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Build-it-yourself R-4 Daytona article from '64

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  • Build-it-yourself R-4 Daytona article from '64

    In my quest for the Dec. 63 Car Life magazine with all the Stude articles, I ended up with several other issues (Thank you George Krem and eBay![^]).

    In the Feb. 64 issue there's a really cool article called, "Build-It-Yourself Studebaker" by Pius Skarich (yes, that's the real name!). They had requested an R-4 Daytona for a road test; and Studebaker challenged them to send one of their editors to build it himself![] So editor Gene Booth was issued an employee ID and coveralls, and actually went through the process, start to finish. Then, in the next story, they got to test the car at the proving grounds... a fantastic pair of stories!

    Mr. Booth started at 7am in the foundry with testing the hardness of the molten iron, then casting and pouring a block, then heads. (this car's actual engine was shipped ready to install from Paxton in Santa Monica, SOP for these). From there he went to stamp out sheet metal, and on to several various operations on all six floors, right to the final doll-up line. In all, he performed a "great many" of the 157,000 operations required to build a car, walked most of the 5.7 million square feet of floor space, and installed more than half of the 20,000 numbered parts that made up a 64 Daytona hardtop, all in three days! It's an excellent, detailed look at what it takes to build a car; truly a marvel, and most people can't comprehend what it really takes (or took) to build a car- and Stude was building 60 per hour![:0]

    A funny note at the end: At the end of the line, they tried and tried, but could not get the R-4 engine to start. The car behind it bumped it off the ramp, and it was pushed by hand to the repair post. There it was discovered that the R-4, designed for transistor ignition, had had a conventional coil installed by our intrepid editor[:I] Once that was remedied, it was discovered the clutch would not disengage. It was then sent off to the repair garage to be corrected.

    Once finished, running, and detailed, the car was then delivered to the engineers for 500 miles of running on a chassis dyno (SOP for all R-3 and R-4-equipped cars). After that the car was sent to Car Life for their testing- another great article.

    All I could think as I read the story was, how much I'd love to do something like that[8D] If I could get my scanner working and figure out how to make a PDF file, I'd post both articles for you all to see. Really some great reading[^]

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






  • #2
    That sounds really cool, I'd like to see them sometime.

    Dylan Wills

    '61 lark deluxe 4 door wagon
    Dylan Wills
    Everett, Wa.


    1961 Lark 4 door wagon
    1961 Lark 4 door wagon #2 (Wife's car!)
    1955 VW Beetle (Went to the dark side)
    1914 Ford Model T

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    • #3
      Already online, thanks to Sonny. [8D]



      Matthew Burnette
      Hazlehurst, GA

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      • #4
        Holy crap, how didn't I know that? I've got his forums bookmarked, but never think to go to the homepage and explore[:I] Thanks for that!

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





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        • #5
          Pius Skarich was a member of the Studebaker Photography department. The article was written by Gene Booth, but Studebaker provided the photos for the article. That seemes to be a standard thing for articles about the factory.

          R2Andy
          R2Andrea

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          • #6
            Does anyone know if the Daytona still exists?

            Great article, thanks for posting it Matthew.

            Bill

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            • #7
              It does. Paxton swapped the R4 for an R3 at some point before they sold it. As far as I know the orig. R4 has never turned up.


              R2Andy
              R2Andrea

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              • #8
                hi mathew can,t access the web page about the R4 article. it comes up error 403 than theres a web site called ( host i can ) that wont,s me to join them for a fee. thanks for your help in this area. raymond wise

                rawise
                rawise

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                • #9
                  Geez a test weight of 3990 on 5.60-15 tires, no wonder the thing would only do 15.8 in the quarter mile.

                  101st Airborne Div. 326 Engineers Ft Campbell Ky.

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                  • #10
                    For those who have wondered what color the factory R4 engines were painted, check page 49 of the Feb., 1964 issue of Car Life magazine. There's a photo of the R4 being dropped onto the chassis, and the caption reads "Red and chrome R4 engine is dropped in place onto heavy-duty chassis......"

                    George

                    george krem
                    george krem

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                    • #11
                      quote:Originally posted by R3 challenger

                      For those who have wondered what color the factory R4 engines were painted, check page 49 of the Feb., 1964 issue of Car Life magazine. There's a photo of the R4 being dropped onto the chassis, and the caption reads "Red and chrome R4 engine is dropped in place onto heavy-duty chassis......"
                      If only I looked a little closer at those 5 gallon pails of ENGINE PAINT still in the Foundry! Maybe ONE of them is 'Granatelli-Red'![:0] Of course, BP would already have it sitting in his garage at home!!

                      Craig

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                      • #12
                        It was discussed some here.



                        Nick

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