Quick Digression: 1948 Jaguar Mark V

This beauty was parked outside of an athletic facility near my home. I was amazed to see a mint Jaguar Mark V in such a tight and unfriendly parking area.

"The car was launched at the 1948 London Motor Show at the same time as the XK120 with which it shared the stand. However, the Mark V vastly outsold the XK120 by roughly 5,000 cars per year as compared to 2,000 cars per year for the XK120."

Read more about the 1948 Jaguar Mark V at Wikipedia.

1953 Studebaker “Kart Hauler” - $65,500

This custom Studebaker made quite the splash in late 2009 and early 2010, winning many car show titles. It's a beautifully treated open-bed resto-mod by Dick Steinkamp - now owned by another Studebaker Drivers Club forum member - and available to you for $65,500.

View the 1953 Studebaker Kart Hauler on Hemmings.com.

Read the thread about this car on the SDC Forum.

A Poem for the Studebaker Avanti

This Studebaker Avanti sales film (video) reads like Shakespeare for the automobile. Love the overhead "jet air controls."

Quick digression: 1958 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce

A former professor of mine just finished a full rotisserie restoration of a 1958 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce. The car is beautiful and currently rides the roads of the Italian countryside. Photo below.

Read more about the 1958 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce here.

Studebaker - The Complete History

I received a great birthday present: Patrick Foster's "Studebaker: The Complete History." I'm enjoying the approachable writing style, great photos, quality paper stock, and hardback presentation.

From the author's website:

"Rife with triumph and tragedy, brilliant moves and boneheaded decisions, Studebaker's decades of building cars makes for a tempestuous saga featuring some of the more interesting characters in the twentieth-century business world. But, above all, the story features cars that, for countless Americans, truly defined driving: not just the Champion, which rocketed the company back to the top in 1939, or the 1950s Raymond Lowey-designed Starliner, deemed a "work of art" by the Museum of Modern Art, but also the Hawks and Larks that so many drivers loved."

See "Inside the Book" at Amazon.com.

View the author's website.

The Studebaker; Now That Was a Car

We talk a lot about MPG efficiency. Here's a comment by a former Studebaker Lark owner, as well as some history about Studebaker's forward-thinking electric vehicle - introduced 100-plus years ago.

"Back in 1960, I bought a Studebaker Lark V/8 and it delivered 28 miles per gallon. The cost? $1,950. Nowadays that wouldn't pay the taxes on these overpriced and overrated imported
wheel twirlers."

Read the comment about the Studebaker Lark in the Daily Record.

Little do people know that Studebaker created electric vehicles. "The Studebaker Electric was an automobile produced by the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company of South Bend, Indiana, a forerunner of the Studebaker Corporation. The battery-powered cars were sold from 1902 to 1912."

"By 1912, it became conventional wisdom that the future lay in gasoline-powered engines rather than heavy, sluggish electrics, and the limited production of electric cars stopped. An official announcement from the newly re-incorporated Studebaker Corporation stated: The production of electric automobiles at South Bend has ended. . . It has been conducted for nine years without much success, and ultimately the superiority of the gasoline car (is) apparent."

Read the article about the Studebaker Electric here.

Photo below of a 1902 Studebaker Electric Victoria Phaeton. Source: RemarkableCars.com

My Classic Car - TV - Studebakers

"My Classic Car" has an in-depth segment in Season 7, Episode 11, about the 38th Annual Studebaker Meet Up in South Bend, IN.

Click here to download the Podcast from iTunes.

December Drive - 1950 Studebaker Champion

57 degrees, crisp, clear, and beautiful today. The perfect weather for a drive in Sacramento, CA. Love the yellow Fall leaves.

1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk - $46,200

Milton Robson Auctions recently auctioned this 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk. It's a beautiful car, and it's nice to see a Stude sell for an amount commensurate with its place in auto history.

See more about this Studebaker Golden Hawk here.

"Old People Driving" Documentary - Studebaker

This film looks amazing.

"Shaleece Haas heard her grandfather tell the stories for years. How Milton Cavalli first drove a car, at age 9, in the 1920s. How he worked hard stacking wood to buy a car from an uncle at age 13. How the yellow Studebaker he drove across country, decades later, was mistaken for a cab when Cavalli tried to pick up Haas' grandmother at a hotel in New York."

"Haas documented her 97-year-old grandfather and 99-year-old Herbert Bauer as they struggled with the decision about whether they were too old to continue driving. In the film, Haas accompanies Bauer on his final spin as a driver. Cavalli, who owns three Model T's and a Saxon, is still behind the wheel."

Go to the "Old People Driving" website.

Read the full article on SFGate.com.

See the trailer below.

Old People Driving trailer (1:30) from Shaleece Haas on Vimeo.