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Not real far (90 mins. maybe?) from the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, too.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hot-Rod-Magazine-Jan-1964-/370356733529
Here's a clip of the car from last year's International Meet out there...it's loud! Decorated as it was for the road test:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qP8X_GvEpo&list=UU0rHKJVP0ONakdq-JcAsWUg
The owner is a retired Ford engineer.
In all fairness though I think a lot of mid 50's cars were kind of flimsy, particularly in an accident. When I was a kid a couple of friends mom's drove Studebaker's of that 53-55 vintage. I think they were a decent used car value at the time. Back in the 50's people seemed a lot more into their neighborhood with a lot of gatherings. The only real complaints I heard the men make at them about a Studebaker was loss of oil and they were too small and narrow with small trunks. I guess size was an issue some had with the Nash of that era too. By the mid fifties I think it was pretty hard for any independent to survive. Ironically, the mid fifties complaint about size (narrow, small trunk) became a selling advantage for Rambler a few years later after the 1958 recession due to better mileage. I think it is a testament to Studebaker that despite some cost disadvantages, they were able to carry on into the 64 model year and still have a loyal group of followers to this day.
Actually, the '66 model year!
I agree. I love what they did with what they had. They had a pretty broad product line into '64, the last model year they were built in the U.S. And their later cars were styled by industrial designers, as opposed to 'stylists', which is why IMHO they avoided a lot of added geegaws like some of the other makers.
No one in my family had a Studebaker, and really only one close friend of the family had one in my youth--a red '60 Lark VIII. When I kidded the Dad about it once, he said "that Lark will run rings around our Chevy". Their Chevy was a two-door '64 Chevelle wagon--interesting in its own right.
Is that a '50 in the picture?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I can't tell if that Stude is a '50 or '51 without the center section of the grille. The '50 had sort of an open center with a 'plus sign' in the middle of it, best I can describe it. The '51 center was pretty filled in with a small center 'cone' visible.
I am pretty certain that it is a 1951 because the grille openings are much larger on the '51' than the '50s. On the other hand, the two piece front windshield usually means it is a 1950 Stude. Most of the 1951s had a one piece windshield.
This discussion reminds me of the movie The Mask with Jim Carey, where he drives the 1951 Champion "loaner car" on to a Chicago bridge at night when it quits running. He kicks it and then it falls apart BUT the car that falls apart is a 1950 Commander. Here is the story with images.
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_24405-Studebaker-1951.html
Our 1951 Chamption was just like that including the smoke coming out the back and it was a light green too. I posted an earlier image of myself when I was about 3 years old in that car and decided to repost it because it fits the discussion. Uplanderguy commented on the one piece windshield last time I posted it.
Here is an image and discussion of my Commander in Wonder Woman
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_74497-Studebaker-Commander-1955.html
About the bullet-nose in 'Mask'--
At the May South Bend swap meet, probably at least 15 years ago, they opened the garage door to the building and in chugged a tired-looking four-door bullet-nose--I think it was for sale. I looked at my Packard buddy and said, "Ssssssmokin'!'. He cracked up.
The Studebaker in Grease was a 1948, not a bullet nose but same body. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_2883-Studebaker-Commander-Regal-1948.html
IMHO The best movies for Studebakers are Mask with Jim Carey and the first Muppet Movie where Fozzie Bear inherits a 1951 Studebaker.
I like Mask the beat because the first time I was watching it with my girlfriend, the movie got to the part where Jim Carey turned in his Honda for maintenance, the sloppy supervisior told the mechanic, "Give him the loaner."
At that point my girlfriend said, "Probably a Studebaker." The very next scene is the bullet nose pulling up before a fancy dinner club where Jim Caery meets Canmeron Diaz. That may have been the best laugh we ever had to that time, but it got even funnier when it broke down on a bridge and it fell apart after he kicked it.
The Studebaker in Grease was a 1948, not a bullet nose but same body. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_2883-Studebaker-Commander-Regal-1948.html
IMHO The best movies for Studebakers are Mask with Jim Carey and the first Muppet Movie where Fozzie Bear inherits a 1951 Studebaker.
I like Mask the beat because the first time I was watching it with my girlfriend, the movie got to the part where Jim Carey turned in his Honda for maintenance, the sloppy supervisior told the mechanic, "Give him the loaner."
At that point my girlfriend said, "Probably a Studebaker." The very next scene is the bullet nose pulling up before a fancy dinner club where Jim Caery meets Canmeron Diaz. That may have been the best laugh we ever had to that time, but it got even funnier when it broke down on a bridge and it fell apart after he kicked it.
The front end of a 1951 Studebaker still makes me smile.
It is goofy, that's for sure! I firmly believe bullet-noses are the best-known Studebaker to the 'masses', followed by the Golden Hawk ("they only made them in gold you know"...LOL).
I've read more than once that Harold Vance, Studebaker chief, was told by someone once that they weren't sure if they liked the bullet-nose front end styling or not. He supposedly replied, "I don't care if you do, but find out if your teenaged kids like it".
http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?71275-Body-Plant-operation- s
In post no. 20 (post nos. are on the right side of each post), there is a light blue metallic '64 Daytona Hardtop I followed down Lafayette in town and met the owner in the Body Plant parking area. I loved the car...blue vinyl reclining 50/50 seats inside. I'd have loved to own a car like his new...clean styling IMHO and a perfect size IMHO. Hell, I'd love to own it now, and only 2,414 built, combined South Bend and Hamilton, Ontario production.
As you probably know, the bullet nose was taken from an earlier and much lower Loewy design and was put on the existing Studebaker body in 1950. The result was a car that looked like a smiling football. It may have looked futuristic at the time it was introduced, but five years later it looked like Grandpa's car.
That made the car look futuristic, like Captain Video's rocket ship! Great news.
However, you are exactly right in that a few years later it marked those cars as out-of-date. I see the same thing in the futuristic Sonata styling from hyundai.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Sonata is just a MB CLS derivation, will be dated.
In addition to the bullet nose you can see such future design trends as full width body, hidden (then covered) headlights, curved window glass and no grille in the front. It is true that Studebaker was ahead of its time.
You can read the whole Special Interest Autos article here SIA Flashback Studebaker's First V8 :1951 Commander Starlight. http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/tag/raymond-loewy/ As the
title states, it is also a great review of the first Studebaker V-8.
I did not realize until now that it was created and published by Hemmings.
http://www.hemmings.com/aboutus/ It seems to have been published until 2003. You can get back issues here. http://backissues.com/titles/Special-Interest-Autos-Magazine.
That SIA 1951 Studebaker Commander article has interesting information development of the Studebaker V-8. Building an ohv-8 is not as simple as taking an existing flathead V-8 block and putting different cylinder heads on it. If that were the case, then Ford could have done it before 1954 and its 1954 ohv-8 (or Y-block) should have been the best in the world when it was introduced since Ford built the most flathead V-8s in the world and made them affordable before the change to overhead valves.
The Studebaker V-8 was a very robust design being able to take compressions ratios of more than 12 to 1 and supercharging on the way to nearly tripling its original horsepower as the Avanti R-3 engine. I believe that of that first generation of ohv-8s , only the 1949 Oldsmobile V-8 of 1949 had a longer production life (from 1949 to 1964) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldsmobile_V8_engine
That mockup picture is from '43...
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I find it very interesting that the "mock up" appears to have a license plate on it. I wonder if it was an operational vehicle. I note that the rear window class seems to have been used for the two door "Starlite coupes" but not the sedans.
I like the "mock up" more than the cars they actually introduced for the 1947 model year. It seems to be a generation ahead of those. Maybe they should have introduced those in 1953 instead of the sedans.
My surprise is that such a practical can was sketched or madeup before the war. The glass in the doors is taller than I would have expected.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?71502-Congrats-Joe-Parsons- -58-GH-in-Antique-Automobile
LOL
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Sounds like a rather eccentric original owner!
Reminds me of my Stude dealer friend telling me of the guy who came into the showroom, looking like he didn't have two pennies to rub together. He shortly thereafter pulled $4K out of his pocket and paid cash for a new Golden Hawk.
Studebaker had a color like that in earlier years called Varsity Maroon.
That Land Cruiser in the background of your pic reminds me that, while they suffer in comparison to the Loewy coupes of the same years, I'd say the long-wheelbase sedans (as pictured) look better than Big Three four-door sedans of the same period. My humble opinion only, of course. Trim proportions and low beltline.
It is a mystery to me why that car did not sell better. It looks good compared to its contemporaries. I think the sales price has the most to do with it. Ford and Chevy were having a price war in 1954. That was the year that mortally wounded Studebaker. It took another ten years to die.
Hello?!
http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?71597-Studebakers-Indy-201- 3-Mecum-Auction
Function of my age probably as much as anything, but I preferred the white '63 Avanti R2 that sold a couple months ago at auction for $74,800. It is featured on the inside back page of "Automobile" magazine that's on the stands now, along with a hugely expensive (can't recall the exact number, but well, well in the six figures) 'Benz of the late '50's vintage...a convertible and not a Gullwing, BTW.
And, price had a lot to do with it as well, I'm sure. A 1954 Land Cruiser had a base price of something like $2428. In contrast, a 1954 Buick Special 4-door sedan was only $2265, and even a Century was only $2520.
An Olds 88 was $2337 for the 4-door, while a Super 88 was $2477. A '54 Desoto Powermaster 4-door sedan was $2386, but just had a 6-cyl. The Firedome sedan was $2673.
So even though it was a nice, roomy car, the Land Cruiser was probably just too expensive for the typical Studebaker buyer. And, it still looked like a Studebaker, so it probably wasn't seem prestigious enough to justify its middle-market price. Nowadays they can get away with a broad price range, where the $22K Camry looks like the $33K Camry, but in those days, people wanted their pricier cars to look different, and have a different brand name.
model year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Automobile_Production_Figures
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1953 . . . . . . . . . . .1954. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1955
Chevrolet. . . . . . . . . . . .1,346,475. . . . . . . .1,143,461 . . . . . . . . . 1,704 677
Ford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,247,542. . . . . . . .1,165,942. . . . . . . . . .1,451,157
Studebaker. . . . . . . . . . . 151,576. . . . . . . . . . 68,708. . . . . . . . . . . .116,333
Nash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121,793. . . . . . . . . . 91,121. . . . . . . . . . . . .96,156
Packard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90,252. . . . . . . . . . 31,291. . . . . . . . . . . . . 55,247
In the table above. Ford goes to first place for calendar year 1954 when the low price war begins, then Chevrolet recovers the lead in 1955.
Studebaker sales dropped below Nash in 1954, but the 1954 Studebaker model production figure was worse than stated above because the calendar year figure ofr 1954 includes 1955 models built after August 1954. The 1955 Studes sold much better than the 1954 models.
Packard should have had a better year in 1955 because their cars looked new, they had a new ohv.-8, they picked up dealers as a result of the Studebaker merger and because the low price war between Chevy and Ford did not affect the luxury car market as much.
Back in South Bend, management wanted get rid of the Lowey European style and make their cars look more like airplanes because that style sold so well in the past (1950-51) . The front line plane in the Air Force inventory was the F-100 Super Sabre, so they took inspiration from that plane for the 1955 models. Just stick a chrome V in the intake and you have the front "grille" look of the 1955 Studebaker line.
http://www.studebakergarage.com/1964_studebaker_cruiser.htm
Studebaker President Harold Churchill wanted to move Studebaker into 4 cylinder sub-compacts that looked like Toyotas of the mid 60s, but he was replaced with Egbert in 1961 who favored a performance image. I have to wonder if Studebaker would have been better off putting the effort into the main line of cars instead of the Avanti.
An Interview with Harold Churchill from 1970 or 71 is in the recent issue of Turning Wheels. He said that the South Bend production facilities were not much of a problem and the motor works were especially efficient. He said the opposite about the Packard facilities in Detroit.
I really like the '64 Lark-types. I've owned a Daytona Hardtop and could certainly enjoy another, or a convertible. My friend has a very solid '64 Daytona convertible, black with blue interior, that just a few weeks ago made the trip from NE OH to South Bend and back without a hiccup. One of the "Turning Wheels" magazines from 1984 listed all the South Bend-built '64 convertibles (417), and my friend's was the ONLY one built in black with blue vinyl interior! His was built 11/27/63--the day before Thanksgiving and only five days after JFK's assassination.
I have read, and believe, that JFK's assassination was the last straw for Studebaker's already-slow business at that point. Commerce in this country just almost completely stopped then for a while.
About the Avanti's slowness to sell after brisk orders at introduction couldn't be filled...my friend, a lady from Kansas, last year bought a gorgeous, original, low-mileage '64 Avanti built on 12/26/63, the last day Studebaker built Avantis. The car sat at Snuffy Smith Motors in Dallas until Feb. '65, when Mr. Smith bought it himself for his daughter to drive.
In November 1963 Sherwood Egbert was finished at South Bend and so were his plans to save the company with new models of cars based upon the Avanti. Automobile Quarterly accurately sums up what happened. http://www.autoquarterly.com/featured_articles/article.php?id=1
Egbert envisioned a new line of Avanti II cars, two- and four-door sedans based on the Lark chassis with styling inspired by the Avanti coupe. But by then several board members advocated liquidating the auto division and Egbert was unable to continue fighting. The company president had cancer and in November 1963 the board put him on indefinite leave, appointing finance VP Byers Burlingame to take his place.
The banks refused to lend any more money to the auto division unless the corporation agreed to put up its acquired divisions as collateral. The board was unwilling to risk the stockholder’s investment, forcing the auto division to pay its own way. Lacking the money to produce the Avanti II or a new Lark proposed by Stevens, all that could be done was another facelift of the existing car. On a shoestring budget Stevens managed to make the 1964 Larks appear almost all-new. If they sold well the division could continue; if not, Studebaker’s life as automaker was effectively over.
The GT Hawk and Avanti received only minor updating for 1964 but the Larks featured completely new frontal styling. Three series were offered in six-cylinder and V8 models: Challenger, Commander and Daytona, plus a V8 Cruiser. Unfortunately, within weeks it was clear the new cars weren’t selling. There was an 86-day supply in dealers’ hands and 3,000 1963 models remained unshipped; production halted for a week to reduce inventories.
By December 1963 the company was bleeding to death. On Dec. 7, the board reached a decision to shut down Studebaker’s South Bend plant and transfer all car production to the company’s plant in Hamilton, Ontario. Burlingame explained: “The basic difficulty in South Bend was insufficient volume of sales. Our facilities there were such that there was no way to reduce our costs so that a profit could be made upon such volume. The Canadian plant ... can be operated at a profit on much lower volume. Therefore we have decided to live with the sales we have rather than to continue to hope they will improve.”
Sure is original. I like original best and I do think original brings the best money.
Silly looking thing, isn't it? But sure different than Big Three stuff of the same era.
I would like to have the Starlight coupe because of the large rear windows. The 53 sedan below was rescued from a junk yard with no motor by a guy named Ray who previously owned a 55 Speedster. It is a very nice car with lots of room inside especially the back seat. I like the '53-'55 sedans more and more as time goes by.
For $21,000+ you can buy the Packard main plant. As big as it was, they were not making the bodies there and not doing final assembly at this location. It was built 1903.
The page where this is posted has many great photos of 1955 Studebaker coupes and hardtops (including President Speedsters) and I found that it included four images of my Commander taken at the La Palma Park Studebaker meet a few years ago. Look for green and white, more than halfway down the page. http://www.flickriver.com/groups/1656170@N23/pool/interesting/
I was thinking the same thing. The artist might have been working off photos of the F-86 Sabre jet which looks more like the MIG.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Studebaker-Lark-Custom-1963-studebaker-r-2-packag- - e-super-lark-b-57-r-3-engine-/111125323885?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item19df95e06d- - &vxp=mtr#v4-41
$14K with five days left...and the car is far from perfect/original/authentic.
I'm a big fan of '63 and '64 Studebakers--varied product line, trucks including big Diesels, nice size cars, etc.
The supercharged models might gain some traction as they were ignored for a long time. They probably deserve more credit.
For me, I like the size of the cars too and space utilization inside, seating height, etc.
Comparative rarity is a plus for me. I much prefer those years Larks to Chevy II, Falcon, or Valiant, but I know I'm in the minority.