Automotive designers voted the ’53 Stude coupes and hardtops (Starliners) as a top contender for the most beautifully designed cars of the 1950’s. They should know. So well proportioned are they that it is hard to take a bad picture of them. The elegant styling was said to have made other contemporary cars look 10 years older!
The body has been used for decades for cars making record-breaking speed runs at Bonneville Salt Flats and even now is used for cars serious about winning the vintage class in recent Carrera PanAmericana road races in Mexico!
Mine, being a Champion model, and very much in “stock” form, has a flathead Studebaker 6 cylinder with a Borg-Wagner 3 speed manual transmission with overdrive. It also has tinted glass and a very handy “Hill Holder”, both optional. It is an extensive body-off restoration of a California car (at the time, Studebaker had an assembly plant in Vernon, CA). Studebaker also made these cars with the same bodies, but with a Studebaker V8 – named “Commander” models.
They caused a sensation in the market at the time and some 78,000 were sold in this, their first year despite a production delay. They became the basis for the later “Hawk” series of models, also remembered well by many classic car fans. Studebaker fans are well served by the 9000-member Studebaker Drivers Club. There are also specialty clubs for Avanti and pre-war models. The factory’s parts warehouses were sold to entrepreneurs in the old car hobby and 3 are still operating today, each with more than 20,000 numbers in stock (and there are many, many other “local enthusiast” vendors, some also with significant inventories, making parts procurement better than many other makes)!
We like to drive our Champion to cruise nites and weekend shows throughout the region as time and weather allow.
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