Marriage Material

[Buzzard]

Well my wife has a hot rod Cadillac (which is the ultimate "Q-ship") with a big block W30 Oldsmobile as well as many unseen modifications (EG: 1 1/2" Sway Bars, Bilstein's, 55 Gallon concealed fuel tank, Hooker Headers, full hidden duals and so on so she has little criticism over my love for Studebakers. Besides one of our Avanti's (the '83) is technically hers'. Although hooking up late in life, we have been together for 27 years.

[Danny]

My wife (Mel, Melody) loves Studebakers. She really loved her 62 Champ that we sold to a fellow in New Zealand during her cancer treatments in '08. Every time she sees one live or in a photo, she misses it. She changed the oil and put in spark plugs. Not easy for a 105 lb. girl!

[Studedude]

My wife (Mel, Melody) loves Studebakers. She really loved her 62 Champ that we sold to a fellow in New Zealand during her cancer treatments in '08. Every time she sees one live or in a photo, she misses it. She changed the oil and put in spark plugs. Not easy for a 105 lb. girl!

She drag raced it, too!

[j.byrd]

Studedude, that drag race comment reminds me of a couple of Karen racing stories... When we had our Avanti, she was racing it one day up at Union Hill outside of Nashville, TN and was placed beside a 396 Chevelle for her round. She told me she was probably beat before she started but was gona' try to jump him off the line. Well, she certainly did, and he spun a LOT trying to catch her. She won that round, but when she came back to the pits, she said that I might want to look things over, that she had forgot to shift out of low range !!!! Her speed was something like 63 or 64, ( it is an 1/8th mile strip), but she was 1st, ha ! As usual with these old Studebakers, no damage, she was just embarrassed...

The other story happened at Buffalo Valley drag strip up in the country past Carthage, TN. She was racing her little 78 Ford Fiesta then and since it was bracket racing that day, had got all the way to the semi's. Her opponent was a 61 Bel Air with a monster motor, slicks, etc., and with her dial-in time, she was gone long before his light came on. He was really rocketing down the strip, kinda' going all over it to be honest, and suddenly Karen's brake lights came on and there was a puff of dust from her scooting too far to the right and getting in a little dirt. He went by her in a couple of seconds like she was setting still of course, and when she got back, I asked her what happened she said she looked up in her mirror and it scared her seeing him bouncing around and coming on so fast, ha ! I honestly think she would have won except for looking in that mirror, lol. We used to race everything we drove, including our bikes, it's so much fun when you're young, made out of rubber, and "can't be killed", ha ha !

[Studedude]

j.byrd, to be honest, watching Melody race her Champ against another Champ was not very... exciting. We used an hour glass to time them. It was fun, though!

[Rafe Hollister]

I started drag racing my 77 KZ1000 when I was in Bible College in the 70s at Big Willie's Brotherhood Raceway in Long Beach.
I was practicing at Colorado's Mile High Raceway with my 1980 GS1100E when my buddy told me how slow I was off the line and would never beat the Honda CBX that lurched and wheelied off the line. So I lined up against the CBX next round and pulled him 3 bike lengths off the line. 'Smooth' is fast, but can look slow.
I was racing my 89 1500 Kawasaki Vulcan at Carlesbad Raceway. It did low 13s at 100mph, so I was basically invisible to the young hot shots on their sport bikes and not gettin' no respect... till I asked them what their 60' times were. None were under 2 seconds, but I was doing 1.7s. I gave them lessons after that... That was fun!
But my Powerhawk is the 1st car I've ever drag raced (Samoa Drag Strip, Eureka Ca). I turned a few 17.75 at 80mph... and had sooo much fun beating stock Civics and a CRZ Hybrid. I think slow vehicles are just as much fun to race as fast ones. And the drag strip seems sooo much longer!

[Noxnabaker]

Oh, reading about your able gals I feel I must tell you about Sonja; she's a much better welder & painter (with prepairing too) than me & she's been working on cars too, never raced any thou. When we met she had such low self esteem so to teach her driving I noticed that when she drove her Volvo 544 it was no good so I put her in this one, stepped out & let her sort it out by herself & that worked:

When we bought our second -54 Savoy she changed oil in the rear axel:
(but then it was on the ground)

Her welding skills became obvious since we bought our first ship in -93 & then has had 6 of those, thou she never touched a welder before... But what got me thinking that she might be the perfect woman for me was our other main interests in music, photo & painting.

[Buzzard]

Thom,
Samoa Raceway-Too much of a coincidence that I have eaten several times at the Samoa Cookhouse whenever passing through Eureka-Excellent and very unique!
Bill