Is there a "searching for ?" thread?

[HOXXOH]

I'm searching for a car I once had. It's a '52 Starlite Coupe that I dug out of an orchard in 1967 and drag raced for many years. I sold it in the early '90's to a guy in NY, who apparently sold it recently (in the last two years). My racing partner and I would like to find it again. Here's the best photo of it during the late 60's. Last painted '68 Pontiac Verdero Green.
Any leads appreciated.

[StudeRich]

Welcome to the SDC and to the SDC Forum Tom.

Sorry, there is not a Forum for looking for a Lost Car.

But, here is as good as any, we do have a LOT of SDC Members in the Southwest U.S. area and many that used to Drag Race, even a few that still do, and or build High Performance Stude. Engines mostly in Southern Calif.

Good luck finding your '52 Champion/Commander?? Starlight Coupe.

[HOXXOH]

Thanks for the reply. I was in SDC and a founding member of the Grand Canyon chapter in '72. I was active in the chapter until the mid 80's. This particular car was a Commander State Coupe and originally with a 3-spd manual OD. Later changed to a 3-spd w/o OD and later to an automatic. I'm still racing, but currently with a DD Corvette. I posted the following on the racingstudebakers.com forum, but the traffic there is far less than here. Maybe with more info, it'll get noticed.

Looking for information regarding a '52 Starlite coupe I built for the drags in the mid-60's. I took a partner in 1968 and we campaigned the car mainly in Ohio, but also in MI, Canada, and at the AHRA Nationals in Bristol, TN. I bought out my partner in 1971 and moved to Phoenix, AZ. The car initially ran NHRA at Milan, National Trails, Toledo, Ketlersville, Sidney, and Van Wert. It ran T/S, and U/S, since NHRA kept changing the class designations. Every time we finally got the car running under the record, that pesky Ted Harbit and/or Steve Berg (Olds) would drop it down another notch. So we switched to AHRA, whose rules allowed different mods. Then we primarily ran at Detroit, Norwalk, and West Salem. We held 4 AHRA World records between '69 and '71. The car was painted '68 Pontiac Verdero Green and lettered with the name "Aardvark Engineering" on the door. I had painted part of the hood, the halo, and the lower trunk lid in blended candy colors and then lace painted over it in white.
After I got to AZ, I raced in Tucson, and both Phoenix tracks. Eventually, I went to a blower from a '57 GH which I modded with a spring pack and a pulley collar and then got a prototype impeller from John Erb. I also machined a larger than stock aluminum lower pulley, which gave 15-16 psi boost from around 5000 up. I drilled the block to drain oil down from the valley without hitting the crank and partitioned the heads to create 4 exhaust ports by utilizing the heat crossover port. In order to run the 4th pipe over the top side, I cut the heat riser part off the OEM 232 hi-rise style intake. A few years before when we made the switch to AHRA, the intake was milled and bored to accept a Rochester 2GC carb that was modified to flow nearly 700 CFM. A little overkill for the .058 overbored 232, but worked OK. I made an airbox for the switch to FI. The biggest change other than the engine, was a swap to a '53 Olds Hydramatic trans. I got an old Chuck's Speed Shop fluid coupling that he had furnace brazed and cut stators for a 3500 stall speed. A Stude to Chev trans adapter to a Chev truck front bell housing to a Cadillac rear housing mated the trans. IIRC it took a Ford Taurus U-joint to get the Olds driveshaft hooked to the Dana 44. With a 4.89 rear gear and a 3.82 1st gear in the trans, the launch was amazing and quickly got the blower into the power range.
Later I lost the blower in the cheap seats shortly after the 1000' mark and decided to quit racing that car. I stuck a stock 259 and a 3 speed manual in it to cruise on the street, but never finished the project. The race engine was sold to some guy in the Los Angeles area and the trans went to someone around the bay. The guy who bought the car in the early 90's, trailered it back to New York.

That's the end of the trail. His name is Bob Wells and last known address is 8587 Cazenovia Rd. Oran , NY. So if anyone ever saw or heard of the car, please PM me.

Thanks for reading.

[8E45E]

Sounds similar to this one! http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...debaker-Maggot

Craig

[studegary]

It may help your search to know that the five passenger coupe body style was a Starlight (not "Starlite").

[HOXXOH]

Just read that thread and the "Maggot" was not it. However, with some confusion being mentioned about selling 2 cars, it's possible that mine was the other one. Mine was in AZ in '71 and had not gone to the Syracuse area until the early '90's.

[6hk71400]

Just read that thread and the "Maggot" was not it. However, with some confusion being mentioned about selling 2 cars, it's possible that mine was the other one. Mine was in AZ in '71 and had not gone to the Syracuse area until the early '90's.

Too bad the car(s) did not stay in Tucson. There are a couple of places they would have ended resting here and could be actively tracked and found. If you get a chance to read the thread "R2 the Whistler" you would see what I mean.

Bob Miles
Tucson AZ

[HOXXOH]

Too bad the car(s) did not stay in Tucson. There are a couple of places they would have ended resting here and could be actively tracked and found. If you get a chance to read the thread "R2 the Whistler" you would see what I mean.

Bob Miles
Tucson AZ

Thanks Bob,
At the time I sold the car, no one in AZ was interested. I had 2 51's that I sold to Chuck Naugle a couple years earlier, but the '52 was too pricey for him just to store away. I'm sorta familiar with the Whistler IIRC from racing at Mel Larson's and Beeline in the early 70's, so maybe I should get with Eastburn and run over to John's place one of these days.

Tom Pfeifer
Peoria, AZ