1954 Video: 'Show 'em the Road! Studebaker wins!

[BobPalma]

Cool beans! Here's a great 1954 video I ran across, sponsored by Mobil Oil. It is not the 1954 Mobilgas Economy run, as I first thought.

Rather, it is a 1954 Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas, police-sponsored economy run for youth from several car clubs of the area. The introductory footage explains the event, and it is really cool to watch. (The video is 26 minutes long and I did not have time to watch it all once I found it, so just skipped ahead to see highlights.)

Most of the competitiors appear to be driving new 1954 automobiles, many sponsored by various dealerships. Most are sixes, although the Buicks, Packards, Oldsmobiles, etc, would be eights. The Dodge could have been a six, but it's a mini-hemi (241 CID) Royal V-8. Note the Overdrive script on the deck lids of at least one 1954 Ford, and the brown 1954 Plymouth. Overdrive was rare on Plymouths of the era.

There is good footage of at least four competing Studebakers, but you may see more. 1954 Champions include a Regal 4-door, a Custom 4-door, and a DeLuxe Coupes (C body.) Edit: There is also a Commander coupe competing. The two coupes are easy to tell apart, because the Commander has whitewalls and the Champion does not.

The overall event winner is one of the Champion sedans at 55 ton miles per gallon, although they don't say his make or model of car (or anyone else's) at the awards ceremony concluding the video. They show the winner in his driver seat at the very end, but it is cropped tight and hard to see the car itself. It is the 1954 Champion Custom sedan.

[Edit: I just watched the whole thing and the winner is, in fact, a Phil Schiffenbacher (unsure of the spelling) of The Rod Benders Car Club, in the 1954 Studebaker Champion Custom 4-door.]

Geeze, what a neat video, with miles and miles of 1954 and prior year cars from start to finish, across the LA-to-Las Vegas route! Enjoy! [8D]BP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYrmXSJqZ5Y&feature=channel

[Dwain G.]

I love these old films from back when California was more fun. This is a great one too!

[BobPalma]

They made a big deal of this running being "the first annual..." Does anyone know if it was repeated the next or any subsequent year? [8D]BP

[HAWK64]

Bob,
Talking of the Mobilgas Economy Run, I had the opportunity in driving in the only Aussie one that had a Studebaker entrant. The year was 1964 & our Canada Cycle & Motor Co entered a '64 V8 Cruiser. We achieved 25.28 miles to the imperial gallon which gave us a class placing.


"QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER"
MELBOURNE.

[BRUCESTUDE]

WOW! Awesome footage; great road shots and street scenes, too! Those Studes look so much sleeker than the brand x's....

[Dick Clemens]

I hope you won't mind my rambling, this brought back a whole lot of memories. 1954, I was president of the Crowns of Pasadena car club in Pasadena, Ca. vice president of The Pasadena car club assoc. sponsored by the Pasadena Police Dept. I also was President of the Southern California Car Club Association. All of the car clubs involved in this race were members of the S.C.C.C.A.

The names were names I have not heard in many years. The dealers names were all very familiar also,Lloyd Pearson Studebaker from Pasadena. Santa Anita Ford, Arcadia, Ricker Motors(Rambler Studebaker) Whittier, and many of the others. WOW, memories.
studedick from the lower Ozarks

[barnlark]

Your connections in that area...and era, never cease to amaze me, Dick! Very cool, Mr. president. [8D] My earliest memories of that drive aren't until about 8 years later.

For those of you who have never picked the mind and sharp memory of Dick Clemens, find him at a meet and take a story ride. The man's facets are many. [^]

Thanks for the video link, BP. Extremely enjoyable.

[BobPalma]

quote:Originally posted by Dick Clemens

I hope you won't mind my rambling, this brought back a whole lot of memories. 1954, I was president of the Crowns of Pasadena car club in Pasadena CA. Vice president of The Pasadena Car Club Assoc. sponsored by the Pasadena Police Dept. I also was President of the Southern California Car Club Association. All of the car clubs involved in this race were members of the S.C.C.C.A.

The names were names I have not heard in many years. The dealer names were all very familiar also; Lloyd Pearson Studebaker from Pasadena. Santa Anita Ford, Arcadia, Ricker Motors (Rambler Studebaker) Whittier, and many of the others.

WOW, memories.
studedick from the lower Ozarks

'Way cool, Dick; you were indeed [u]right there! </u> []

Do you know if the event was ever repeated, as they suggest by the bold "First Annual" declaration every chance they had? [8D]BP

[Steve T]

What a treat that was. And a near-sweep of the podium for Studebaker...one of the 4drs took the win, but one of the coupes finished second as well...

S.

[StudeRich]

That was an outstanding video, Thanks Bob for posting that!

I cannot believe that the announcer gave the name of the driver and his car club but no mention of the car's sponsor (Dealer) who donated the car, and of course THE CAR!

I am sure the motorheads of the day, and in those days there were A LOT, would have been interested to know how their favorite make did!

I had to laugh at those big tank Buicks, Oldsmobiles a Nash even a Packard!
None of them would have a chance against a Commander Coupe and I think three Champions and the '54 Ford, all I am pretty sure with [u]OVERDRIVE</u>, not available or very rare and hard to find on most other makes except Plymouth. [:0] How many did Chevy build in those days, about 1/2 of 1 per cent or none?

The top 2 WERE Studebakers, I listened and watched again with pauses, and caught the Car Club names, the Drag Wagons in a Stude. got 2nd.! [^]

StudeRich

[BobPalma]

quote:Originally posted by StudeRich

That was an outstanding video, Thanks Bob for posting that!

I cannot believe that the announcer gave the name of the driver and his car club but no mention of the car's sponsor (Dealer) who donated the car, and of course THE CAR!

I am sure the motorheads of the day, and in those days there were A LOT, would have been interested to know how their favorite make did!

I had to laugh at those big tank Buicks, Oldsmobiles a Nash even a Packard!
None of them would have a chance against a Commander Coupe and I think three Champions and the '54 Ford, all I am pretty sure with [u]OVERDRIVE</u>, not available or very rare and hard to find on most other makes except Plymouth. [:0] How many did Chevy build in those days, about 1/2 of 1 per cent or none?

The top 2 WERE Studebakers, I listened and watched again with pauses, and caught the Car Club names, the Drag Wagons in a Stude. got 2nd.! [^]

StudeRich

Thanks, Rich; 'glad you enjoyed the video. As you guys see, I posted it quickly before watching it a couple times all the way through to deterime exactly which cars and drivers won which position. 'Good to see another Studebaker took second place, following the first-place Champion Custom sedan. Thanks for the confirmation, guys.

You are certainly right, Rich; with the dealers sponsoring the cars, the dealer names and car makes absolutely should have been mentoned during the awards ceremony, for Pete's sake!

As for car weight, the ton-miles-per-gallon thing was supposed to even things out for the heavier cars, and I think that's the way the Mobilgas Economy Run was set up through the years. So they had more of a chance than it would appear on the surface.

Regarding Overdrive. The Studes surely had it, and we can see for sure at least one of the Ford Sixes and the Plymouth also had it.

The Chevrolets would not have had overdrive because Chevrolet didn't offer Overdrive until 1955! It has been my understanding that The General was always reluctant to pay royalties to anyone for anything, and resisted offering overdrive on their cars because they didn't want to pay Borg-Warner any royalties on the product.

Market pressure finally got to them by 1955 and they offered it, but never promoted it very much. I do remember a 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne Business Coupe advertisement they ran in 1959, in which a large traveling salesman stood beside his 1959 Biscayne and touted what wonderful mileage he got with his six-cylinder engine and overdrive, but that's about the only time I rememeber General Motors actually advertising overdrive.

Of course, 1958 (and, to a lesser extent, 1959) was when the market was 'smarting' due to people wanting economy cars, but The Big Three didn't have their compacts ready just yet. So it made sense for The General to promote the highest mpg offering they had at the time, which would have been a Chevrolet Six with Overdrive.

I'm glad to see so many guys enjoyed this video as much as I did! There is so much to see you can watch it three times and see some neat period car for the first time, each time! [8D]BP

[JeffDeWitt]

Just ran across this video on YouTube and it's a lot of fun. Of course I wanted to make sure you folks heard about it, and of course Bob beat me to it by a few years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYrmXSJqZ5Y#t=1376

But this thread is a few years old, so it deserves a bump. I can't believe all the cool old stuff that shows up on YouTube!

[Dan Timberlake]

The sweeping shot from 5:50 to 6:15 shows how radical the Loewy coupe was compared to its contemporaries.

[Noxnabaker]

Even a Studebaker sedan looks way cooler than any other make in that time!