The Howard Eater Story - (Or the tale of two '53 Studebakers)

[Bordeaux Daytona]

I stumbled across this site, not sure if it was mentioned here before. The first car got wrecked pretty bad.


http://www.ussarcherfish.com/roadrunners/HowardEater.htm

[Chris Pile]

That is a great story!

[warrlaw1]

Indeed, a great story. No wonder those coupes had such respect. Peter Caligueros is running his yellow 53 at Maxton and getting to 200 mph. My little factory 55 has done over 100 and now I have Turner disc brake conversion to help slow me down.

[Alan]

I probably know the guy that wrote that story. He mentions Burke La Sage, who I worked with at San Fernando Raceway in the 60's. Burke was the Tech. Inspector and I put the numbers on the windshields and right side windows. Ack Miller was the outlet for Garrett Turbos until around 78 or 79. When with his callous attitude and mouth made someone mad at corporate and they cut him off.

[Chris Pile]

Ack Miller was the outlet for Garrett Turbos until around 78 or 79. When with his callous attitude and mouth made someone mad at corporate and they cut him off.

Ak Miller was a well known hot rodding hero long before he worked at Garrett.
I think his legacy is pretty safe.
Most folks know he spoke the brutal truth, and wasn't afraid to shake up conventional norms.
He was an inventor, driver, journalist, master mechanic and fabricator who was a great ambassador for motorsports in general.
He even helped put together SEMA.
Garrett is a mere footnote to Ak's storied career.

[ConRod]

Well I'll be dipped. That's kind of interesting. I think my hands have been on that car, and in fact, yep, I've driven it.

That was nice of Dean Lowe to include me in his byline, but truth be told I haven't contributed much to the story. I'm sittin' on my own version, which will include portions of his, but I'm holdin' out for print 'cause I make my modest livin' that way.

Anyway, the story in its entirety is a whopper, and only a photo-shoot away from submission -- somewhere, someday.


When my good friend Harry Graun found The Howard Eater II, it was sittin' under some tree somewhere. The car had obviously been-there-done-that and I for one was hungry for the history. Over time bits 'n' pieces came together and now we know the real story -- Dean's story.

Now ordinarily I don't stay up so late, so rather than rattlin' on, how 'bout if I just post a sort of recent picture of the car -- in the final daze at Carlsbad Raceway?



From left-to-right: Les Theis, Gary "Whiz-Bang" Estee, Harry "The Crow" Graun, "Carlsbad" Ken Wilson from Carlsbad, yours truly just out of view with the Box Brownie and the one 'n' only Howard Eater II behind the crew.

There's more to come, but I'll have y'all know I'm tickled to see Dean's link here. Thanks for that.

Rodney Bauman

[Chris Pile]

Rodney..... your car's on fire.

[clonelark]

Great story with a lot of famous names being thrown around.

[RadioRoy]

Interesting how easy it was to find these cars back in the day. There must have been a lot of them around. Wish it was still that way.