$50 Studebaker Champion Turned into a Collectible

"Pushed against a corner was a Champion Starlight Coupe with a wraparound rear window. “This is the car that Bob Hope made the jokes about, that you couldn’t tell if it was going forward or backward,” he said. “It’s a bullet-nose Starlight Coupe, which is the combination you want. You could only get a car like this in ’50 or ’51."

Mr. Shiller said he found the car on a vacant lot in Amagansett, on the eastern reaches of Long Island, that used to be the Studebaker dealership DiSunno Motors.

“Of course they were no longer in existence,” he said. “And the guy who had it said, ‘Give me 50 bucks.’ So I pulled it out of there for 50 bucks. It wasn’t running but I got it running right away.

“It was a big mistake,” he continued. “When I first started working on it, I would get ticks. I had to actually fumigate the car.”"

Read the full article on the NY Times website.

First Annual Drive Your Studebaker Day

I prepared with a 45 minute cruise yesterday. Today, my five year-old accompanied me on a tour of a few local parks and areas in Sacramento, CA, including: Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown, and Downtown. "Doc" performed well and is now parked proudly in the driveway for all passers-by to see.

I was wary of driving as far as Grass Valley, but appreciated the invite by the Karel Stapel chapter of the SDC.

1955 Studebaker Vista Cruiser Deluxe

1955 Studebaker Vista Cruiser Deluxe that I owned from 1971 – 1978.

"After two years I felt like upgrading the engine. I was a member of the Studebaker club at the time, so I was able to find a brand new inline 6 engine for $500. It ran so quiet you had to open the hood to see the fan blade turning to know that it was running. It had fog lamps, fender spears, hill holder (to stop on a hill and take your foot off the brake to push the clutch) and overdrive. The radio worked. All I did was buff it and wax it."

See the full article here.

Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk in Fatal Crash

"A car connected the two, a grandson's way of saying thanks to his grandmother.

Now, the grandson, David Kahn, 40, of Moline, is fighting for his life at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, and his grandmother, Julie Hogan, 86, with whom he lived, is dead.

On Saturday, the two left Moline for a car show in Pontiac, driving his prized 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk. The two were also to celebrate David's 40th birthday, which was Monday.

They were on Interstate 39 in La Salle County shortly after 3 p.m when the fatal crash occurred. Relatives said they've been told by authorities the driver of another vehicle, Julia Hoffman, 49, of Rockford, crossed the median going the other way and went airborne toward Kahn's Studebaker.

Kahn allegedly swerved to avoid the airborne car and went airborne himself into a ditch area before landing nose down. Hoffman was released from the hospital on Monday.

The car they were driving in (Friday), Davey's grandfather bought the frame, and he and his grandfather built it from the frame up," McMahill said. "It's a very near and dear vehicle."

Read the full article is here.

An example of a '62 Gran Turismo Hawk

6 Degrees of Separation: Studebaker, Mercedes, Audi

Interesting tie between Studebaker and Mercedes by the Automotive Traveler. Here's an excerpt and link to the full article.

"But at the time, less than 20 years after the end of the Second World War, Mercedes-Benz was a fairly small player in the US market. Its distribution rights for the United States were in the hands of the most famous marque in South Bend, Studebaker in an agreement that dated all the way back in 1958, when the South Bend firm went by the name corporate name of Studebaker-Packard. As this 1962 ad for this the then new 220SE coupe clearly shows, Mercedes-Benz cars were distributed in the US by Mercedes-Benz Sales, Inc., South Bend, Indiana (A Subsidiary of Studebaker-Packard Corporation.)

(As Packard was discontinued, Mercedes-Benz partially filled the premium car void in the showroom of some Studebaker dealers. Unfortunately as Mercedes-Benz was growing in sales in the US, Studebaker was declining. In fact less than five years after this Auto Union-DKW ad ran in the pages of Road & Track, Studebaker was gone from the automotive scene.)"

Read the full article on The Automotive Traveler.

Automobile Magazine Feature on Bullet Nose Studebakers

Really nice write-up in Automobile Magazine about the '50 -'51 bullet nose Studebaker Champions, Commanders, and Landcruisers.

"Bob Bourke did the heavy lifting for Loewy on the redesign. With fighter-plane styling in the front and streamlined-railway-car "Vista Dome" treatment in the back, there've been few cars as stunning before or since. The design leadership was matched with comparatively up-to-the-minute engineering to make it more than worthy of contemporary consideration. Was there anything more modern on the road back then? Not really."

"Why buy? It's the most futuristic car of the past - a dream car that you can drive on a regular basis. Styling sets it apart, and straightforward mechanicals make it relatively easy to live with. Spare and reproduction parts abound, and the Studebaker community is very supportive. Nothing says "postwar" more emphatically; the Muppets drove one to box-office glory. You get to admit that it is, in fact, both going and coming and was, yes, ahead of its time, which seems to still have not arrived."

Read the full Automobile Magazine feature here.

1965 Studebaker Commander

Here are the last of the shots from the Studebaker exhibit at the California Automobile Museum. The exhibit runs through June 30. This 1965 Studebaker Commander had some interesting design lines that were tough to capture in these images.

1927 Studebaker Big Six Custom Brougham

Produced from 1918 - 1927, the Studebaker Big Six Custom Brougham of 1927 had a total of 75 horsepower coming from an inline 6 cylinder engine.

Here's an unrestored Studebaker Big Six Custom Brougham now on display at the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento, CA. More information about the Big Six can be read here.

1948 Studebaker Champion - Sheriff Special

I've seen this "sheriff special" at both the California Auto Museum and the Sacramento Southwest Zone Meet. The model year and the kitsch factor of this car make me smile. Here are a few pictures from the California Auto Museum.

Thanks to Lee Boyer for sharing his cool car.