1959 Lark police car

[TerryY]

Once upon a time (circa 1961) I bought an ex South Bend police car.

The hearsay story I got was that it was built by Studebaker engineering as a prototype "Corvette Catcher" designed to catch any of Duntovs Corvettes any time and anyplace. It was supposedly one of 9 built.

It had a 259 with a Stromberg 123 2 barrel carb with 3"+ butterflies. A three speed overdrive column shift. The brakes were finned drums that had the fins cut to fit in 15" wheels. The brake shoes had a ceramic component and were 3" wide. The anti sway bars were bigger thn any of the aftermarket ones available at the time, seem to remember 1 1/4" in the rear.

The markings were Lark VIII and TT on the rear. Everything else looked like any other white 4 dr Lark.

I doubt that the car exists any more--the last that time I saw it was in about 1963 when I traded it to a wrecking yard with a gaping hole in the block for a handyman special '57 Plymouth convertible.

That was my first car and I flogged it unmercifully in my youthful exuberance. Once it was re-ringed to give it some compression it was quite fast and really would run with about everything of the time up to the 409 Chevies and the street Hemis.

I know that this is pretty long winded for a first post but you know how it is when we get old and hope that we didn't hallucinate our youth

Terry

[arkiejazz]

[)]Great story, Terry! Thanks for sharing and welcome aboard![)]

steve blake...roaming the Texas Panhandle in my trusty Champ pickup

http://tinyurl.com/kr3gt

[Nitram]

quote: you know how it is when we get old and hope that we didn't hallucinate our youth Terry

[8D]Seems like it was just yesterday...where did my youth go?[8D]

Welcome to the forum Terry


[img=left]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/158/360197307_8639ee4a46_m.jpg[/img=left]
~Nitram~
57 Transtar

[JDP]

Seems a odd build to me since both the 289 and 4 barrel were available in 59 as were finned drums and even a supercharger. Even using the 289 and 4 barrel r supercharger, outrunning a Corvette would not be in the cards. It sounds like the sort of story that gets embellished as it's passed down to you. They did build a few supercharged 57 sedans for police use though.

JDP/Maryland

[jclary]

[Mark57]

Welcome aboard Terry! - Here's a '64 "R" powered Pusuit Marshal to remind you of that '59.


<h5>Mark
'57 Transtar Deluxe
Vancouver Island

Are you planning to attend the NW Overdrive Tour in Parksville, BC
May 23 & 24, 2009?</h5>

[TerryY]

I had seen the Marshals when I searched on the police models here a week or so back.

I had the impression from my Uncle the car dealer who bought the car from South Bend that they were prototypes. He described the '60 or '61 models that South Bend was then driving as production police cars that they didn't like nearly as well.

I put a mechanical Sun tachometer on it and it would turn 7000 rpm in any gear. Yes on a downhill in the midwest I saw 7000 rpm in 3rd overdrive. Bad Terry [}]

It definitely addicted me to fast cars

I remember fondly wandering into a show room of new Avanti's a day or two after they introduced them. I also remember a tiny Studebaker dealer on a back street in Denver with a new Avanti the he claimed was an R4. One supercharger blowing into the other for some extreme amount of boost. Ah those were the days



Terry
Beaverton Oregon
'94 BMW 840
'98 Mustang Cobra
'00 Range Rover Vitesse

[barnlark]

Welcome Terry. It's great that you searched the forum for info on the marshals first. Istude and StudebakerWheel post great pictures of those when the topic comes up. Feature writer, Fred Fox has mentioned the 289 being available for those for 59-60 cars in our club magazine, Turning Wheels, so maybe yours got one instead of the 259. Most had 4 barrel "power kits" with dual exhausts and heavy duty suspension, TT was for the Studebaker twin traction rear end. Don't know why yours would be a prototype, though. Lots of police cars were made like that. Those were great cars for abusing! Join the SDC and you can get your first Turning Wheels magazine. Did you test the "Corvette Catcher" theory...on a straight road, I hope?

[TerryY]

I don't remember ever losing a drag race to a Corvette.

On the highway run that I made i passed a guy I was convoying cross country with like he was stopped and he claimed his speedometer was in the same place it was at 135 on the salt flats two weeks before. I know he was pretty upset that that little pos Lark blew off his Mercury Turnpike Cruiser that badly.[}] I enjoyed the moment.

A wanna be engineer friend calculated that I should have been going at ~170 mph at 7000 rpm. All I know is that it was an adrenaline moment at whatever speed I was going on a two lane highway with traffic.

The engine was apart a couple of times and it was definitely a 259. I couldn't understand why not a 289 either.
It had another memorable trait too. I would go thru a transmission ever couple of weeks. The teeth would strip off the cluster gear in first gear. Ended up adapting a Packard 3 speed overdrive to keep it on the road--thank you Honest Charley

Terry
Beaverton Oregon
'94 BMW 840
'98 Mustang Cobra
'00 Range Rover Vitesse

[52-fan]

Wild tale.


1952 Champion Starlight, 1962 Daytona, both w/overdrive.Searcy,Arkansas
"I may be lazy, but I'm not shiftless."

[studegary]

There were no R4 Avantis built by Studebaker. An R4 would not have dual superchargers.

I would want to see the build sheet and/or order for that Lark.

I wonder what rear axle ratio would give that kind of performance off the line and amazing top speed, even with overdrive.

Nice stories, but I think that they have grown over the years.

Gary L.
Wappinger, NY

SDC member since 1968
Studebaker enthusiast much longer

[JDP]

Both the 7000 RPM and 170 MPH are a bit over the top. Studebaker had to modify the oiling and valve train just to get 6000 RPM and even the R3 Avanti barely made 170 MPH. I'd buy maybe 5500 and 120 MPH with a 2 barrel 259. 170 MPH in a Lark takes over 500 HP and that's a silly number for a 259, 2 barrel.

JDP/Maryland

[bams50]

Come on, guys, I'm sure Terry's just pulling our leg for fun. Got you guys though![)]

Robert (Bob) Andrews Owner- Studebakeracres- on the IoMT (Island of Misfit Toys!)
Parish, central NY 13131

"Some people live for the rules, I live for exceptions"- 311

"Do they all not, by mere virtue of having survived as relics of a bygone era, amass a level of respect perhaps not accorded to them when they were new?"

[jclary]

Aw com'on, you don't think that a fellow club member could be stretching the truth! (reminds me of some of the tales heard in an overloaded station wagon with fellow club members on the way to the York swap meet about 15 years ago.)

John Clary
Greer, SC
SDC member since 1975

[TerryY]

I actually am not trying to blow smoke here. I noted the legend of the car up front and it lived up to what I was told.

I drove a whole lot of cars of the era and raced a lot more and never experienced another Studebaker V8 that performed anything like it. Very few of the era were even close to it in performance including those hot small block Chevies. The only Studebaker I ever saw that was faster was another Lark that had a 409 Chevy grafted in. It wasn't faster by all that much either.

I never saw a build sheet and don't have the numbers from the car. That was long long ago and any residual documentation I might have had ended up in the hands of the ex-wife I divorced 32 years ago.

Like I said a wannabe engineer figured out the theoretical speed. I know that I passed a dude that was real sure he was actually doing 135 when I went past him. That was way too fast for the tires of the time and looking back I am amazed that I survived my youth.

So with all of the record keepers out there is there a way to track the car thru South Bend PD records? They sold it in November or December of '61 as part of a 9 car lot. It probably isn't worth any effort though.

As to the Two barrel vs Four barrel there was an argument going on back then as to which was better a huge 2 barrel which is linear or a four barrel with the non linear power surge as the secondaries opened. The Four barrel obviously won. The Lark had the huge 2 barrel approach and with the 3"+ throttle plates IIRC it was the same size or bigger than the Stude 4 barrels of the era.

Meanwhile I need to decide if My retirement includes another Studebaker as a project or not. I do realize that it wouldn't be the car of memory lane and wouldn't need to be. I do have all the Go Power that I need already.


Terry
Beaverton Oregon
'94 BMW 840
'98 Mustang Cobra
'00 Range Rover Vitesse