More CAMBER Photographs

1948 Tucker - Worth Its Own Post

A friend sent me an amazing set of photographs taken by a good samaritan who helped a Tucker driver get back on the road.

"We were driving back from Las Vegas when we came upon a mint-condition '48 Tucker having tire problems. A tire was not flat, but starting to come apart. We followed him to an abandoned gas station in Yermo, Ca. to get out of the desert sun and helped him change the tire. During the process I got some great photos of a great car."

Read the full story here and see all of the photographs.

Quick Digression - Tucker

From the NY Times:

What’s a Tucker Cost? "Last month Tucker No. 1041 brought $765,000 at an estate sale by the Clars Auction Gallery in Oakland, Calif. It had been owned by Bev Ferreira, who bought it in 1970 for $5,000."

Read the full article and watch the slide show.

Image from BusinessWeek.com.

Studebaker Meet: Cedar Rapids, IA

There are Studebakers in the Heartland this week as members of the Studebaker Drivers Club descend on Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Here are a few press mentions about the event:

"It's taken a lot of work," says Chairman Alan Meeker. "We started planning for this four years ago."

"More than 500 Studebakers of every model year and style are registered for the event. And it's not just drawing interest from Iowans. People from across the U.S and six countries are planning to attend. "More of them are going to come out of the woodwork that you didn't know were here. I'm hearing more and more just here locally that are just coming out, just for this purpose," says Studebaker owner Kevin Roberts."

Nice video clip from CGRG TV

Iowa Radio article

The Gazette Online article

Other articles found through Google News.

$50 Studebaker Champion Turned into a Collectible

"Pushed against a corner was a Champion Starlight Coupe with a wraparound rear window. “This is the car that Bob Hope made the jokes about, that you couldn’t tell if it was going forward or backward,” he said. “It’s a bullet-nose Starlight Coupe, which is the combination you want. You could only get a car like this in ’50 or ’51."

Mr. Shiller said he found the car on a vacant lot in Amagansett, on the eastern reaches of Long Island, that used to be the Studebaker dealership DiSunno Motors.

“Of course they were no longer in existence,” he said. “And the guy who had it said, ‘Give me 50 bucks.’ So I pulled it out of there for 50 bucks. It wasn’t running but I got it running right away.

“It was a big mistake,” he continued. “When I first started working on it, I would get ticks. I had to actually fumigate the car.”"

Read the full article on the NY Times website.

First Annual Drive Your Studebaker Day

I prepared with a 45 minute cruise yesterday. Today, my five year-old accompanied me on a tour of a few local parks and areas in Sacramento, CA, including: Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown, and Downtown. "Doc" performed well and is now parked proudly in the driveway for all passers-by to see.

I was wary of driving as far as Grass Valley, but appreciated the invite by the Karel Stapel chapter of the SDC.

1955 Studebaker Vista Cruiser Deluxe

1955 Studebaker Vista Cruiser Deluxe that I owned from 1971 – 1978.

"After two years I felt like upgrading the engine. I was a member of the Studebaker club at the time, so I was able to find a brand new inline 6 engine for $500. It ran so quiet you had to open the hood to see the fan blade turning to know that it was running. It had fog lamps, fender spears, hill holder (to stop on a hill and take your foot off the brake to push the clutch) and overdrive. The radio worked. All I did was buff it and wax it."

See the full article here.

Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk in Fatal Crash

"A car connected the two, a grandson's way of saying thanks to his grandmother.

Now, the grandson, David Kahn, 40, of Moline, is fighting for his life at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, and his grandmother, Julie Hogan, 86, with whom he lived, is dead.

On Saturday, the two left Moline for a car show in Pontiac, driving his prized 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk. The two were also to celebrate David's 40th birthday, which was Monday.

They were on Interstate 39 in La Salle County shortly after 3 p.m when the fatal crash occurred. Relatives said they've been told by authorities the driver of another vehicle, Julia Hoffman, 49, of Rockford, crossed the median going the other way and went airborne toward Kahn's Studebaker.

Kahn allegedly swerved to avoid the airborne car and went airborne himself into a ditch area before landing nose down. Hoffman was released from the hospital on Monday.

The car they were driving in (Friday), Davey's grandfather bought the frame, and he and his grandfather built it from the frame up," McMahill said. "It's a very near and dear vehicle."

Read the full article is here.

An example of a '62 Gran Turismo Hawk

6 Degrees of Separation: Studebaker, Mercedes, Audi

Interesting tie between Studebaker and Mercedes by the Automotive Traveler. Here's an excerpt and link to the full article.

"But at the time, less than 20 years after the end of the Second World War, Mercedes-Benz was a fairly small player in the US market. Its distribution rights for the United States were in the hands of the most famous marque in South Bend, Studebaker in an agreement that dated all the way back in 1958, when the South Bend firm went by the name corporate name of Studebaker-Packard. As this 1962 ad for this the then new 220SE coupe clearly shows, Mercedes-Benz cars were distributed in the US by Mercedes-Benz Sales, Inc., South Bend, Indiana (A Subsidiary of Studebaker-Packard Corporation.)

(As Packard was discontinued, Mercedes-Benz partially filled the premium car void in the showroom of some Studebaker dealers. Unfortunately as Mercedes-Benz was growing in sales in the US, Studebaker was declining. In fact less than five years after this Auto Union-DKW ad ran in the pages of Road & Track, Studebaker was gone from the automotive scene.)"

Read the full article on The Automotive Traveler.