Did Studebaker Create The "Crate Motor" Industry?

[SASCO KID]

Sometime in the late 1970's I purchased R4 engine, # B76. I bought it from a Curtis Dennis in Newark, Ohio. At the time it was in a very rusty '64 Daytona Convertible ( that same motor surfaced here on the forum a short time ago). Curtis said he liked the weight distribution of the convertible, I assume because of the X-member in the frame. Curtis had earlier campaigned a 1963 Regal 2-Door Post sedan, called "Color Me Lonely", which may have been a R-2 (I can't remember for sure). He claimed that one night at dinnertime he received a telephone call from Vince Granatelli. Vince told him that Studebaker had these R3 /R4 engines available, and they wanted them in the hands of competent racers, and that they had heard of him, either in CA.,or thru South Bend. He also said that they would sell him one of his choice "for dealer cost". So, Curtis chose an R4. I believe he went with an R4 because he could run it at National Trails Raceway, near Newark, a NHRA track, without the hassle over the supercharger and then unpublished horsepower ratings. Curtis showed me the very deteriorated crate in the back yard, and told me when I picked up the car, I could have it. Alas, when I came back, he & his wife were estranged, and she wouldn't let him in the back yard! I was lucky to get the car at the time, so I did not argue.
Now, I know you could go to a Chevy or whatever dealer and order motors over the parts counters and a "body in white" with no drive train if desired.
BUT, did they have an aggressive "crate motor" program as they do now, which Studebaker already had in 1963?
Just a thought.......

[ToGa 42]

I do not recall Chevy having much of an 'aggressive' crate engine program, even though, a 327 "Fuelie" short block in a 55 Chevy was the Hot Ticket in the 60's! Ford, on the other hand, was very much into the performance market, and had a catalog with all of their HiPo parts and engines. I believe this was called Total Performance. Tom T.

[PackardV8]

Yes, but more than thirty years before your example. Back in the 1930s, the depression was in its depths and Indy racing was dying. Rickenbacker was trying to lower costs and increase participation, so he changed the formula to encourage stock block racing. Studebaker had a factory team of three cars, but the race department also built and sold identical race-prepared engines to anyone who wanted to enter a Stude racer.

No, I was a racer back in the '60s-70s and Chevy and Ford didn't sell complete engines at anything approaching an affordable price. They did advertise and offer all their performance parts at retail, but only after you'd bought the new car with the engine in it.

Maybe, if we saw that Studebaker "dealer cost" it wouldn't be considered cheap in constant dollars. I knew a couple of guys trying to run Studes at Bonneville in the '60s and parts through Paxton at "dealer cost" were still expensive.

FWIW, Paxton offered a competition supercharger sold with absolutely no guarantee. One of the above-mentioned guys said he had to take 2-3 of them because sometimes the first one wouldn't last a weekend at the salt or on the drag strip.

Bottom line - today's crate motors are incredibly cheap because of high volume CNC machined parts, many from China, Mexico, Brazil, et al. Today's $5000 crate motor is made of much better parts, to much closer tolerances than the factory engines of fifty years ago and would have cost $700 in 1964 and that would have been about two months wages for a young guy.

jack vines

[Gunslinger]

The $2400 (2006 purchase) 350HO/330hp crate engine in my '70 Avanti was made in Mexico. It runs spectacularly well and as Sherwood Egbert said about the original Avanti...more power than I can use. And it was far less expensive than it would have cost to rebuild the car's original considering I've no idea of the care it got prior to my obtaining it. That's assuming an overbore, new pistons, etc., plus all the machining and labor time.

As said...today's manufacturing methods are far better than back in the day.

[nels]

So Studebaker gave Chevy the idea of marketing a crate motor. I never thought about it before but I think you are right. What would GM have done if they didn't have little Studebaker out there doing all it's thinking for them. Think of all the butchered cars that would still be virgins if that crate motor was never conceived. Maybe that's one thing Studebaker shouldn't have done.

[grobb284]

Isn't a McKinnon a crate motor?


Picture of his grandson below ..


Butchering courtesy of employee from local grocery's meat department .

[Deaf Mute]

More "fodder" to back up Palma's story in the last Hemmings Classic Car.... someone ought to send this bit to their editor. I already sent him a letter this month.

[benaslopoke]

So Studebaker gave Chevy the idea of marketing a crate motor. I never thought about it before but I think you are right. What would GM have done if they didn't have little Studebaker out there doing all it's thinking for them. Think of all the butchered cars that would still be virgins if that crate motor was never conceived. Maybe that's one thing Studebaker shouldn't have done.

I started in the parts department at our local Packard dealer in 1955, we had a crate Packard I-8 engine that required me to step around to get to the body shop parts bins.. We could get crate engines IF we really, really needed one then.. Later while working with a Chevy dealer we were selling crate Chevy 350's for less than $ 1500.00, not to mention transmissions.. I could get most anything if I could sell it..

[Xcalibur]

And, I think cherry pie was first created in the Studebaker employees' cafeteria!

[63 R2 Hawk]

I believe there was a boat dealer or builder in Portland, OR who acquired a number of crated R2 motors in 1965 or thereabouts that had been waiting for cars that were never built. I would assume there must still be a few boats hiding somewhere with R2 or other Stude motors.

[candbstudebakers]

Back in about 1964-65 my brother was living in Reno and won a boat in a card game and it was powered by a Studebaker, a flat head "6" and what about the replacement engine with no numbers or the clover leaf ones, they would have been a crate motor back then.

[nels]

And, I think cherry pie was first created in the Studebaker employees' cafeteria!

I didn't know that. So that's why Chevrolet came up with their slogan "hot dogs and apple pie"....I'll be damn.

[56H-Y6]

Service engines, both new production or factory rebuilt, were available from all makes for years. Any dealer could order them from the factory and install them in customers wanting a new engine rather than rebuild the one in their car. My father related that Conroy Motors in Java Center, NY during the Ford flathead days had it set up so you could drive in in the morning in your Ford or Mercury with a tired flathead, drive out that afternoon with a new engine installed. Same program was available at most any make dealer for decades.

[Buzzard]

Re: the boats, I was in Vancouver Canada and I recall seeing in the 70's a picture of a boat in Seattle Washington with two R-2's in it. I often wondered what became of them.
Bill

[bezhawk]

I doubt many R engines were sold as crate engines. The cost was very high in comparison to wages at the time. Studebaker people were not the type to click the option boxes as we all know.