Back in 1973 I was a teenager with a '64 Commander. A real plain jane but I loved it and was a member of SDC. My summer job was as a toll collector on the Garden State Parkway in south Jersey. One day an elderly couple pulled into my lane in the flashiest Black and Chrome '64 Cruiser I'd ever seen. After some light conversation (this was all backing up traffic) he asked "do you want to buy it?".
A few days later they drove down from Toms River NJ and delivered the car. The story is that this was a part of the Executive fleet that Clayton Motors in Lakewood NJ had purchased from South Bend in 1965. The folks had just bought a '64 Hawk but the lady was having a hard time getting into it (low seats). The dealer called them back in, the Cruiser was on a rotating turntabie in the center of the dealership, and they were told it had belonged to Byers Burlingame, the President of Studebaker. Well, they traded in the hawk for it, and owned it up to my purchase. Unfortunatly, no packed to documents came with, other than the usual glove compartment material. Many years ago I wrote to Carl Thompson, and though he could not be certain, he agreed that is was most likely built for and used by Burlingame. It has all the options available, Disc brakes, Air, AMFM, Red broadcloth upholstry, PS Tint glass TT. Serial number 64V19816 and a final assembly date of Dec. 18, 1963. It was prepped for retail delivery and delivered to South Bend to a Stude employee. Thats all I can say for sure. It SURE looks like the CEO's car, Black, chrome and red wool a real power car. Now, I kept it. It sat in the drive for about 15 year at one point but she is purring now and I would put (areas) of that factory black paint up against any Rolls Royce finish.
So.............the big question, do any of you boys remember seeing Mr. Burlingame tooling around South Bend in that car? It is amazing to think that he drove home one day in December '63 knowing he had just shut down Americas oldest automaker. Id love to get some photos or some hard documentation on this. thanks
A few days later they drove down from Toms River NJ and delivered the car. The story is that this was a part of the Executive fleet that Clayton Motors in Lakewood NJ had purchased from South Bend in 1965. The folks had just bought a '64 Hawk but the lady was having a hard time getting into it (low seats). The dealer called them back in, the Cruiser was on a rotating turntabie in the center of the dealership, and they were told it had belonged to Byers Burlingame, the President of Studebaker. Well, they traded in the hawk for it, and owned it up to my purchase. Unfortunatly, no packed to documents came with, other than the usual glove compartment material. Many years ago I wrote to Carl Thompson, and though he could not be certain, he agreed that is was most likely built for and used by Burlingame. It has all the options available, Disc brakes, Air, AMFM, Red broadcloth upholstry, PS Tint glass TT. Serial number 64V19816 and a final assembly date of Dec. 18, 1963. It was prepped for retail delivery and delivered to South Bend to a Stude employee. Thats all I can say for sure. It SURE looks like the CEO's car, Black, chrome and red wool a real power car. Now, I kept it. It sat in the drive for about 15 year at one point but she is purring now and I would put (areas) of that factory black paint up against any Rolls Royce finish.
So.............the big question, do any of you boys remember seeing Mr. Burlingame tooling around South Bend in that car? It is amazing to think that he drove home one day in December '63 knowing he had just shut down Americas oldest automaker. Id love to get some photos or some hard documentation on this. thanks
Good luck !
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