Studebaker Redux

I sold the 1954 Studebaker to a long time hot rodder with a long history of owning some great cars. The car was an amazing learning experience and a great driver, I put somewhere between 6 and 7,000 miles on the completed car before it got sold. I drove it daily, it worked so well that my wife even enjoyed driving in it and she hates my junk!

I was able to do some further finish work on the car since you saw it last, and I did take it to the dyno for tuning, twice. The first time was a big disappointment, on the third full throttle run one of the bitchin' vintage style cheater slicks let go at 5000 rpm, about 149 miles an hour. It did significant damage to the quarter panel and trunk floor on the one side of the car. Although the manufacturer assured me his recaps were safe for high horsepower applications it runs out they are not, especially when subjected to the unusual loading of the dyno. In retrospect, it seems logical that the tire would only be as safe as the carcass that it was recapped on, in this case a 235/75/15  which has an S speed rating, or 112 miles an hour. We were spinning those poor recaps at 149 when we had our incident!

Later on I returned to the dyno and the car made 430-ish horsepower at 8 pounds of boost, but we were limited by the new tires to 4400 rpm. That was even pushing it at 130 miles an hour. The combination really came alive in a big way above 3500 and on the street I wasn't worried about the tires so much becuase they would just go up in smoke. In fact, the car pulled really hard in second gear and I saw 80 miles an hour in second gear more than a few times. Dirveability was simply amazing, the car would idle all day in traffic with no loading or overheating and I saw 23-25 miles to the gallon several times.

I added an 8 point cage which really made the car feel a lot more solid, and I installed all the glass before the car was sold. The new owner lives in Illinois and he came to Los Angeles in person to pick up the car, he and his freinds took turns driving it back across county with zero issues. He reported one stretch across Texas where they ran all day in sixth gear at 1700 rpm (which was 80-81) and saw a consistent 34 miles to the gallon! I will sure miss the car but I know for certain it's in great hands. I can't wait to see where they take the car from here.

This is what was left of the cheater slick. When it went, it was violent. I found the long strip of tread in a parking lot across the street from the dyno!

It folded up the virgin quarter panel real good. It actually rolled it up like a sardine can lid.

We wet sanded the original black paint with 2000 grit paper, then polished it with compound. That's original 1954 Studebaker lacquer. My wife took this shot the morning the car was picked up.

Here's the car during it's drive across the country, this is somewhere along the road in front of an old Conoco station. The car ran flawlessly.

Here is a video I shot on the dyno, this was the run right before the tire let go. If you look closely at the end of the pull you can see the tire start to do some freaky shit. There was a lot going on, but basically the tire is pretty heavy due to the recap, and it's trying to grow as it is spun hard. It can't grow because the car is strapped to the dyno so the rubber is trying to fling itself off the wheel. Watch the sidewall at the end, it is hating life!