Chicken Hawk Retrospective??

[bams50]

Now that we know Mr. Harbit is safely on the mend, my thoughts have branched out to the Chicken Hawk. Wouldn't it be cool to honor the old car with a post-mortem retrospective? A chronology of it's lifetime, with stats- wins, tracks raced, titles, etc. Maybe a history of the car's mechanical specs and changes/updates through the years... and of course, plenty of pictures[]

For all I know, BP's already working on this

For now, how about a few pictures of the CH in her glory days?

Robert (Bob) Andrews- on the IoMT (Island of Misfit Toys)
Parish, central NY 13131

[JDP]

quote:Originally posted by bams50

Now that we know Mr. Harbit is safely on the mend, my thoughts have branched out to the Chicken Hawk. Wouldn't it be cool to honor the old car with a post-mortem retrospective? A chronology of it's lifetime, with stats- wins, tracks raced, titles, etc. Maybe a history of the car's mechanical specs and changes/updates through the years... and of course, plenty of pictures[]

For all I know, BP's already working on this

For now, how about a few pictures of the CH in her glory days?

Here's a brief one

http://stude.com/Ted/history.htm

JDP/Maryland

[mbstude]

Here's one that was posted on one of the Eye Candy threads.. And a couple I found online.












These show the way that I prefer to remember the car.

And the Living Legend himself, back at the 2007 national meet.

[BobPalma]

quote:Originally posted by bams50

Now that we know Mr. Harbit is safely on the mend, my thoughts have branched out to the Chicken Hawk. Wouldn't it be cool to honor the old car with a post-mortem retrospective? A chronology of it's lifetime, with stats- wins, tracks raced, titles, etc. Maybe a history of the car's mechanical specs and changes/updates through the years... and of course, plenty of pictures[]

For all I know, BP's already working on this

For now, how about a few pictures of the CH in her glory days?

Robert (Bob) Andrews

Bob: A good start, since you are relatively new, would be for you to acquire a copy of the March 1996 Turning Wheels. I doubt the club has any back issues; IIRC, the back issues sold out right away.

Anyway, the front cover and my 7-page feature article are "Ted Harbit and The Chicken Hawk" ...through November 1995. It's a good general history of Ted and the car through that date, if I do say so myself. I'm not aware of a more comprehensive biography that's ever been written about Ted, at least not until that time. ('Don't know of any since then, either, for that matter.)

There's plenty of "old-timey" pictures through the years, most of which have been published individually elsewhere since that article was completed. BP

[mbstude]

Does anyone know how many miles Ted has put on the car over the past 48 years? I'm sure that all those 1/4 mile trips add up...

Matthew Burnette
Hazlehurst, GA

[BobPalma]

quote:Originally posted by mbstude

Does anyone know how many miles Ted has put on the car over the past 48 years? I'm sure that all those 1/4 mile trips add up...

Matthew Burnette

Actually, Matthew, Ted and I honestly got out his charts and books and put a pencil to it in September 1995, when preparing that March 1996 Turning Wheels article. At the time, Ted concluded he and The Chicken Hawk had together made between 5,000 and 6,000 1/4-mile runs.

That would be the period 1962 through 1995. From that, you can figure an average per year. Don't include 1961. He bought the car in September 1961, but it had Automatic Drive. So by the time he got it converted to stick with the crude, Jeep-style floor shifter, he ran it little (if at all) in 1961.

(But he sure ran it hard in 1962, hard enough to win The National K/S Championship at Indianapolis Raceway Park over Labor Day weekend...[u]and I was a 16-year old in the stands watching him score that first of what would ultimately be eight national championships!</u>)

Now, he has slowed down a but since then, but not a lot. So once you have an average per year for 1962-1995, you can figure about 80% of that average, per year, for the years 1996 through 2008. Don't add any for runs in 2009, because he ran it very little in 2008.

That ought to keep your calculator busy at the parts store tomorrow. Let us know what you figure out. BP

[mbstude]

Here's what I came up with real quick...

1962-1996

34 years of track racing. If you figure 5500 runs (you said between 5000 and 6000) within those 34 years, you end up with 162 runs each year. If he ran each of those 162 runs on the 1/4 mile, you get 40 track miles a year. Times that by 34 years, and you end up with 1360 miles.

You said 80% of that for 1996-2008. Within those 12 years, estimating by 80% of the previous 34 years, you get 32 miles and 130 runs per year. Over 12 years, that's 1560 runs. At 1/4 mile, you get 390 miles.

Add the 1360 and 390 together, and you have roughly 1750 miles of 1/4 mile racing over the past 47 years.

Given my estimating and margin of error, you could figure anywhere between 1500 and 2000 miles.

Not bad for only going 1/4 mile at a time. And not only that, but figure over a thousand miles at over 100 miles per hour. [8D]

Matthew Burnette
Hazlehurst, GA

[Dads Baby]

Matthew,
Don't forget the trip to the starting line and back to the trailer/pit! I know, I am splitting hairs, but it will more than double your estimate.

Carey
Packard Hawk

[lstude]

Here are some pictures from the 2006 Atlantic Zone Meet.





This is a card I sent to Ted yesterday.





Leonard Shepherd

http://leonardshepherd.com/

[bams50]

quote:Originally posted by BobPalma

Bob: A good start, since you are relatively new, would be for you to acquire a copy of the March 1996 Turning Wheels.

Anyway, the front cover and my 7-page feature article are "Ted Harbit and The Chicken Hawk" ...through November 1995. It's a good general history of Ted and the car through that date

I wasn't thinking when I wrote what I did... I figured someone in the Club had probably already done so, and most likely you, Bob I just was wondering aloud if there would be a future "RIP Chicken Hawk" article in TW, with some final stats and an obituary. For decades to come, newbies are going to hear the story of the CH and wonder what happened to it... not to mention a tribute to maybe THE most accomplished Studebaker car ever! It may be one of the few individual cars of any make that rate a post-mortem, right up there with Miss Belvedere...

In my racing career there were so many good cars; but the nature of the beast means cars have a limited life span. If they're not lost in a crash, they succumb to either metal fatigue or just obsolescence. Heck, top-notch Dirt Modified teams have a half-dozen cars; they have a life span of about 50 races, then are either sold off or scrapped... that's less than one season's worth of racing[:0] So you don't get attatched and keep them long-term.

I find it surprising that I'm so saddened by the loss of a car I've never seen run, or even seen in person[V][:I]

Thanks for the info, I'll keep an eye out for a copy of that issue. Then I'll drag it around the Meets with me until I have the privilege of once again meeting up with Ted and embarrassing him with an autograph request[^]

Robert (Bob) Andrews- on the IoMT (Island of Misfit Toys)
Parish, central NY 13131

[BobPalma]

quote:Originally posted by lstude
This is a card I sent to Ted yesterday.





Leonard Shepherd

Leonard, you are good! Ted will really enjoy that, seriously. BP

[Chris Pile]

What a tragedy to lose a racecar as legendary as the Chicken Hawk!~
It should have ended up in the SNM.

Chris Pile
Midway Chapter SDC
The Studebaker Special

[Steve T]

An idea...

Has there ever been a kit, or a diecast, of the Chicken Hawk? I'd buy either one, for sure...The 1:18 '51 Starlight that's out there now would make a good starting point for a limited-edition run of miniature CHs...

The idea of displaying a wrecked racing vehicle isn't new, Don Garlits having shown one of his own wrecked "Swamp Rat" dragsters in his museum in years gone by; but that was Garlits' car and Garlits' museum, so obviously Garlits' choice! I don't know Mr Harbit, but I can well imagine his emotional attachment to his veteran racing Studebaker; trying to empathise, I don't think I'd want the wreck displayed had the CH been my racing mount for nearly half a century. (Don Garlits, by contrast, of course had a long succession of "Swamp Rats", none of which he fielded for more than a few seasons; the one wrecked one in his museum would serve as a reminder of his good fortune when things went drastically wrong, among all the intact "Rats" and other mementoes of straight-up racing triumph there.)

Could the '96 article on Mr Harbit and the Chicken Hawk be reprinted with an added update covering the past 13 years, either in TW or as a stand-alone "special"? I'd love to read that...having joined SDC as recently as fall 2007, and now having missed ever seeing two famous competition Studes run.

(I haven't been to a drag race since 1973. That may have to change!)

S.

[Gary1953]

You would have a cheaper starting point with a 1:24 scale resin cast '51 Starlight coupe kit instead of the 1:18th scale diecast. Check out eBay or a resin casting web site.
I'll add a link if I find one tonight.



Gary Sanders
Nixa, MO
President Toy Studebaker Collectors Club. Have an interest in Toy Studebakers? Contact me for details.

[Bordeaux Daytona]

Johnny Lightning made a nice diecast 51 Starlight in 1:24 or 1:25 scale that I never saw in any store, only on ebay.
I've thought that this would have been perfect for a Chicken Hawk replica.
If only someone could convince them to make one. I might have to make one myself.
They haven't been doing much lately, hardly anyone sells their product anymore. [?]