1949 marked a special time in Studebaker’s history. That was the year that Studebaker was at its peak. The company from South Bend, Indiana had never before and would never again sell as many cars and be as rich as it was in 1949. The company’s history in the 1950s and 60s is a story of desperation and decline. But in the late 1940s, Studebaker seemed to be the independent auto manufacturer with the brightest future.
Fat with profits from wartime production, Studebaker had been first to market with a new postwar design in 1947. The 47 Studebaker had been a breakthrough design, and makes for an interesting story that is told very well in Richard Langworth’s well-researched book on Studebaker’s postwar years. As Langworth tells it, Studebaker was unique among automakers in that it lacked an in-house styling department. Instead, it relied upon Raymond Loewy’s design firm, which had a studio devoted to Studebaker work at its South Bend headquarters. Loewy’s relationship with Studebaker went back to the 1930s when he had styled the original Studebaker Champion. By the mid 1940s, he employed several talented designers in South Bend, including Virgil Exner.
About halfway through the design process, engineering chief Roy Cole (who had no use for Loewy) recruited Exner to set up a secret second studio in his home to produce an alternative to the Loewy proposals. There were allegations that Exner received information that Loewy did not have access to, which ended up tilting the tables in Ex’s favor. The consensus is that the back half of the car is mostly Loewy, while the front half was all Exner. Loewy was furious and fired Exner, who went on to create Chrysler’s forward look a decade later.
But still, the car was a stunner when it hit the market in 1947. The 5 passenger Starlight coupe was particularly striking and was unlike anything else on the road at that time. And it was a very good car. Raymond Lowey’s design philosophy had been that weight was the enemy and the car was very light for its size. Tom McCahill gave the car a glowing review in an early road test. It was economical, responsive on the road and well built. Studebaker was on top of the world.
The postwar Studebaker came in 2 models. The 112 inch wheelbase Champion with its relatively modern 169 cid 6 was an economical car that was still a good performer due to its light weight. The larger Commander was on a 118 inch wb and used a larger 221 cid flathead 6. The Commander engine was an oldie, going back to the early 30s, but was a sturdy engine with lots of torque. Both were mated to 3 speed transmissions with optional overdrive The manuals were also available with Studebaker’s unique Hill Holder. This feature would not release the hydraulic brakes until the clutch pedal was released, easing standing starts in hilly country.
The Commander series was led by the car seen here, the 123 inch wb Land Cruiser. This was Studebaker’s flagship – the Big Dog. It came only as a 4 door sedan, with all of its extra length in the rear doors (the ventpanes in the rear doors are the givaway.) The Land Cruiser was also one of the first cars in the industry to use a one-piece curved windshield, and was very luxuriously appointed.
Studebaker’s sales (over 228,000), profit and industry rank (8th) reached highs in 1949 that were never to be reached again. The 8th place ranking was no small accomplishment given that Studebaker offered a 3 year old design which was, by 1949, the oldest in the industry, and which had to do battle with brand new designs from across the big 3. Remember that in addition to the 12 brands of GM Ford and Chrysler, the industry also consisted of Hudson, Nash, Packard, Kaiser, Frazer and Willys-Overland. 8th place had Studebaker solidly in the top half of producers in 1949.
I have always found the 47-49 Studebaker very appealing. The Starlight coupe was a beautiful car, but the Land Cruiser has always been more my flavor. The longer wheelbase makes its proportions the best of the lot. This is a long car – the wheelbase is only an inch shorter than that of a 68 Chrysler. I would certainly take one of these over the 1949 model of any of the other independents, and of many big 3 models as well. And you could tell people that you drive a Land Cruiser.
I came across this car on a recent trip to South Bend, Studebaker’s former headquarters. Although this car is on a trailer, it is no trailer queen. Instead, it is an honest 38K mile original survivor that is looking for a good home. $3800 will buy this one and a parts car in the same color (but presumably not the trailer, also equipped with Stude hubcaps). Original Studebakers are getting hard to find, even in South Bend. Particularly ones allowed to sit outside on a rainy spring day. This car makes me a little sad. Most of Studebaker’s postwar history is kind of depressing, with an occasional flash of brilliance. Very few remember Studebaker’s glory days, when it could produce a car good enough to stand up against one made anywhere. This is one of the survivors from that bygone era. This makes it count for a CC in my book.
Studebaker was unique in that era in that its special car with a unique name was a long-wheelbase four-door sedan rather than a two-door hardtop or sedan. That particular shade of turquoise is one that I don’t remember seeing on any other car either, but it was pretty popular on Studes.
Our neighbor had a goat-vomit green Champion 2-door sedan that he’d quit driving for some reason; I bought it from him for $25, washed and waxed it, and mounted a Ford starter button in an unused hole in the dash (I didn’t like the starter button under the clutch pedal), drove it a few times, and sold it for $65 or $75 – can’t remember for sure. I don’t think I ever even put gas in it. This was when I was still living at home, in 1960 or 1961.
I also found and bought a 1951 Starlight coupe body-on-frame that had been chopped. The guy left the angle of the A-pillars the same and simply cut off the top of the windshield. The vent windows were frameless so he just cut the top of those too, and moved the B-pillars forward, so the door glass didn’t even need to be cut, just not rolled up all the way. His project foundered when he couldn’t figure out what to do about the wraparound rear window. I ended up never doing anything with it either, as senior year in college for a chemistry major became more time- and energy-consuming than I had expected.
Great article, J.P. Do you do this for a living? Maybe you should.
You are very kind Karl, but I have a day job as a lawyer. With one kid in college and two more coming up behind him, my personal break-even point is a little high to think about making a living writing about old cars, much as I enjoy it.
At 38k thats a near new car
Weelll, maybe. I can’t help but remember when a co-worker heard about a 23,000-mile 1940 Buick sedan. It turned out that the car lived up five miles of first-gear road from the highway, and had sat in the yard with all the windows shut tight in the western Washington mountain climate for five years. Low mileage or not, it was a goner. That 1949 Land Cruiser looks to me like its owner more than once had trouble finding the garage door, and it has the typical rust starting in a couple of places too. I’d want it to be in pretty decent mechanical condition and without interior water damage before I’d think about it…but I’m getting older and lazier, ymmv.
A few dents and a bit of rust dont matter hell it aint been far enough even in low gear to wear out the power train and suspension would still be good body work is easy to repair but yeah I cant do upholstery so that would need to be intact but still an easy car to revive
I saw lots of these in the St. Louis area when growing up – and they seemed to rapidly disappear, too.
Question: on the Champion coupe, I am assuming the back side window behind that massive B-pillar did open/roll down? In the days before A/C, that would’ve been very necessary.
Actually, I believe that those windows were fixed. You raise an interesting point that I had never thought of. One more reason to go with the Land Cruiser, wouldn’t you say?
Absolutely. And that’s the sole reason I will not buy a coupe nowadays, at least until they place a rear side window switch or crank in my warm, live hands!
Surprisingly, a lot of automakers who had in-house styling studios turned to outside design firms, particularly before WW2. In particular, both Ford and Chrysler relied a lot on Briggs (which had absorbed LeBaron in 1927, and had a lot of in-house stylists). Briggs designers did the ’35 and ’36 Fords (attributed to Phil Wright and Bob Koto, respectively) and the ’35 Chrysler Airstreams (also Phil Wright), and the Lincoln Zephyr originated as a Briggs project to court more Ford business. Even after the war, it wasn’t uncommon to turn to out-of-house teams. George Walker, Joe Oros, and Elwood Engel were technically consultants to Ford until 1955, and of course Nash commissioned Pinin Farina in the early fifties.
There were soooooo many pop culture jokes about the late-forties Studebakers. My favorite is a Jack Benny parody of the Bogart film Dark Passage, in which plastic surgeon Frank Nelson suggests that to change Jack’s appearance, he could put his glasses on the back of his head and make him look like a Studebaker.
In 1957 my dad managed to pick up a 46 stude. I think it was a champion. Endured a lot of ridicule while driving that sick turkey. It endures in my memory now because most people never had a studebaker, let alone as a first car. Sick as mine may have been, there was an old guy drag racing one of these that he had engineered a twin turbo on the OHV V8. I think it was a 51. I was real happy when we scraped the money together to get a 46 chevy. It lasted longer than it had a right to.
If you think these are nice, you’ll LOVE the 1953 Starlight Coupe.
I had a 1949 Studebaker Champion in the 50′s, and I believe it had a crank in the trunk, to start the car. Anyone remember the crank?
People remember different things but I had a 46 and do not remember any setup for hand cranking the engine. I know that I didn’t have a crank.
I owned a 1949 Studebaker Champion too but I sure do not remember a crank for that car. It had a starter under the clutch. I can remember a crank for a Model A Ford only.