Studebakers on Good Day Sacramento

Sacramento, CA, Studebakers will be on display at the 2009 California State Fair. Good Day Sacramento interviewed a few Karel Staple Chapter Studebaker owners about their cars and trucks. See the video clip on the right-hand side of the screen at the link below.

See the full 3-plus minute clip on Good Day Sacramento.

Amphicar?

"... Amphicar, the only civilian amphibious passenger automobile ever mass-produced. There were 3,878 Amphicars built in Germany from 1961 to 1968, and 90 percent of them were exported to the United States."

See the Sacramento Bee article about the Amphicar here.

Photo: LEZLIE STERLING / lsterling@sacbee.com

Studebaker Pace Car - Indy 500

"What the heck is a Studebaker Lark doing as the pace car of one of the fastest races in 'Merica? Well, initially the Stude-ly compact was not the intended choice. The much faster Avanti was to set the pace but wasn't finished in time. Thus was born one of the stranger Indy 500 pace cars in recent memory."

See all "Twelve Awesome Pace Cars" at Jalopnik.com.

Are the Days of the Classic Car Over?

MSNBC asks if the days of 'the classic car' are over, i.e., are there any cars made today that are worth saving for the future? I wonder if restoration of a modern car will be possible 25 years from now ... considering how much plastic and computer equipment goes into a modern car. Will a NOS Toyota Prius battery pack be available in 25 years? Probably not.

"There are a lot of reasons the classic car culture may fade. While modern versions of muscle cars such as the Camaro and Corvette retain a good deal of their aesthetic appeal, the design concerns of the contemporary carmaker — including government safety regulations regarding crash readiness and a car's aerodynamic profile — can lead to visual similarity across models."

"This is gone," said Beller, 68, sweeping his hand across a parking lot along the cruise's Woodward Avenue route, where 100 other classic cars were lined up. "This is gone forever."

Read the full article on MSNBC.com.

1958 Studebaker President

I service my Studebaker at Porter-Sprague, Inc. in Sacramento, CA; they've been around since 1917. There's another shop that I eye as well and that's John Ellis & Son in midtown; they've been around since 1927.

"For 80 years, John Ellis Garage has been a permanent fixture in midtown Sacramento. John Ellis opened his garage in 1927, after working as a mechanic for the W.I. Elliott Company, which sold star cars during the twenties. John Ellis was so good to his customers that many of his customers followed him to his new garage where they continued to have their car repaired for over half a century."

Here are a few pictures of the 1958 Studebaker President parked outside of John Ellis garage.

1958 Studebaker President - More Photographs

Father of industrial design?

An interesting article on the SF Examiner website about Raymond Loewy. The article contains pictures of Loewy automobiles that I'd not seen before.

"Raymond Loewy coined the term "industrial designer" in the 1930s. His first car design was an aerodynamic re-style of the fading Hupmobile brand. This brought him to the attention of Studebaker who hired him to redesign their line for the 1939 model year. Loewy's designs had a light, trim, airy look that was years ahead of the thick and doughy style of most contemporary cars."

Read the full article about Raymond Loewy and Studebaker.

CAMBER Cruise in the Sacramento Bee

File under funny and fun. My daughter and I were featured in the Sunday (August 2, 2009) Sacramento Bee re: the CAMBER cruise. The Bee writer enjoyed my explanation of drive-ins to my five year-old; her reply was that the whole idea of a drive-in was "silly."

Link to the full Sacramento Bee article. Image below.

CAMBER Cruise 2009 Photographs

The California Automobile Museum's Big Event on the Road (CAMBER) Cruise took place yesterday in Sacramento, CA's, Midtown/Downtown area. I spotted a '55 Studebaker Commander from the Karel Staple Chapter and a Studebaker Hawk that's been hanging around the John Ellis garage on 19th Street. There were many other amazing cars on display - more than 150 in total.

A few pictures are below.

More CAMBER Photographs