A Studebaker Romance Lasts Half a Century

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Dan Talbot bought his first Studebaker from his father. It was a 1951 Commander, and it was the car in which Dan Talbot and his bride, Geri, took their honeymoon.

Half a century later, the Talbots celebrated their 50th anniversary with a second honeymoon trip, this one in yet another Studebaker, a 1957 Golden Hawk that Dan had bought new, taking delivery at the Studebaker factory in South Bend, Ind., and driving the car back to his home in Salt Lake City.

Through the years, Talbot, who moved from Utah to the Phoenix area in 1963, has owned several Studebakers, and had two of them on display here March 28, 2009 at the annual “March Madness” Studebaker Gathering staged by the Grand Canyon State Chapter of the Studebaker Driver’s Club.

Talbot brought both his nicely restored ’57 Golden Hawk with its Sweepstakes 289 V8 engine, and his recreation of a 1902 Studebaker Runabout, an electric vehicle that, while a recreation, he wanted to be as authentic as possible so he had it built using the seat, axles and suspension from a 1905 Studebaker buggy, with wood from the same trees as the Studebakers’ original suppliers, and with more than century-old barn boards as a base for the vehicle’s seat.

Henry and Clem Studebaker established their black smith shop in South Bend in 1852 and soon started building wagons. In 1858, their brother John returned from California, where he struck it rich producing wheelbarrows used by gold miners. The Studebakers built wagons for the military — used during the American Civil War and for the British army in the Boer War. They also built wagons used for the Western migration that followed the Civil War. By 1872, the Studebaker Wagon Works was the largest in the world.

The Studebakers built an experimental horseless carriage in 1897 and soon were making bodies for fledgling American automakers. In 1902, they produced their first Studebaker electric car, a vehicle designed for them by Thomas Alva Edison. A year later, John Studebaker’s son-in-law, Frederick Fish, bought the General Automobile Co. of Cleveland and brought internal combustion to the Studebaker company.

After using chassis produced by Garford in New York and EMF in Canada, the Studebakers began building entire vehicles in 1913. By 1952, Studebaker had assembly plants around the world and celebrated its centennial by building its seven millionth vehicle.

Yet by the fall of 1963, the company ended production in South Bend and in 1966 closed its Canadian facility and was out of the car business.

Raymond Loewy, Virgil Exner and Brooks Stevens did brilliant design work for Studebaker, which was doing sleek and aerodynamic vehicles long before Detroit. Famed Chrysler engineers Fred Zeder, Carl Breer and Owen Skelton were Studebaker alumni.

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  • Derek says:

    Commercial announcement — one of our business partners takes great pride and care shipping classic automobiles. You can find them on the web at http://www.uship.com/vehicles

    Examples of classic vehicles shipped safely across the U.S. are 1928 Ford Model A truck, 1965 Shelby Cobra, and a 1965 Lincoln Continental w/suicide doors.

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