Spotted this a couple of years ago, 1953 Studebaker

[dusty taylor]

There is a man in Springfield MO, said that he had seen this car when he was a kid. I can't remember which state this was in, but not Springfield MO. It looks like it was a salt flat race car, but it was not. It was built for the street and dragstrip. The man that has it now, says he is going to put the car back like it was, in the day when it was on the streets. There are some other modifications other than the front. When they chopped the top, instead of cutting the rear window, they lowered the panel in front of the trunk area. Looks kind of odd. I did not get a picture of that the day that we were there. Hope you enjoy a couple of pictures of it. Dusty

[Chris Pile]

If it is the same Studebaker I'm thinking of, I tried to buy this at auction about 10 years ago when the builder's son was dispersing the estate. The builder was Bill Clay, and ran this car on the salt and at the drags with a GMC blown Caddy. The original color was white. The car had a 3 point rollbar made of huge diameter pipe.

I ended up buying an Edmunds double deuce manifold that fit a Studebaker V8 for a little of nothing, and sold it years later to an SDC member.

[woodysrods]

Was this car not on ebay within the last year? Or did I see it some place else??
Brian

[Bob Andrews]

I'm with Brian. I know we've seen it fairly recently, just not sure where...

[dusty taylor]

Hi this car has been in the same building for two years. Dusty

[52-fan]

A very racy and sleek looking car, but unless the police are very understanding he will get grief driving it on the street with no headlights.

[junior]

check out page 59 of sept. issue of hotrod deluxe, there is a stude coupe with the same front end treatment w/o the chopped top. the car was originally featured in mar.56 issue of hotrod magazine and was a "land speed racer". sorry, my scanner is not a flatbed style so I cant post it, tried to photo the magazine page but the image is too small. perhaps someone else can scan and post? thanks for the photos dusty...I think the car is cool a stude with attitude. Junior.

[Pat Dilling]

I'm thinking you could put some small headlights down in the corners of the air scoop to be street legal. Very interesting. Sinking the rear cowl is an idea I have seen done before, then you could build a false panel to bring the body line back up even with the trunk.

[55 prez]

Dusty this looks like the car I saw many years ago in Marionville, MO only the headlights have been filled in with metal. It had a nailhead Buick engine and a custom interior. The owner wouldn't sell but I saw the car several years later at a car show in Aurora, MO. May not be the same car but the front end treatment is certainly the same.

[skyway]

That's a car that might actually benefit from a flush headlight treatment ala new Mini/current Mercedes.

[JRoberts]

If this car did indeed run on the salt at Bonneville I wonder how much rust it has. I have known cars that ran at Bonneville to have rust issues before they get home from the event. If not properly cleaned very quickly after the event bad things happen.

I like the look of the front of the car. I would like to see a picture of the rear window treatment. How this car can be made to be street legal without destroying the look might really be a challenge, still I like the way it looks.

[dusty taylor]

Hi i will see if i can get some more pictures. Dusty