My family had an attraction to automotive orphans. Detailing the strange array of my father’s cars, which included a supercharged Kaiser Manhattan (destroyed towing my grandmother’s piano), a Hudson Hornet, 1961 and 1964 Studebaker Larks, a Borgward, a Vauxhall, and an Anglia; my grandfathers REO, my aunt’s Rhea’s Studebaker Scotsman, or my uncle’s Packards is beyond the scope of what I can do justice to here.
But this familial tendency stuck well enough to have my father adopt (for $200 off at a local Pontiac dealer) a red 1964 Studebaker convertible six with three-on-the-tree manual transmission. The idea of a car like this had my enthusiastic assent, even though I would continue to use a 55 cc Suzuki for most of my personal transportation around town.The pictures added here are from the web, though honestly the are nearly identical to the original (obviously there was no “8” on the convertible fender)
When it arrived in our garage in the late summer there was a noticeable misfire from the 170 CID OHV engine. Dad was a good mechanic and he determined this was due to a bad valve. Unfortunately the actual problem on disassembly turned out to be a cracked head (I discovered this was a common problem). When this arrangement worked it was supposedly good for 112 hp, and 102 mph at Bonneville (at least for Andy Granatelli and his team).
However, when it failed there was the problem of tracking down a usable replacement by a series of phone calls and personal leads all over the state of Connecticut (remember, there was a time before the internet). After actually tracking one down, a trip to a machine shop and a lesson in reassembly (borrowed a torque wrench) with my father the car was ready for its “first” run on Christmas morning.
The day was sunny, cold and snow free. Whoever had owned it before me had either terrible taste in cigars or had let something expire in there because the smell was (to put it gently) unique. This was a fine excuse to put the top down (manually, the electric motors never did work) and drive around with the AM radio blasting WDRC. In the secular time I grew up in, this felt like the spirit of Christmas right up to the last corner, when a third-gear shift revealed there was no third gear anymore. No jimmying or double clutching could change that the transmission had effectively expired.
Needless to say, coming up with a Borg-Warner T96 transmission was another exercise in pre-internet ingenuity, and with the help of a local garage the car was running again after New Year’s (I didn’t drive cars for my own use much, so except for the cost it was no great inconvenience). My first real trip was to a ski area 30 miles away, which got me 24 MPG for the only time. It took a long time before I topped 70 and I actually dared 80+ while testing a mixture of gas ether and methanol we mixed up.
The engine/transmission combination was odd by modern standards in that first gear pulled like a tractor (I once beat a VW bug off the line for the first 10 feet), but given the engine torque, second gear was OK to start in if you played the clutch a bit. No tach, but an aftermarket vacuum gauge, although this was pretty irrelevant since the low RPM and tall 7.75×15 tires allowed fairly relaxed highway cruising with little chance of over revving. There were full gauges with red backlighting, and reclining red vinyl bench seats. My classmates ribbing notwithstanding, this was a memorable first ride. Research at the time indicated that our particular combination (convertible six) included only 74 others like it, and recent research shows about 19% of this model are still on the road (most are V-8 powered).
image: oldparkedcars.com
While I didn’t drive a car much for personal use, practicality required a more serviceable vehicle for college commuting (motorcycle commuting in winter can be bit dicey). This got me into a 1966 Studebaker Cruiser (283 V-8, disc brakes and automatic transmission), which obviously wasn’t the fun of a convertible (well there was that Sly and the family Stone concert road trip), but nowhere near the work and a lot more reliable heat.
image: oldparkedcars.com
It served me very well (a rocker arm squeak, stuck disc caliper and electronic ignition repair were the big items to fix over two years) and the parts situation stayed interesting. On a search for some (now forgotten) part I was directed to what was supposed to be a junkyard but only appeared to be a small group of men standing by a flooded pond. When I asked one of them directions he told me to wait and a minute later a scuba diver surfaced,cleared his regulator and asked me what I needed. He then submerged to return in five minutes with the answer “not here”(the yard was riverside and it was flood season).
Another time I found a pair of F-60 studded snow tires and got them mounted on the (probably inappropriate) stock rims and it served as the Police Department runabout while the stock cars were having chains mounted (Thanksgiving day–not a good time to get that done). I guess it’s best to be 18 when these sort of things happen…they seem like fun in retrospect.
Please tell me you’re kidding about the flooded junkyard. Junkyards are often weird places but that story takes the prize!
When I grew up, in a very small rural Pennsylvania town, only 1 family (that I remember) had any Studebakers. That one family had 2 or 3 different Hawks/Golden Hawks. The only other Studebakers I would see outside of car shows would be the very occasional sighting in a junkyard. That was 50 years ago…I can’t imagine trying to find parts in the 70s or 80s.
The story about the junkyard is true-it was on the north side of Hartford as I recall, near the Connecticut river.
One would think that after being submerged in water, some parts would no longer be serviceable. Great story though!
Was that on the river (east) side of I-91?
I’ve been to a yard or two there, but never during the spring thaw.
An exultation of Larks.Is that like a bevy of birds or a gaggle of geese? Seriously,a good article on a car that should have done much better in sales. America`s “foreign car”.
Short answer, yes, although it should be “Exaltation of Larks.” An exaltation of larks is a poetic comment on the climb of the skylark high into the sky while uttering its twittering song. Not so much in everyday use, but a cute title for this engaging story. One of my driver training cars in high school in 1963 was a Studebaker Daytona, I believe, not altogether a bad vehicle, as I recall, but had kind of a nerdy cachet to it.
My bad; The author originally wrote it “Exhaltation of Larks”, which didn’t look quite right. So instead of googling it, I turned it into “Exultation”. Both ‘exaltation’ and ‘exultation’ mean about the same thing, but I didn’t get the literary reference. I’ve corrected the title now.
The last 2 models years (’64-66) the Larks were better – improved styling and much nicer interiors. But didn’t they still have the problem of a frame that flexed too much, dating back to 1953?
The flooded junkyard and SCUBA diver sounds like a scene from an entertainingly peculiar movie.
Perhaps Norman Bates had a sideline money stream for when the hotel business was slow 🙂
Yeah, reading the article I was thinking, “Now who would direct this movie?”.
I love the Kaiser being written off by granny’s piano. Presumably they were towing it on its casters with a rope, and she was playing it at the time.
Between that and the “Kaiser Manhattan (destroyed towing my grandmother’s piano)” line, I was thinking the same thing.
“We went down to the junkyard, and asked the scuba diver there if he could bring up a window crank for my Lark convertible. We’d have driven my dad’s Kaiser Manhattan, but he’d destroyed it towing my grandmother’s piano.”
About a year ago, a coworker snapped a horrible picture of a blue 64 Stude vert, top down, parked outside of a sporting goods store. I have been looking for it since.
Whatever happened to yours? Or are you keeping us in suspense for the sequel? 🙂
That was interesting, Dave.
The Lark convertible is just cute.
The underwater junk yard has two big advantages: the theft rate should be very low, all parts will be washed.
Keeping inventory might be difficult though. Pulling an engine might take a few extra minutes.
The final Studebaker sedans had an awkward roofline to my eye. Amazing what being a convertible can do for a car – kind of like the K car convertible that was also spawned from boxy sedans.
What a contrast in this dash to the awkward and cheap looking one in the ’62 Plymouth yesterday. Proof that individual cars have their strengths, the Plymouth had good space utilazation and handling and this has quality bits that the Plymouth only dreamed of.
Don’t forget these Lark owners.
I spotted a Lark convertible at Bob’s Big Boy during cruise night a few months ago. It had the supercharged 289 Stude V8 from the factory. How rare must THAT be???
The engine…
Studebakers were once a very popular car here a friend has the sales records from the local dealers going back to the 20s they sold many, Finding parts for orphan cars is entertaining but Ive found sources for either Citroen or Hillman parts and can get anything overnight, the interweb helps immensely but I sold a fairly serviceable Dodge years ago because even a dealer couldnt be found never mind the parts it needed.
I recall my father’s eldest brother coming over to the ex-WW11 Ardmore Aerodrome (where my day was a pilot) in the very early ’60’s (i was still sucking my thumb and had a soft toy best friend at that time lol) ..anyway my father was grudgingly impressed with the guy’s brand spankers new Studebaker Hawk.. he had imported it somehow using ‘overseas funds’ my father said .. it was right hand drive (ex-Canada?) ..and he made a big fuss of the ‘Ford engine’ he was claiming it had (an early Windsor 289??)
It was shiny white with a vivid bright red all-over interior … and looked amazingly smart (next to my dad’s little company car, a weak yucky light green ’57 Minx)
So, by 1964 (two or three years later) my dad did the same thing (somehow) and imported ex-Aussi a brand new ‘overseas funds’ Ford Falcon Wagon in pale silver green metallic with a white roof and two-tone green fabric/plastic interior.. the thing that impressed me most was the all-over BRIGHT FIRE ENGINE RED ‘Pursuit 170’ engine ..i think it was 111 horsepower .. wow (the Minx was only about 48 horsepower, right?)
The next year i bugged him to get the BEST engine in the range (the 121 horsepower ‘Super Pursuit 200’ engine) ..he did !!!! That one was in pale silver blue metallic with a white roof and even came with an electric tailgate window . . it was also the first year that Ford Australia fitted a 3 speed automatic box (a Borg Warner unit that gave a lot of trouble under warrantee with nasty graunching sounds ..imm
🙂
My favourite years for the Studebaker Lark are the 1959 through 1961 years, and the 1964 through 66 years.
The story about the flooded junkyard reminds me of O Brother, Where Art Thou? Probably was dang near impossible to see anything down there.
The irony is, 60s Studebakers probably enjoy the best NOS parts support of any orphan. When Studie pulled out of South Bend in 63, they sold a big warehouse full of parts, which have been available from then to now. When I went to the “Motor Muster” at Greenfield Village in 06, I talked with the owner of a wonderful 64 Daytona Convert. He built an entire front clip out of NOS parts when restoring the car.
When were you driving this car ?
The Nutmet Chapter of the Studebaker Drivers Club has always been fairly strong, and the SDC has been providing Studebaker Owners with good contacts
for parts since its founding in the rear of Tony Caralla’s Garage in the Bronx in 1962.
[ Tony started working for Studebaker in 1928, picking parts in the Harlem warehouse where they wheeled through on ROLLERSKATES. It was soon discovered that he had memorized every part number in the Studebaker inventory, so they put him on the parts counter desk instead.]
1970 as far as I remember. 50 years tend to put a patina on our memories.
These were a common sight in Israel of the 60s and the 70s, having been assembled in Haifa by Kaiser-Ilyn; in fact, the last ever new Larks were registered in Israel. Most were sixes but there was the odd V8 too. And we had a couple of unique local models, including the rarest of all Lark convertibles, the one-off presidential 4 door. There was also a limo/cab model. When Studebaker stopped producing cars the Israeli factory considered continuing with production and built a prototype which looked like a weird crodd between the US Sceptre prototype and a BMW 2000 CS… Alas, it came to nothing.
The 67 prototype I mentioned…
“…my father’s cars, which included a supercharged Kaiser Manhattan (destroyed towing my grandmother’s piano…”
You MUST tell us about how that happened.
That struck me too… the mind boggles.
Nice little car .
Frost & French was the lone surviving Studebaker Dealer in Los Angeles for decades , I wonder what ever happened to them ? .
Acme Auto paint is the very worst ~ almost as bad as house paint .
-Nate
Re:the drowned junkyard-it was on the east side of I-91 next to the river,The story of the Kaiser is second hand but my fathers explanation was plausible-Old route 6 from Wilkes-Barre to Hartford had some long hills and the required horsepower to keep moving fast needed a lot more boost and RPM than the engine could keep putting out over a long trip
Nice story. Got a soft spot in my heart (head?) for Larks, for the very first car I ever rode in was a ’60 Lark lwb ex-cab my dad bought at auction.
My first car was a 62 Lark 2 door with the OHV six and automatic with 36K miles on it. I bought it from an AMC dealer that had been a studebaker dealer before the company went under. I think I paid 500 for it. It lasted me though highschool and college. Rust and a cracked head was end of its use. Here is a photo of it at the end. It had been setting for sometime at this point.
Remember Frost & French so well. Walter Bibens was the manager and really took care of my ’66 Daytona whenever I brought it in. Miss all those guys there and even ran into designer Raymond Lowey, one day, getting his Avanti serviced.