
It had a 327 engine with a three speed with factory overdrive.
I've never seen another one and I don't know if that was the last year for overdrive.
Studebaker actively marketed the Borg Warner unit, as did Rambler. The other companies offered it but not very enthusiastically. Only Stude and Rambler were actually promoting fuel economy. Most Americans didn't really pay much attention to the concept, with gas at .25 cents a gallon.
Still, by 1966, I'm guessing V-8 Impalas with three speeds instead of automatics or four speeds were pretty damm rare. MAYBE 10% of the production?
So, if 10% of those had OD, that's 1%.
That is pretty rare!
Free-wheeling was not much of a "nuisance" considering that automatic transmissions are free-wheeling all of the time and you have no choice in the matter. Basically, you lock out the overdrive when you are in the city so that the motor can slow you down and save your brake shoes and you engage it when you plan to be on the highway for maximum fuel economy. All you have to do it pull the lever or push it back in. It's not like you have to get out of the car and lock the front hubs in a rain storm, as you do with some 4 wheel drive vehicles.
My Mom was always saying how nice the 1951 Champion transmission with overdrive was. I never got to drive it because it went to the junk yard before I had a driver's license. But 20 years later, I bought a 1960 surplus army Lark that had the overdrive transmission I found out why Mom liked that transmission so much. It was so much quicker than my first 1960 Lark with the Fordomatic transmission plus there was less wear on the brakes and engine. The low gear ratios meant you could go off road and climb hills. You could get a lot of of options for practically nothing.
The problem with getting an overdrive transmission in a Chevrolet is that IF you were going to spend $108 for the overdrive manual transmission, you might as well spend a little more and get an automatic transmission.
Not really, otherwise you'd get no engine braking when you downshift. Not so much as a manual, but pretty substantial.
In August 2006, I went to my father's funeral in South Bend. On the way back,from the cemetery (out Western Avenue by the Studebaker proving grounds), I stopped by the same site and the buildings were being torn down. I took more images. Recently I made a gif file and put it at the bottom of the page here. http://stude.net/rollingalong.html It was a sad day in South Bend, but it might be worth a visit. The guy pushing the Lark to the box car looks so much like my grandfather. The images inside are of the buildings that are being torn down.
This was not convenient if you didn't have room in front of you to accelerate.
The reason you might have gotten the impression of "more power" is that typically, cars equipped with this BW overdrive also got a lower differential ratio. They did this because if the ratio were say 2:8 to 1 you would barely move in 3rd gear in overdrive--it would put tremendous "lug" on the engine. So often they gave you a "low" rear end, like a 4:11 or some such. This of course gave you great acceleration but poor gas mileage in city driving and just the opposite on the highway.
I started going to South Bend in 1988 and every time I'm back, it seems another of the old production buildings is gone. I have taken two tours of the Administration Building, the latter tour being 2007, and it is in remarkable condition inside--mostly untouched. The grandeur of the executive offices is pretty amazing.
Speaking of the last South Bend-built Studebaker, I was wearing a Stude Museum sweatshirt in a Friday's restaurant near home with my daughter about five years ago, and a handsome older fellow came over to me and said he had worked at the NBC affiliate in South Bend, right out of graduating Notre Dame and that he snuck in the plant on the last day of operation and took pictures. I had always heard that story! This guy was not a car guy but told me Stude wouldn't let any photos of the last car be taken, but he didn't shave for a few days, gave a guy coming out of the plant ten bucks for his employee badge, and went in with the crowd on the last day (12/20/63). He had been provided a small spy camera by the station, and after he got the footage, someone drove in from the NBC station in Chicago to get it and his footage was used on Huntley-Brinkley that night. Amazing. He wasn't even aware there was a Studebaker Museum there. I had heard every bit of that story before, as it was in the South Bend newspaper at the time of the closing--with no names mentioned (saw a reprint of that article in the Studebaker Drivers' Club magazine).
A friend of my Dads had one (he was a RC priest )-he liked the SAAB because of the good winter driving capabilities.
Anyways, this guy said that driving the old SAAB was a weird experience-as you descended a hill, the engine revs dropped (as the engine freewheeled)-then you got to the bottom, and the clutch re-engaged-then you usually had a tremendous explosion in the little muffler-as the unburned gas /air misture ignited.
If nothing else, it kept you awake-although that little two stroker sounded like an old Singer sewing machine.
Like someone I know used to do!
Those freewheeling transmissions were extremely fragile, however, unlike the Stude/BW overdrives, which were very sturdy aside from the occasional glitch in the simple electrics. The overdrive solenoid was exposed to road dirt and water, so they could die on you. No big deal to fix though.
You are entirely correct about this. When I first got my Lark the overdrive did not work. The car would still run OK until 60 mph, but after that the engine ran hotter and was revving too fast.
Not quite. You couldn't just "pull the lever out" if you were in OD. You had to either stop the car while on the highway or, much easier, floor the gas pedal until you were downshifted into conventional gearing, THEN pull the lever out.
This was not convenient if you didn't have room in front of you to accelerate.
I managed to drive the Lark for about ten years without being aware that I had to stop the car to engage the overdrive. Then too, I cannot imagine why anyone would want to "pull the lever out" when the car was already in overdrive at speed. The transmission would drop out of overdrive back to third gear when the gas pedal was floored. There was no need to fool with the lever that engaged it and disengaged it.
I rarely pulled the lever to change in and out of overdrive. More than 90% of the time I was in the freeways and flatlands of Los Angeles with the overdrive and free wheeling on. When I was in the hills and mountains around Lone Pine California, I had the overdrive and free wheeling off so the engine would slow the car on the downhill.
I never had any instructions on how to operate it, so I treated it the same way as an army Jeep where you would pull a small lever to engage 4 wheel drive when the vehicle was stopped. In the case of the overdrive, I would lock it out when the vehicle was stopped, but it seems that I could engage the overdrive when the car was moving and wanted to have a higher top speed.
I never felt inconvenienced by this minor limitation and wish my "modern" automatic transmission would give me the option of NOT having freewheeling on all the time so I do not have to change the brakes so often.
I have been thinking about the connection between free-wheeling and two stroke engines but I just don't see the connection. Two stroke engines used in motorcycles and scooters before 1980 use the braking effects of the engine on a regular basis when downshifting back to first gear. I do that when driving my two-stroke beast below where I can run the motor forward and backwards. (I do have to stop the motor to do that.)
When I was driving the Messerschmiitt through the alps from Frankfort to Bavaria and Switzerland, I went on many long, downhill roads and the furthest thing from my mind was juicing the throttle from time to time.
That was very good. I enjoyed watching it and the other video clips posted at that YouTube site. Thanks for sending it.
My survival driving my Messerschmitt in Europe was not just a matter of luck. . .it was more a matter of common sense of not doing foolish things like letting the engine slow me down and not juicing the throttle pedal when the thing was going downhill. This is especially important when the vehicle has cable-operated brakes that came from a Lambretta motor scooter and because it tended to make right or left turns whenever the cables serving the two front wheels were not adjusted equally and frequently.
Since I never heard of any two stroke motorcycle, scooter or micro car that had free wheeling before someone mentioned the SAAB I remain skeptical about the connection between the two, especially because the SAAB system operated so poorly. Would you like to own or drive a motorcycle or scooter that had free wheeling?
2-stroke motocross bike engines seize all the time. It's part of the deal of racing.
No, I don't like driving free-wheeling cars, which is why Borg Warner overdrive was replaced by 4 and 5 speed transmissions.
When a two stroke motor is acting as a brake, it is still getting some fuel and oil because engines are set to idle and they are generating less heat when braking because the mixture is too thin to fire. It is anecdotal to conclude that because SAAB had a two-stroke motor with free-wheeling that the two were connected for that reason. I have not seen any science which says that two-stroke motors are more likely to be damaged or destroyed while acting as a brake.
Assuming that the two things are connected for that reason, the benefit of free wheeling is outweighed by the additional wear on the brakes and the strain on the engine described in the SAAB system. If there were benefits for having free-wheeling with two stroke engines, it would be more common to have the two systems together. All kinds or racing engines break down under the strain.
It is also true that smoking causes cancer. However, ex-smokers gain weight and now obesity has replaced smoking as the leading cause of preventable death.
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/obesity-is-now-more-deadly-than-smokin- g-20100408-rv5l.html.
Although this is also anecdotal evidence, my mother was healthy until she quit smoking. Then she gained 80 pounds and passed away at 74 years old from heart failure. Her older brother kept on smoking and outlived her by twelve years. There is no history of cancer in our family.
Therefore, I will not automatically conclude that quitting smoking extended life expectancy in my family given that the cancer risk was low and the problems caused by weight gain were high.
I suppose the operative word above is "total." I wish the automatic transmission in my modern Chevrolet would slow the car down more so that I did not have to change the brake pads and shoes so frequently. I can't tell much difference between that "modern" system and free-wheeling. As I see it, engine braking is a system whose time has passed and I am sad to see it go.
Some municipal garbage trucks now have a system where the braking system compresses air and the compressed air from the tank is then used again to propel the vehicle. That might be a fuel-saving system of the future by being the opposite of free-wheeling.
Avanti Model Builder (lots of photos
Too bad his model isn't a supercharged model! My eye always goes right to the front fenders, where the "Supercharged" emblem would be if so equipped. Studebaker should have put an emblem there even in non-supercharged cars.
That Toronado is nice too. I never liked them 'til recently...thought they were too big for the styling. Last couple years I've started to change my mind. The flat floors are the flattest floors I think I've ever seen in a car.