1963 Popular Science "Hot compact" test

[Dan Timberlake]

http://books.google.com/books?id=uSADAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

[okc63avanti]

Thanks for sharing ...

If I could only walk in to my local Studebaker dealer and pick up my Super Lark today ....

[Bob Andrews]

I have loved- and owned- at least one of every car on the cover, although not the HiPerf version. My favorite automotive era

[R2Andrea]

And for additional Stude related content see the Gravely ad and the Perfect Circle ad ( with the Halibrand wheel on the Indy car, similar to the '63 style Sebring wheel).

[2R2]

Notice the Lark tested has an Avanti speedometer, as Studebaker had not started producing a Lark style 160 unit yet. Ron Ellerbe covered this in an early edition of Jet Thrust News.
Also, the car tested had a 3.54 rear axle, which the parts manual does not list as available. My R2 Lark does not have the ratio listed on the build sheet, so I assume it came with a 3.73, which I believe would have been standard.

[studeclunker]

I thought what they had to say about the Lark was the most complementary of all of them. It almost seems like they were working for something to criticize. I hope you'll forgive my formatting in the quote below. The only way to get only what I wanted was to transcribe over and then reformat.

Super Lark
Stabilizing bars gave the Lark the decorum of a church deacon in hard turns. The rear end broke away only under considerable pressure. The car was highly stable at 100 miles an hour, with practically no tendency to pitch. The suspension was firm but the ride, nonetheless, smooth.

With an engine peaking at 5,000 r.p.m., an acceleration of 0-60 m.p.h. was like a kick in the pants. Traction bars, shrewdly added to the rear axle to accommodate the tork of the blown engine, effectively prevented axle windup and any hesitancy when the accelerator went down from a standing start.

[studeclunker]

Notice the Lark tested has an Avanti speedometer, as Studebaker had not started producing a Lark style 160 unit yet. Ron Ellerbe covered this in an early edition of Jet Thrust News.
Also, the car tested had a 3.54 rear axle, which the parts manual does not list as available. My R2 Lark does not have the ratio listed on the build sheet, so I assume it came with a 3.73, which I believe would have been standard.

Curious that Studebaker would have included a different rearend than stock in this test. I wonder what difference it would have made to the numbers on the chart, most especially acceleration and top speed? I wonder if anyone has noticed that the Lark had a top speed of almost twenty miles an hour higher than any of the others?

[R2Andrea]

3.54 gears were the default axle ratio for JT and JTS equiped Hawk and Larks. 3.73 was the default for the Avanti. IIRC the '63 Super Lark and Super Hawk development cars also ran the 3.54 gears when they ran at Bonneville prior to the Package car announcement.

[nels]

I think John Deloreon was a little concerned about this up and coming test. He purposely fitted the Pontiac with the full syncro three speed rather than the four speed along with a 3.90 rear gear. The Pontiac's first gear advantage was unbelieavable when you do the math, yet one's first thought would be "wow, think how fast that Pontiac would be with a four speed". The advantage shows up in the zero to sixty times. If you read the authors comments about the Pontiac you can tell that Deloreon succeeded in 'pulling the wool over the editor's eyes'.