Saw this American classic today!

[JJ]

...in historic downtown Clarkdale, AZ - - 1950 Studebaker Champion!! with suicide doors!!

[Canuck750]

No sign of Kermit or Miss Piggy?

[john fish]

Let me just take this opportunity to hijack the thread and share one of my favorite American cars.    Wiki:

Studillac is a name given to a customized aftermarket car assembled in Rockville Centre, New York between 1953 and 1955, comprising a hard-top Studebaker Starliner coupé fitted with an OHV 210–250 hp Cadillac V8 engine.

[JJ]

Let me just take this opportunity to hijack the thread and share one of my favorite American cars.    Wiki:

Studillac is a name given to a customized aftermarket car assembled in Rockville Centre, New York between 1953 and 1955, comprising a hard-top Studebaker Starliner coupé fitted with an OHV 210–250 hp Cadillac V8 engine.

OK - Now that is way cool!  Studebaker with a Cadillac V8 motor!  Now THAT would be some cruiser!!

[cookiemech]

Love 50s Studebakers with the bombsight in the middle of the grille!

[F-Fred]

As seen in OC and Stiggs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rKC5ro11tc

[DesertPilot]

I had a friend back in college in LA in the 70s whose family restored Studebakers and Alfa Romeos.  We always picked his car when we headed out for an evening.  Their back yard was... interesting...

[sdcr]

A “Bullet nose”. Was this a Raymond Loewy design?

I think Studebaker and Moto Guzzi have a lot in common. Good, solid design, but always undercapitalized and poor marketing.

...in historic downtown Clarkdale, AZ - - 1950 Studebaker Champion!! with suicide doors!!

[ken farr]

A “Bullet nose”. Was this a Raymond Loewy design?

I think Studebaker and Moto Guzzi have a lot in common. Good, solid design, but always undercapitalized and poor marketing.

Yes, I believe he had a hand in Studebaker designs up to and including the Avanti.
Good looking cars.

kjf

[Guzzistajohn]

My employer is a "Stude" collector. He has a Avanti a Flight Hawk and a Lark fully restored. That AVANTI is a runnin' SOB!! I drove the Lark in the Rt66 festival parade. she's a SWEET little car! He has several on the property ready for resto for sale too.

[ohiorider]

There were some benefits to having a brother 12 years older, especially since he was a car nut!  He was 22, I was 12 when the 1953 Studebakers were introduced through their dealer network.  We were off to Parkin's Motors showroom, and there I saw what was an amazing car for the early 1950s.  Low, sleek, beautiful.

Several years later, I had the pleasure of some wheel time in the driver's seat of a buddy's dad's 1962 Silver Hawk.  White, with beautiful brown leather seats, a 4 speed manual (Borg Warner?) transmission, and the non-supercharged Studebaker 289V8.  Maybe 225hp?  By that time, they'd lost the Chrysler-influenced tail fins.  What a running little machine!  They seemed slightly front heavy, as it was easy to hang the back end out, often accidentally, on a wet road!

EDIT 1:  I just looked this up.  It might be of interest.  I recalled some association between Mercedes and Studebaker in the later 1950s.  It so happens that Studebaker dealers were the retail distributors for MB prior to them having their own dealer network.

EDIT 2:  Just down the road from my Triumph dealer in Warren Ohio is the Packard Museum.  A great go-to place.  And in conjunction with an historical motorcycle group, they exhibit historical two wheelers.  Not 365 days a year, but for a couple of months.
https://packardmuseum.org/

[JJ]

1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk - just beautiful!  They sure don't design cars like this anymore...A true classic!

[cloudbase]

I grew up just down the street from a Studebaker dealership.  Charles Becker Motors in Pittsburgh.

[dguzzi]

You might like a  "Studemino"  A kit to make your 80's El Camino look very Studebakerish.  Requires a google.

[Chuck in Indiana]

My first car was a Silver Hawk. Bought it with money I saved from working for farmers. I was 15..

[Canuck750]

You might like a  "Studemino"  A kit to make your 80's El Camino look very Studebakerish.  Requires a google.

That is one strange mash up!

[Griso8V]

Wasn't poor Studebaker run out of business by the big three?  At least that was one of the nails in the coffin, besides what others have pointed out, undercapitalized and bad marketing.  I heard that the big three leaned on the banks not to give Studebaker capital, i.e. loans etc. 
Cool cars however.  I had a fellow classmate in high school whos family had nothing but Studebakers...Not sure what happened to them all...

[JJ]

My first car was a Silver Hawk. Bought it with money I saved from working for farmers. I was 15..

You know, it's funny, most of us who are 65+ years old grew up doing similar things...WORKING at ages 14-15, etc.

I too, worked on a diary farm upstate NY for two summers at age 14-15.  Shoveling horse / cow manure, putting up barbed wire fences, humping / loading hay bails in the barn, etc. etc. etc. $1.10 per hour as I recall...

As kids, we were happy to have money in our pockets at the end of the long week...

[lucky phil]

...in historic downtown Clarkdale, AZ - - 1950 Studebaker Champion!! with suicide doors!!

Ha, now you just have to figure out how to Unsee it,lol

Ciao

[wymple]

That is one strange mash up!

At least it's super cool. I like it, just change the color. I had a neighbor when I was a teen who had an Avanti. They were claiming it was the world's fastest car.  Some hopped up version was said to hit 178. That front end would lift before you got within 50 mph of that. It was fast off the line to 60 or 70, but my 60 Olds would catch & pass him in a short time. There was no way his Avanti was getting anywhere near claimed performance.

[Moparnut72]

Yes, at one time a stock production Avanti once held the speed record. The company had to make a lower ratio 3rd member optional to be able to do it. The Avantis weren't fast off the line but were far ahead of their American competition when it came to top speed. Studebaker was a terribly managed company. They once had the sole import rights for Mercedes, owned White Trucks, Clark Equipment and STP. They sold or gave it all up. I owned a couple of 50's Stude pickups, far better trucks than what the competition offered.
kk

[larrys]

Let me just take this opportunity to hijack the thread and share one of my favorite American cars.    Wiki:

Studillac is a name given to a customized aftermarket car assembled in Rockville Centre, New York between 1953 and 1955, comprising a hard-top Studebaker Starliner coupé fitted with an OHV 210–250 hp Cadillac V8 engine.

I'll keep the drift going. In 1963 my older cousin Tenny put a 330? Chrysler hemi with tri-power in a '53 one of those. I think it three on the floor with overdrive. I was only ten but I remember it being the fastest car I had ever ridden in at the time.
Larry

[Moparnut72]

I am not well versed on early Hemis but I believe it was 331 ci.
kk

[wymple]

They made a lot of different hemi sizes, all the way down to 240 cubes.

https://autowise.com/every-single-chrysler-hemi-engine-ever-made/

[jcctx]

...in historic downtown Clarkdale, AZ - - 1950 Studebaker Champion!! with suicide doors!!

My family had one very much like this; '47 IMS!!

[v85kris]

That is one strange mash up!

I actually like it, except for the rims.  I’ve always missed the older el caminos/rancheros, wish they would bring them back.

[Two Checks]

Quote from: wymple on September 24, 2020, 01:25:29 PM

They made a lot of different hemi sizes, all the way down to 240 cubes.

>https://autowise.com/every-single-chrysler-hemi-engine-ever-made/

If they are going to call the newer engines hemis then the old A blocks aka poly head engines should be called hemis.