Pic of last South Bend-built Lark type on a transport trailer, 12/20/63

[Bill Pressler]

I hadn't seen this photo for a long time. I'm pretty sure I remember it mentioning that 64V-20202 is the car on top of the transport trailer...looks to me like an oval front-fender badge with white insert too, instead of the usual 'parallelogram' emblem there. Obviously, taken before the Corporation decided to give the car to the City of South Bend.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/21/automobiles/south-bend-ind-to-recall-studebakers-1963-departure.html?src=recg

[Swifster]

Bill, the article says 'one of the last' shipments. They are still loading the truck (see ramps). There is also another truck to the left of this one also loading.

[Bill Pressler]

Bill, the article says 'one of the last' shipments. They are still loading the truck (see ramps). There is also another truck to the left of this one also loading.

The photo has been around before, and I also remember a video of 64V-20202 being loaded onto the top level of a trailer. I'm not sure how many Avanti-powered Daytona Hardtops were built on 12/20/63; I have a list of the 'last day' cars; I'll have to check. I believe since it's a dark, Avanti-powered Daytona Hardtop, that it's 64V-20202, but not certain of course.

The media was anxious to get a photo of the last car but Studebaker didn't allow it. NBC snuck a guy in (he lives one town over from me now) and got video footage. I could see the media jockeying to get a photo of the last car at any chance.

I also believe that the last car out of the plant wouldn't need to be the last car loaded on a truck. I'm sure they were staged for where the destinations of the cars were.

[go-studebaker]

If that is the last R1 hardtop made. it is the ringer car for the museum car. That car, in Bordeaux red was shipped to Pa and is now in Melbourne Australia

Regards

[2R5]

If that is the last R1 hardtop made. it is the ringer car for the museum car. That car, in Bordeaux red was shipped to Pa and is now in Melbourne Australia

Regards

Isn't the one in the museum the last R1 car built?

[Bill Pressler]

Isn't the one in the museum the last R1 car built?

Yes, it is. I don't think the decision had been made at the time of manufacture, that the museum car would be immediately kept for the City of South Bend. I've seen video footage--but darn it, I can't find it on YouTube anyplace--where the car was being loaded onto a trailer. I think it's the car in the pic posted here, although not certain.

There was a TW article a long time back about the "ringer" to fill the customer's order after the museum car was kept. I'd wager (though not much, LOL) that the 'ringer' car wasn't completed until well after 12/20/63. They took an unsold, similar car in South Bend's inventory and added and deleted options to fill the retail order. I remember reading that they never added a tach to the 'ringer' although that was part of the R1 package price.

It would be interesting to find out the name of the original owner of the 'ringer', see if he's still with us, and see what he'd think of having ordered the last U.S.-built Lark-type but that it was swapped out for a 'ringer'! I know that Bob Boyer, the selling dealer, didn't find out for decades about the switch but was made aware of it in 2005 or so.

[swvalcon]

I wonder where those car where headed. I see there's a dark colored hawk on the bottom front. My Brodeaux red hawk was completed on Dec 18 1963. Maybe it is the hawk on it's way to MN.

[DDD]

It took me a while to see it ,but there are two trucks being loaded in that picture. The cab for the second truck is just back of the axels on the trailer.Thanks for posting this Bill. If this picture has been listed before I never noticed the second truck and the article was worth reading as well.

[Bill Pressler]

It took me a while to see it ,but there are two trucks being loaded in that picture. The cab for the second truck is just back of the axels on the trailer.Thanks for posting this Bill. If this picture has been listed before I never noticed the second truck and the article was worth reading as well.

Thanks, Darrell. I still believe that's the museum car on the top...I think that's an oval badge on the front fender, with its white insert, instead of the smaller "8" emblem other Daytonas and Lark-types had. Too lazy to look right now, but I don't think there were many R-powered, dark-colored, Daytona Hardtops built that day. There were 31 Hawks built that day I remember; no doubt 'building them out' since they weren't being built in Hamilton for '64. There were either 108 or 111 cars built that day, depending on the source (I think I located 111 build sheets; someone earlier had said 108). I'll have to dig out my info. I think I know where it is.

[jackb]

....... well, OK, I'll now voice the infamous Stude question of old: Where are they now ?

[Bill Pressler]

Our Ohio Region SDC newsletter editor, Larry Sherer, has Hawk no. 64V-20170, built on the last day. 64V-20197 was the last Hawk. Larry's is a beauty too. It was built Bordeaux Red, but is now like the brochure car....white with black half-vinyl top and red cloth buckets with Powershift.

[Stu Chapman]

From my standpoint, the 64 Daytona in the Museum is the last car built. Regardless of many stories that exist, the last "official" car is always the one with the last serial number and I believe this is the case with the Museum car.

For years I've had to dispel stories about the last Studebaker built in Hamilton. In this case, our Customs Manager stayed on for many months after almost all our employees were gone. He had one of the last cars off the line on March 16th 1966 and his car was the last car to leave the Hamilton compound early in 1967. He even acquired license plates marked LST ONE, but it wasn't the last one built. I know this positively because the 66 Cruiser now in the Museum had the last serial number and officially came off the line on March 17th 1966 and I staged the event for the benefit of our local TV station.

Our president, Gordon Grundy initially did not want any publicity about the last car, same as the decision about the South Bend last car, but he relented and allowed me to stage it very late in the game.

It never ceases to amaze me that so many stories are told that are far from being accurate. I'm not aware of anyone in senior management in South Bend who had an interest in recording the last car who may still be alive. If there is it would be interesting to have a chat with that person.

Stu Chapman