Seeing this Lark always brings a smile to my face. I’ve seen it before, but finally nabbed it. It’s from another world; well, it actually does look like it could have been from Europe or such, as its size, shape and details just aren’t very typically American. An alternate-reality Ultra Minx or Morris Worcestershire.
Its rear compartment looks out of proportion to the front, something that happened a year earlier with the Lark Cruiser. For ’62, it was across the board for the four door sedans, with a 113″ wheelbase, to the two door’s 109 inches. Makes for a nice bump in rear leg room, which was actually quite welcome, given the high floor on these.
It looks so petite in today’s traffic.
That 2nd photo is really beautiful with the car in sharp focus and the background diffused. Could be a magazine ad!
Actually, Studebaker used this same technique in some of their publicity photos, but I think yours looks even better!
Great pictures, Paul! The 2nd shot side view really shows the odd proportions, but in the last photo it looks pretty good.
The direct side profile shot is definitely ‘not’ the best photographic angle on these, since the Champion center-section with lopped-off front and rear can be clearly seen.
With that said, it’s admirable how the owner has obviously taken great care of his old car, right down to the OEM hubcaps and whitewall tires. It would be right at home at the Studebaker museum in South Bend.
In fact, one of the more curious things about the museum is the dearth of Larks. The last time I was there (admittedly years ago), it was one of the things I noticed. IIRC, there was one, or maybe two, Larks on display. Odd, considering there were things like Avanti 4-door prototype shells out on the floor. I would have thought something like the Lark-based Sceptre concept car (which can be seen stored away and collecting dust in the basement) would be a much better display.
Larks aren’t very distinguished cars. Aside from a few glamorous convertibles and factory hot rods, there’s not much to be said for them, and they don’t reflect well on Studebaker. They were the last gasp of a dying transportation manufacturing business. It’s the reverse of a neoclassic like Clenet or Excalibur: ancient bones under a halfassed attempt to keep up with current styling trends. The Lark is important as an artifact of a turbulent and interesting story about a business, but it’s one of the poorest products in the 100+ year manufacturing history of the Studebaker Corporation. The Studebaker National Museum is a member-funded institution that celebrates the best of Studebaker; the Lark mostly isn’t.
Distinguished or not, Larks are a significant part of the last few years of Studebaker auto production. The Studebaker National Museum can display whatever it wants to, but it seems like mostly ignoring the primary product of their last years is not a good idea. Part of imparting the love of a car marque to later generations is being able to point to an example on the museum floor and telling family stories about it. The later cars are more likely to elicit such stories from visitors, precisely because more of the visitors have first-hand stories to tell (a simple function of the age of the visitors and the age of the cars).
Beyond that, the last few years of auto production at Studebaker is a fascinating story of what happened, and of what might-have-been. Actual examples of the cars produced, at the time, are a great jumping-off point for telling the stories and sharing the details of what happened. I have no idea what the mission or the goals of the SNM might be, but a quick look at the various Studebaker discussions around CC, suggests that some of the most interesting and thoughtful posts and threads emanate from the Lark era.
I believe that the Hershey car museum (AACA Museum) had a Studebaker show last year and when I was there (it was DeSoto time by then) the Sceptre was still there on display, left over I think from that show. I can’t imagine it stuffed away somewhere collecting dust. I doubt that it was Lark based, but was a whole new thing. It would have been about time, since the last Studebaker was still a multi times done over 1953 model, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that had a lot of 1947 in it.
Sceptre chat:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/concept-classic-studebaker-sceptre-the-thunderbird-from-south-bend/
I was there a couple of years ago and there were a couple of Larks on display, including a police cruiser, and the Sceptre was on the main floor. The wagon concept was in the basement, along with the crazy cab forward truck that’s all right angles.
Imagine this car in a medium gray and it would have been my great-Uncle’s last car. It was the only Studebaker I can remember ever having experience with before I became an adult. My great-Uncle passed in 1970, when I was about seven years old. When the family was going through his possessions, my oldest brother who was 17 at the time, was asked if he would like to have the Studebaker, he said no thanks.
My brother was lots of things, but he was not a motorhead. There were some cars that impressed him, but obviously not the Stude. I remember my late teens, if someone had offered me a car, any car at 17 I may have taken it. But my brother was what I like to call “mechanically reclined” as I’m more mechanically inclined… I guess it was too old-man for him and he refused it. OTOH, an seven to eight year old car in the early 1970’s was usually pretty used up, too.
I don’t recall if the car saw daily use (my great-Uncle had retired some time before his passing), but even as a young child I could see the car had rust issues. It was a real event for a passenger car to exceed 100K miles in civilian duty. Most folks would trade off before 50K miles back then, and even if you desired to keep it going, it was probably going to need to a fair amount of $$’s to keep in on the road.
Maybe my brother was wiser than I thought.
Fun to see the old car. Whatever its design, it was unique and did not follow the crowd.
They couldn’t afford to.
Excellent pan photography. If these are with your phone, you did a great job with a quick shutter speed. Great focus.
I’m glad to see you had an apparently nice sunny day, I keep hearing about the wildfires in your part of the world.
This was shot a few months back. But our skies are mostly clear now, depending on how the wind is blowing.
True confessions: I used tilt-shift on the second shot. That’s what makes the background blurry. I just clicked with my iphone.
The next year’s model (1963) had a redesigned midsection that slimmed up the window frames, ditched the fishbowl windshield and rear window, and pushed the A pillar forward. It did wonders for its proportions and made the car look considerably more modern.
I’m sure you meant 1962 rather than 1963 as the year they went to the long wheelbase for all 4 door sedans. For ’63, they went to the long wheelbase for wagons as well.
Typo. Yes, 1962.
Interesting take that the Lark had more european styling, as that could also explain why it didn’t really go over as well as it might have. The USA was really into American Iron, and while there were imports, they sold to a much smaller, more discriminating crowd.
I don’t have much seat time in one, and that would have been about 50 years ago, when my Aunt had one. My cousin and I were close, and I spent more than a few hours riding in that car. And although I remember it as being spartan, it was not much more spartan than any other compact of the day, what with my Grandpa having a 1960 Valiant and being in more than a few Falcons. I think the Corvair was about the only one I don’t remember riding in, actually. Odd. But the Corvair was influential on Euro designs, while this Lark seemed to mimic the Europeans. And which sold more?
It makes for a good ponder….
I often wonder whether Studebaker was more successful in export markets that in the US. Here in Australia there seemed to be quite a few around – the Victoria Police even used them as pursuit vehicles – and it came across as a more ‘sensibly-sized’ American car, like the Rambler. Or like what they all used to be in the early fifties, before they bloated themselves out of the market.
They were certainly much more common than the pre-Lark Studebakers; I only saw one ’54 and a ’58 growing up in Melbourne. Australians’ increasing affluence through the sixties is probably a contributing factor though.
I often wonder whether Studebaker was more successful in export markets that in the US.
Studebaker exported fairly actively, but in terms of their total output numbers it certainly was just a small fraction of what they sold domestically.
Just watched Motherless Brooklyn, and the cars were the best part of the film. Like this one, identified on IMCDB as a 1960 Lark Regal.
The CC effect is at work here, as within the last 48 hours my idle mind was occupied with trying to pick my least favorite Studebaker. The 62 Lark won. There is something about the styling of this car that has never worked for me, and the interiors were quite uninspired as well.
But. What a great sighting in the wild. And as others have noted, the photography came out particularly well.
I’d have to mull that over a bit.
What’s odd about the ’62 is that they tooled up a new rear door and rear window to use for just one year. I suppose they reused the lower half of the rear door in ’63, but still.
It’s definitely an odd ball.
“Champion of the Lark” gets very specific about tooling budgets and decisions as Studebaker vehicle manufacturing circled the drain, as recorded in meetings of the board of directors. After the diversification program was decided upon, vehicle manufacturing was strictly year to year. There was no consideration of vehicle tooling as an investment to be recovered over multiple years, even for fundamental investments like new engines planned for 1962; vehicle manufacturing would have operated at a loss for 1962, so the new engines weren’t tooled.
The ’63 had a one-year-only rear door too, at least the top half, as well as a one-year-only rear window. It’s the most European-looking year of Larks.
It’s the rear wheel arch that kills it for me – that straight trailing edge just looks weird. The rest of the design I could live with, but if I had a ’62 I think I’d have to take it to the body shop and get that arch reprofiled.
“that straight trailing edge just looks weird.”
I would like it better if it were straight, but it actually moves upward toward the rear of the car – a design feature that was always like fingernails on the chalkboard to me. Those rear fenders stuck with us all the way to the very end, unfortunately.
But the 62 is the worst of all – it retained that crease that moved downward from the front fender into the driver’s door. The chrome strip along the side has to resolve the downward line from the front into an upward line heading to the rear – it makes the car look swaybacked from the side, like those rusty old Ford pickups that sag where the front of the cab meets the doghouse.
There’s certainty a bit of Hillman Minx in that Lark, or maybe the the way around. Loewy had a hand in both, IIRC. Door frame shapes, rear quarter, roof line, tailfin profile.
But that rear wheel/C pillar interface is not happy at all. Almost aftermarket mod awkward.
Never much of a Stude fan, but the original Lark, with all the mid-fifties appendages cut off, was an appealing looking car. I watched as the ’59 gradually got bigger and bigger on the outside, while keeping the 1953 bones. I think a ’59 with the Land Cruiser wheelbase and back seat room would have been decent transportation. Did they not make a taxi like that?
Yes, there was a long wheelbase Lark in 59-60 trimmed for taxi use. The long wheelbase body was available in 61 as the Lark Cruiser with upscale trim and interior.
Studebaker owned the US distribution franchise for Mercedes-Benz at the time. The Stuttgart influence on the grille is most obvious, but really the whole package is much like a Heckflosse Benz, although lacking in technical sophistication under the skin. The 1963 facelift is even more Benzlike.
Studebaker started using the upright classic grille on the Hawk in 1956, two years before it had anything to do with MBZ.
Brooks Stevens didn’t need to be looking at a Mercedes in order to restyle the Lark. It clearly shows the same direction he had been taking for several years on his other styling projects. As in Jeep Wagoneer, along with others.
It’s not like it’s friggin PERFECT too!
I love Morris Worcestershire. I might have to borrow that one.
Funny indeed!
Actually it was Austin after the war that started naming their cars after the English counties – but then they took aim at the Morris Oxford with their Austin Cambridge. For those who aren’t English, that’s akin to Ford having a Harvard and Chevy brings out a competitor called the Yale.
Plenty of good county names never got used. I’m partial to Shropshire myself.
Beautiful shots Paul! New phone?
Nope. Same old iphone SE I bought used some time ago. Ancient, in other words.