Theodore Wills Pietsch II - Studebaker designer

[woodysrods]

I would SO drive that every single day.

We all know that there's the remnants of a Transtar cab in the Proving Ground Graveyard with wheel well cutouts in the rear corners.. The real life version of this truck, perhaps?

Getting in and out of this looks like it miight take a little effort???
Good Roads
Brian

[woodysrods]

Concept cars are Great.
Just wish the imaginations of the artists could have been more cost efficient and potentially profitalbe to the car manufacturers.
We would have had some cool cars to remember and restore......and not so many square 4dr boxes.
Good Roads
Brian

[Avantidon]

Pietsch had a fascinating career with little formal training. He worked for many different companies during a 38 year career. These include Chrysler (3 times), Hudson Briggs Manufacturing, Ford, Raymond Loewy Associates, Studebaker-Packard and AMC. Many of us are familiar with the vehicles he worked on. The SNM had a great show this past fall and early winter on much of his work. That exhibit is coming to the America On Wheels Museum in Allentown PA very soon. In ddition to this SNM owns about 30 od his pieces that are placed throughout the museum in South Bend.

[jclary]

Here's a thought. As long as we are talking "concept," and in keeping with the challenges of our current world...think about moving the front wheel to the centerline of the "A" post of this cab. Then think about a front wheel drive Electric with a transverse motor armature shaft driving independent suspension front wheels coupled with constant velocity joints. That would free up the under carriage for battery storage, provide a very low and thus stable center of gravity.

Develop a battery pack capable of transporting a half ton load with a 400 mile range at 80 mph and a 4 hour recharge and recovery rate and you'd have a true practical electric vehicle.

I am good at ideas...some of you with "ability"...go out and build it!

[scott.rodgers]

I'm assuming that all information regarding the cabover prototype was lost in the '63 closure. Are there really no other pictures or other information available regarding this project? The Pietsch rendering is great BTW.

Were ther plans to use the cabover cab on the larger trucks? I know there is another rendering (by Pietsch?) that shows a new, larger truck in the 50's, but was this cab specifically a consideration for the larger trucks too?

[Ricardo]

Yes! and the cargo box is identic to that used in the earlier Champs.

[Chris_Dresbach]

Here's what happened to that truck cab in the graveyard. Sometime in either the mid '70s or early '80s some Bendix employees working at the proving ground thought it would be a neat project to take out that cab, bring it up to the proving ground garage, and fix it up. Obviously they were doing this on company time. When the higher ups and Bendix found out about this, they told the employees working on this truck that if it ever saw the open road they would loose their jobs. The truck went to Herwich Iron the next day.

[Milaca]

Perhaps somebody has more photos of the graveyard cab showing the inside and such. Would be a great project to recreate.

[Chris_Dresbach]

Perhaps somebody has more photos of the graveyard cab showing the inside and such. Would be a great project to recreate.

That's a topic that I've investigated extensively. I have a collection of photos and other artifacts just from the graveyard itself; and sadly this is the only photo I have ever seen of the COE Transtar.

[JRoberts]

While the coe pickup is really cool, I find the first one more interesting as it reminds me of one of my favorite car haulers of all time. The Mercedes was supposed to have been able to attain 110 mph with a race car aboard.



Here is a restored example:





I do not know when Theodore Wills Pietsch was involved with Studebaker, but the Mercedes unit existed around the time of the Studebaker-Mercedes agreement of the mid to late 1950's.

[Studedude]

Uh... I think I must be looking at something wrong... those tie downs are not secured, or passed through those wheels, are they?

Thanks for sharing those pics, Joe... don't think I've ever seen anything like that rig... and, I like it!

[JRoberts]

Well Dave I think you are correct about the chains through the wheels. Odd isn't it? I have seen such in pictures before on what I think of as really expensive wheels. Look at these:

[Studedude]

If that's right, it shouldn't be! <G>

[Milaca]

I think the Mercedes car wheels are secured by a noose around it's hubs. ??? I dont recall having ever seen such a truck before, very interesting!