Question about J.M. Studebaker

[Scott]

Does anyone know what vehicles J.M. Studebaker owned or drove? Do we know what automobiles he tried driving or even owned? (personally, rather than owning each Studebaker as it was born at the time!)

I know he preferred wagons and might never have personally driven a car, but I think I've seen him driving a car in a photo.

Is any vehicle he personally owned still extant? I wonder if he had some sort of driver's licence. It would be interesting to see an article or series in TW on what the guy at the top preferred. We know more or less what Egbert liked, but what about his predecessors?

[qsanford]

That is an interesting question. It would be kind of cool to find to find something about that.

[Studebaker Wheel]

I have nice photos of J.M. in both Electrics and gas powered cars as well as carriages. Of course he had a chauffeur but also frequently piloted his own vehicles.

[Scott]

I have seen a couple of photos of him in cars. I think i remember seeing one of him in a long coat in the drivers seat of a Studebaker car on a rutted dirt road in the country. I think he was the only occupant. Does that sound at all familiar? Maybe it was a different person.

[Studebaker Wheel]

Scott; That is my photo. Never saw another like it. I loaned it to Art Unger and it appeared on a cover of TW some years back.

[Jett289]

Love to see photos of him behind the wheel !!!

[8E45E]

R.Q. posted some photos before on J.M. Studebaker driving a car: http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...J-M-Studebaker

Craig

[Scott]

R.Q. posted some photos before on J.M. Studebaker driving a car: http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...J-M-Studebaker

Craig

Thanks Craig. That thread was in 2009 and Richard posted the picture I remember. The interesting thing to me is that I totally forgot I asked a similar question in 2009, but I remembered the photo itself very well! I apologize, sort of, for forgetting what I did 6 years ago, but on the other hand I know that a lot of newer forum members had not seen these photos before.
The longer this forum goes on the more repetitions are bound to happen, I guess.

I'd still like to get any information on what happened to J.M.'s personal vehicles and also what later corporate heads drove. I notice that the auto that J.M. drives in the picture is light colored or white. How common was that at the time for Studebakers?

[Studebaker Wheel]

I do have photos of most all of the Studebaker Presidents with Studebakers. As for tracking down serial numbers and survivors I am fairly certain that would be a fruitless task.

[8E45E]

As for tracking down serial numbers and survivors I am fairly certain that would be a fruitless task.

I tend to agree. Aside from President of Studebaker of Canada's '35 in the SMN, Sherwood Egbert's personal Avanti, and Harold Churchill's '65 Wagonaire which are documented, it might prove difficult. Those cars the president drive, or were chauffeured around in were probably never registered in their own personal name.

Craig

[Stu Chapman]

I tend to agree. Aside from President of Studebaker of Canada's '35 in the SMN, Sherwood Egbert's personal Avanti, and Harold Churchill's '65 Wagonaire which are documented, it might prove difficult. Those cars the president drive, or were chauffeured around in were probably never registered in their own personal name.

Craig

You are quite correct Craig. Vehicles supplied to senior and field staff usually had a tag at the top of the build order that would say "Consigned to Stu Chapman - Advertising" as an example. But not all vehicles were so designated. It was quite possible that an executive would draw a car from build stock and there would be no mention of a name on the order.

Orders for vehicles that were leased to middle management personnel would be tagged "Consigned to stock leasing". The only time a car would be registered in the individual employee's name was if it was purchased.

Stu Chapman

[8E45E]

Orders for vehicles that were leased to middle management personnel would be tagged "Consigned to stock leasing".

Post 17 may have been an example: http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...y-1966-Daytona

And to get the earlier wheel covers, he MUST have been 'upper' middle!!

Craig

[Gunslinger]

Besides driving Avantis, I understand Sherwood Egbert also drove a Mercedes which kind of rankled some since he was President of Studebaker...being the distributor for Mercedes in North America notwithstanding.

[Studebaker Wheel]

I tend to agree. Aside from President of Studebaker of Canada's '35 in the SMN, Sherwood Egbert's personal Avanti, and Harold Churchill's '65 Wagonaire which are documented, it might prove difficult. Those cars the president drive, or were chauffeured around in were probably never registered in their own personal name.

Craig

Craig; If you are referring to the green custom bodied convertible sedan I am curious as to what information that you may have that the car was built for the President of Studebaker of Canada?

[8E45E]

Craig; If you are referring to the green custom bodied convertible sedan I am curious as to what information that you may have that the car was built for the President of Studebaker of Canada?

Aside from the little that Bob Yale mentioned to me in Rapid City in 2009, not a lot. Seems there's still lots of mysteries about that interesting car. I posted photos I took of it in Post 26 here: http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...ant-Studebaker

Craig