Cars We Remember / Collector Car Corner; Fast Studebakers and used car dealer memories

Good day readers. Trying to catch up with my mail, so here’s another week of reader memories! 

‘American Graffiti’ ’53 Studebaker and 1951 NASCAR wins 
Q: Greg, I read your Sunday columns in our local Bloomsburg Press Enterprise. You always take us readers back on our paths to our youth and good times. So, I’m taking you back into my days of youth and my favorite car I owned. Keep the great columns coming as they always brighten up Sunday mornings.

I was recently given the photos attached by Bill Edgar, of Lightstreet, (Bloomsburg) who built the Studebaker in the photos that I bought from him without a motor. After searching a while I bought an original Chevy Corvette 327. I freshened it up and topped it with an Edelbrock aluminum high-rise intake, Carter 650AFB carb, and a velocity stack.

I cruised all the local town circuits every Friday and Saturday night, back when gas was cheap and 100 plus cars could be found doing the same. After several laps in town the temp gauge would begin to rise, so a temporary trip out of town to cool it back down (was necessary). Then we went right back to the cruise circuit.

Every now and then someone would follow me out of town, looking for a race. The Stude never disappointed and it ran as strong as it looked. It would pull the front wheels off the ground too. Some nights I’d get several races.

This car was aggressive looking and many towns offered no challengers. Many nights in these towns were spent with the Stude parked at Drive-In burger joints and many folks would show up just to look at it. It always drew attention, wherever it was.

I sold and bought this car twice as I simply missed it and had to have it back. After the last time I lost track of it, but many years later a friend had been to a car show up in New York and told me he had seen it there, now painted PINK! He said he knew it was the same car, because he crawled underneath and saw the air dam and holes drilled in the trunk floor.

When Bill handed me these photos, he told me the same type of story as he ran across my Stude at a show in Carlisle, Pa. He talked to the car’s owner, who proceeded to tell Bill that some “Jerk” had drilled the trunk full of holes. Then Bill replied, “I’m that Jerk!”

I’m not ashamed that I lived the “American Graffiti” life. Those were some of the best years of my life! This letter to you is more for recognition of a great local car builder, Bill Edgar. He is now retired and still working on a project of his own. If you know, or know of Bill, you’ll agree. His many amazing car builds over the years include a notable Willys pickup he built to honor his father. Greg Landis, Bloomsburg, Pa.

A: Thanks for this great letter about Bill Edgar and memories about your ’53 Studebaker.  Most all hot rodders respected these cars and serious land speed record holders utilized these two-door Studebakers routinely. They offered an aerodynamic advantage compared to the other boxy and heavy designs of the early 1950s.

The collage of photos you sent me from Bill Edgar are great and I wish I could run all of them, but I’m sure the ones chosen show what a mean looking Stude Bill built and you eventually owned. Not surprisingly, back in the day when you purchased your car (1960s and early 1970s), we all painted our headers white. It was almost like a “rite of passage” letting everyone else cruising the streets know “we knew what we were doing in hot rodding” – whether we did or not.

Here’s some racing trivia about those sleek Studebakers. Back in 1951, Indiana-based Studebaker Company won three premier NASCAR races. Frank Mundy gave Studebaker two of those three victories, the first coming at Columbia Speedway, a half-mile dirt track in Cayce, South Carolina. Mundy never won again after 1951 while the other Studebaker winner was Danny Weinberg. Danny won on the half-mile dirt at Hanford Speedway in California and took home $1,700 for his 200-lap victory. Mundy’s wins paid $1,000 each.

Other than these three wins, Studebaker never appeared in a NASCAR victory lane again. Lastly, in 1959 there was one Studeaker Lark entered in the inaugural Daytona 500. Driven by Harold Smith, he finished 21st in the 100-mile qualifier and then in the 500, which started with 59 cars, he was running at the finish (many laps down) and creditied with a 31st place finish. He took home $110 for his efforts.

The winner of that first Daytona 500, Lee Petty in an Oldsmobile, took home $19,050 that in today’s dollars equates to $196,941, while Smith’s $110 would be $1137.20 today. As for Weinberg’s winning run in ’51, his $1,700 calculates to an impressive $19,670.

Sorry I got off track Greg with the trivia and prize money, but I’m sure you’d love to have your 1953 Studebaker back in your garage right now. Studebaker designers were way ahead of the curve, but they missed the boat under the hood unless owners did what you did. I remember when Packard and Studebaker merged and they stuffed the big Packard 352-inch V8 into the Hawk design, offering a 275-horse early day muscle car.

Unfortunately even that didn’t work, as sales in the showroom were still getting worse.  (I’m considering the 1956 Golden Hawk with the 352 V8 to be included in my “10 real first muscle cars” article I’m still working on. It will be sent to my syndicate soon.)     

Thanks again Greg for your comments, photos and memories.

Connecticut Car Salesman looks back 

Q: Hi Greg, and about your recent Buick wagon column, they were similar to the Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, one of which I traded a customer even up for a Chevy pickup with a plow for the “Cruiser. The sale included tax, license, registration fees, and DOC fee while I was Used Car Manager at Burnside Chrysler in East Hartford Connecticut. 

Occasionally when we had to trade one of those Buicks, we referred to them as “Road Hazards” instead of Road Master’s.

Otherwise, I think you would enjoy knowing that Frank Maratta’s Connecticut Dragway in Colchester, Conn. is now a test site for Consumer Reports.

I enjoy your articles, as my sister sends them to me from The Westerly Sun. I feel your column is more interesting than the “Name the Car of the Week” that appears on Saturday in the Journal Inquirer in Manchester. John Hannon, Manchester, Conn.  

A: Thank you so much John. Letters like yours keep me going. Connecticut Dragway was a well-known drag racing track that opened in June of 1961 and closed in 1985. It was located in East Haddam, near the Colchester, Conn. town line and many big names, like Tasca Ford, ran and tested there regularly. Maratta passed away in 2003 at the age of 74.

(Greg Zyla is a syndicated auto columnist. He welcomes reader interaction on auto nostalgia, collector cars and motorsports at greg@gregzyla.com.)