Was it in Indiana ?

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CHILCUTT~
The secret to a long life. Is knowing when it is time to leave.

Google is your friend who, by the way, reports you to the NSA while helping you.

South Bend, Indiana until 1963 and Ontario until 1966.

http://www.studebakermuseum.org/p/about/history/

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

Actually south bend through 64. Some were also built in California certain years and in Windsor some years including the last two years, 65 and 66. The last two years they got Chevy sixes and eights.

Of course a few years later production of Avantis resumed in South Bend and continued on and off for at least a couple of decades.

My Dad, maternal grandpa and a maternal uncle all worked at Studies. I was born in SB too and lived near there until I was 11, around 1960.

Studebaker had some unique and interesting designs. The 53 Loewy coupe and the Avanti being two of the best. I also like my 39 coupe express.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

T W - thanks to you I just read quite a good write up on Studebaker and the Loewy coupe. It came up as Car Lust and the writer appears to be Cookie the Dog's Owner (?). I had often heard that Studebaker was ahead of its time in the '50s and now I believe it. There was very good info on the company and what caused Studebaker - and Hudson, Nash, Packard, Kaiser, etc. - to go out of business. And the famous Avanti was also mentioned.

Thanks for the lead. And you are right; the Loewy coupe was something.

They could be fitted out with a Super Charged 289 . Were these FoMoCo engines ?

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CHILCUTT~
The secret to a long life. Is knowing when it is time to leave.

No - pure Studebaker, came out in the early-Fifties. Well-built engines.

India

IIRC the Studebaker Golden Hawk had the supercharged engine installed in it.

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Jim

Supercharged 289, I bet those Hawks would fly.
Anyone know the typical transmission setup, as well as any technological breakthroughs Studebaker was known for ?

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CHILCUTT~
The secret to a long life. Is knowing when it is time to leave.

This is true. They also offered the Golden hawk with the enormous, even heavier than the Studebaker v8 Packard v8.

At one time or another you could buy the supercharged engine in any body style. Some of the most famous, one called the "Plain brown wrapper" is in a plain Jane two door 64 (I believe that's the year). It was bought new by George (can't remember his last name) and is still owned by him today. It is famous in Historic drag racing as the Studebaker which often beats such unlikely cars as 454 Chevelles.

Another famous drag racer is Ted Harbit who drag raced the most famous racing Studebaker of all the 1950 Starlite coupe known as the Chicken Hawk. Ted raced it pretty much continuously from about 1950 to 2010 or so when he lost control of it in a race and wrapped it up in a ball. He still races at the historic drags at the age of 80 or so and is quite fast.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Studebakers were offered with Borg Warner three speed automatics, three speed standard, three speed standard with overdrive and four speed manual Borg warner transmissions.

Popular conversions for driving today include five and six speed manual overdrive transmissions for cruising at modern freeway speeds. Some of these options are reasonably simple to install.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Studebaker was also a very old company. Started building horse drawn products. The brand had good traction here in my eastern Canadian area as there was a decent size local dealer. They were just one of a handful of orphan car producers left though. Not focussed enough on increasing their market share.

What is funny to me today in some respects. Many people purchased the brand as they where known for good fuel milage. This at a time fuel was perhaps twenty five cents an american gallon. Actually twenty cents as it was five gallons for a dollar for the longest time in my youth. So a couple of dollars a week could easily get you back and forth to work.

The Studebaker company also left conventional design in the later 1940s. Some designs where good and some perhaps not as much so. There is no way you could confuse the brand with others though.

I have a book listing all the brands of cars actually produced. There are so many of them that one with your surname is a possibility. Some of these producers only made a handful of cars. Yet there where thousands of them in the early days.

Some companies strong and still exisiting rose on producing parts for them as many where just assembled from purchased finished parts almost totally. Almost kit cars in volume in some ways.

Our local three story car factory now demolished since my arrival here was built about 1910. The car it produced was actually good for the times but like a lot of these early situations. They where financial stock games more than anything.

I have been only able to find two known survivors of the brand. I suggested to the provincial government they should buy the good one back many years ago. Unfortunatly they did not.

It was available out of the craven cigarette companies car collection at the time. It was the only totally complete example in running condition that was know to exist left.

There are at best only two Studebakers left locally to my knowledge. The old dealers service truck in mint condition. About a two to three ton chassis. Plus maybe a late thirties dictator four door in storage in a local town I know of.

Studebaker may have suffered poor management as they emerged from the second world war period. This after building an almost endless stream of 6X6 military trucks. So they should have had sizeable piggy bank at that time.

Another thing that may have hurt them locally as well is they rusted out too easily. Around 1950 the issue of rusting cars with the thinner and perhaps not as good quality of sheet metal came into more widespread use.

I think there were stages or R1, R2 and R3 of the superchargers. They were Paxton Superchargers. One version was a variable pulley unit, that worked off of vacuum of the engine. I had one (the SC, not in a car). I can't remember, but I think it had the Paxton shield and not the Studebaker shield. I tracked down the numbers for the bracket and it was for an Olds engine. I sold it to a guy in Sweden.
Also, the Avanti came with the stages of SCs. The Avanti was kept in production by various 'firms' I think into the 90's. I think the later ones were Ford powered.
I also read an article that some one build Cords out in OK, till the 70's or 80's.

In Notre Dame City.

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2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

No, the 289 was a studebaker engine.

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2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution