We haven’t had a Studebaker on CC for a while, so let’s take a look at this early Sixties version that was recently posted to the Cohort. If it’s trying to hide, it’s not working very well…
It appears to be a 1962 Lark. According to That Guy 1960, the photo was “taken in 2002 using one of those early Sony digital cameras that used 3 and 1/2 inch floppy discs.” Considering this ’62 is a four door sedan and was in pretty tatty shape ten years ago, it is likely no longer with us. Too bad, as the 1962 Larks were really sharp.
I think that the 62 is my least favorite of all of the Larks and Lark derivatives. The early Larks were straight up Larks. The 63 and especially 64-66 were real attempts to modernize and update the cars (albeit on a tight budget). The 62 was sort of halfway between – too much Lark to be a “real car” and too gussied up to be a real Lark.
All that said, I would happily take ownership of one (although I would prefer one a little nicer than this one). But maybe a rusty Stude is the best of all, so that maybe I would not feel quite so bad seeing rust advancing on one that is already far gone. All I ask is a V8 to avoid the troubled ohv 6.
The 1962 Lark redesign represented Studebaker’s attempt to go upmarket and compete more directly against the highly successful Rambler Classic. It might have worked (at least for a while) if Studebaker had invested more in updating the Lark’s body. Instead they dumped a boatload of money in the Avanti, which — despite its remarkable styling — turned out to be a sales disaster.
Actually, as I understand it, the Avant’s cost was minimal – that’s how Egbert got the board, which had other aims, to sign off on it.
The board’s other aims, was diversification and divestiture. Instead of updating the Lark or planning serious new models, Studebaker, formerly Studebaker-Packard, formerly Packard-buying-Studebaker…
…was busily buying Gravely, Onan, the company that became STP, and American Locomotive, ALCO. Some of those and other purchases worked out; others, like ALCO, did not.
But the direction was set. When Egbert took ill, it sealed the fate…of the South Bend plant, the Avanti, the Studebaker marque, and in the end the company itself.
Egbert’s replacement, Byers Burlingame, was charged with one mission: Dissolve Studebaker automotive operations without any ugly residual lawsuits. Through the Canadian subterfuge and intentionally-abandoned model development, he did exactly that, in two years.
Automotive historian Richard Langworth has written that the Avanti project cost around $3.5 million. Others have noted that the cost ended up being much higher than initially projected because of serious production difficulties with the Avanti’s fiberglass body.
That’s a tiny amount of money by Big Three standards, but it could have nevertheless bought more rapid design upgrades for the Lark.
This Stoudy conjures this image:
It probably still there, but in the form of a hedge.
I used to walk by that neglected Stude nearly every day, and I could never figure out if it was something that was done on purpose as some sort of artistic statement, or if it was merely a neglected old car. I don’t make it to the neighborhood where this pic was taken very often nowadays, but I’m going to have to go back and take another look some time soon. Back when I took that photo, my Sony Mavica camera was state-of-the-art. People would always ask, is that a DIGITAL camera? Now, I can get better pictures with my three-year-old BlackBerry.
Please do. I’d be interested to see if it’s still there.
I remember using what must have been a Sony Mavica back around 1997-98 (did any other digital cameras have a floppy disk drive?). There were cameras with a memory card available but they could only hold as many photos as roughly 4 3.5″ disks, and cost $100 for a card – as much as 6-8 boxes of floppy disks. I would carry a box of 10 disks. Then later having a 1MP camera…
It’s quite funny as so many people either don’t remember these, or can’t imagine such a thing. Or these days have never seen/used a floppy disk…
I always just used the floppy discs, too. That was back when I was getting two or three floppy discs a month from AOL, and it was easy enough to erase them and use them as camera film.
Grandpa had one of these, in brown. It replaced a 53 BelAir. I hated being seen in the Stude. That brand’s time had already passed. It only lasted him three years, as he traded it in on a ’65 Plymouth. We can look at the styling now and try to like it in some “classical” way. I cant. Any ’62 Ford or GM product was far better looking at the time.
Remember when I was around 6 or 7 years old and a good friend of mine’s dad bought one of these. Now in those days it took a lot to buy just a Rambler, but a Studebaker? Now you had to be over the edge and gone to go and do something like that. We just sat there in speechless awe, he had actually gone and bought a Studebaker! I think we all offered to let him come live with OUR family…..
Here in the Detroit area, there’s a sub-genre of the ruin porn pictures that documents abandoned houses that have been overrun by vines and the beginnings of trees. They’re known as “feral houses”. Here we see the beginning of a “feral car”.
It’s the house’s response to this guy driving by.