50 Fun Facts About Studebaker

John M. Studebaker bankrolled the family firm with money earned in Gold Rush California making what?

Wheelbarrows for gold miners earned him $8,000 at Placerville and the nickname Wheelbarrow Johnny. He took the money home in 1858 to expand his brothers' wagon works.

Studebaker spelled out its name at its Indiana proving ground, readable from the air, using what?

Pine trees planted in the late 1930s still spell STUDEBAKER across what is now a county park, and the living sign is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Which beer brand's famous horse-drawn hitch pulls wagons that Studebaker built around 1900?

Budweiser's hitch wagons are Studebakers from about 1900, when the firm ran the largest buggy and wagon works in the world.

In which 1979 film does Fozzie Bear drive Kermit across America in a 1951 Studebaker?

The Muppet Movie used two 1951 Studebaker sedans. One, steered by an operator hidden in the trunk watching a video monitor, is now on display at the Studebaker National Museum.

Which Studebaker model name, meant to imply it set the standard for rivals, was dropped in 1937?

Dictator was chosen in 1927 to say the car dictated the standard that other makes would have to follow. Overseas the same model was sold as the Director.

Most Studebaker US6 army trucks built during World War II were shipped to which Allied country?

The Soviet Union received them under Lend-Lease, where troops nicknamed the truck the Studer and the Red Army made it the standard carrier for Katyusha rocket launchers.

Which Detroit luxury carmaker merged with Studebaker in 1954 and built its last car in 1958?

Packard was the smaller but healthier partner. Its executives soon found Studebaker needed to sell 282,000 cars a year to break even and had barely sold 82,000.

Which French-born designer of the Lucky Strike pack led the team that styled the Studebaker Avanti?

Raymond Loewy's team shaped the Avanti in a 40-day crash program, working in a house leased for the job in Palm Springs.

After its Indiana plant closed in 1963, Studebaker built its final cars in which country?

Canada's plant in Hamilton, Ontario, turned out the last Studebaker, a Cruiser sedan, in March 1966. It had been the company's only car factory for over two years.

Studebaker's old military-truck division became AM General, the maker of which famous army vehicle?

Humvee maker AM General began as Studebaker's defense arm, which Kaiser took over in 1964 and American Motors bought in 1970.

Which Indiana city was home to Studebaker's headquarters and main factory for more than a century?

South Bend is where Henry and Clement Studebaker opened shop in 1852. When the plant shut in 1963, the company was still the largest employer in its county.

Which compact, launched for 1959, sold over 130,000 in a year and gave Studebaker a reprieve?

Lark sales earned a $28.6 million profit in that first year, then fell away once the Big Three launched compact models of their own in 1960.

The Studebaker Avanti's name, supplied by the company's advertising agency, means what in Italian?

Forward, or onward, is what Avanti means. The name suited a halo car rushed out in 1962 to lift the company's sagging image.

The Studebaker Avanti's body was molded from which material rather than pressed in steel?

Fiberglass suited the Avanti's complex curves, which would have been prohibitively expensive in steel. The panels came from the Ohio firm that molded the first Corvette bodies.

Which early-1960s sitcom was sponsored by Studebaker and featured the company's cars prominently?

Mister Ed, the talking-horse comedy, was first funded by Studebaker's dealers, who each put in $25 for every car sold, matched by the company.

Henry and Clement Studebaker opened their first shop in 1852 working in which trade?

Blacksmiths and foundrymen at first, the brothers made metal parts for freight wagons before they began building complete wagons of their own.

Army orders for wagons during which conflict turned the Studebaker brothers' shop into a major business?

Civil War contracts with the Northern army helped lift annual sales to $350,000 by 1868, the year the brothers incorporated their company.

What powered the very first automobiles that Studebaker built and sold, starting in 1902?

Electric batteries drove every Studebaker car at first. Gasoline models followed in 1904, and the battery cars were dropped within a decade.

The Studebaker National Museum holds the carriage that carried which president the night he was shot?

Abraham Lincoln rode in it to Ford's Theatre in April 1865, and the museum's director has called it one of the crown jewels of any museum collection in the world.

Which animal name was given to the tracked M29 snow vehicle that Studebaker built in World War II?

Weasel carriers were conceived for a commando raid on occupied Norway, then proved just as useful hauling loads through mud, sand and desert.

Which famous college football coach gave his name to a low-priced Studebaker brand of the early 1930s?

Knute Rockne had been giving pep talks at Studebaker dealer gatherings and signed on as its manager of sales promotion in 1931, only to die in a plane crash soon afterwards.

The Erskine, a small Studebaker-built car of the 1920s, was first launched in which European capital?

Paris got the first look because Albert Erskine, the company chief who gave the car his name, admired small European cars and wanted buyers there.

Which incoming president ordered a full set of Studebaker carriages for the White House in 1889?

Benjamin Harrison went on to appoint company co-founder Clement Studebaker as a delegate to the Pan-American Conference of 1889–1890.

Studebaker built radial aircraft engines during World War II for which famous American heavy bomber?

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress engines became a Studebaker speciality: from January 1944 its factory was the only one building the R-1820 Cyclone fitted to the bomber.

The Studebaker Avanti broke 29 speed records, one car topping 170 mph, on salt flats in which state?

Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats were the proving stage, and the Avanti was called the fastest production car in the world when it was introduced.

What nickname did the 1950 and 1951 Studebakers earn for their pointed, spinner-style front end?

Bullet nose styling was a facelift of the 1947 body, and its central spinner gave the cars a look shared with the 1949 Ford sedan.

The 1947 Studebaker Starlight coupe had which startling feature, likened to a railroad observation car?

A wraparound rear window, made from four fixed panes of glass, gave a panoramic view and left critics asking which way the car was going.

What unusual feature let the 1963 Studebaker Wagonaire carry a refrigerator standing upright?

A sliding roof panel retracted over the cargo bay, though early cars leaked. A rival's SUV revived the idea in 2004 and was wrongly advertised as a first.

Which industrial designer created the Studebaker Wagonaire and styled the similarly named Jeep Wagoneer?

Brooks Stevens was told to widen Studebaker's range without costly retooling. He also restyled the ageing Hawk into the 1962 Gran Turismo Hawk.

For 1957 the Studebaker Golden Hawk's 289 V8 gained which device to reach 275 horsepower?

Supercharger height was a headache: the McCulloch unit sat so far up the front of the engine that the hood needed a hole and a raised cover to clear it.

Which light, thrifty Studebaker launched in 1939 doubled the company's sales in its first year?

Champion designers started from a clean sheet and treated weight as the enemy. Its small six-cylinder engine outlasted the car and stayed in production until 1964.

The Studebaker family's ancestors, who landed at Philadelphia in 1736, came from which present-day country?

Germany's city of Solingen was their home. They crossed from Rotterdam on the ship Harle and landed on September 1, 1736.

In the late 1950s Studebaker became the American importer of which European luxury car brand?

Mercedes-Benz cars gave Studebaker dealers an extra line to sell, and many of them became Mercedes dealerships once Studebaker stopped building cars.

Which engine-additive brand, later famous for its red oval racing stickers, did Studebaker buy in 1961?

STP was briefly advertised as standing for Studebaker Tested Products, and racing promoter Andy Granatelli was recruited to run the brand and raise its image.

With its own engine foundry closed, Studebaker's final 1965 and 1966 cars used engines from which rival?

General Motors supplied McKinnon engines based on Chevrolet's 230 six and 283 V8, so the very last Studebakers ran on a competitor's power.

Three Studebaker engineers known as the Three Musketeers later formed the engineering core of which carmaker?

Chrysler engineering grew out of the consultancy that Fred Zeder, Owen Skelton and Carl Breer set up after leaving Studebaker in 1920.

Which Buffalo luxury carmaker came under Studebaker's control in 1928, at the height of the boom?

Pierce-Arrow gained a ready-made dealer network, because its cars were then sold through Studebaker showrooms. It was sold off to investors in 1933.

The 1962 winner of which race got a Studebaker Avanti in his prize, becoming its first private owner?

Indianapolis 500 winner Rodger Ward took the car home. A Studebaker convertible paced the race that year, with the Avanti named honorary pace car.

Which bare-bones 1957 Studebaker, sold with painted hubcaps, was named for a reputation for thrift?

Scotsman buyers even paid extra for a heater, yet more than 9,000 were sold in a short first model year, one of them to Eleanor Roosevelt.

Studebaker named its 1954 station wagon after which type of covered wagon, a nod to the company's roots?

Conestoga honoured the horse-drawn wagons Studebaker built from the 1850s into the early 1900s. The two-door car lasted only two model years.

Studebaker kept building boxy delivery vans in Indiana into early 1964 under contract to which government agency?

Post Office orders for the Zip Van kept part of the Indiana works busy for weeks after the last car had left the line there in December 1963.

With Studebaker's Hill Holder, a driver stopped on a slope could release the brake while holding down which pedal?

The clutch pedal kept the brakes locked on until it was let up, which made uphill starts easy. The device first appeared on the 1936 President.

After Studebaker dropped the Avanti, who bought the name and tooling and kept building it by hand?

Two hometown car dealers, Nate Altman and Leo Newman, relaunched it in 1965 as the Avanti II, and successors kept versions alive until 2006.

The roofline of the 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk was heavily inspired by which Ford model?

Thunderbird-style thick roof pillars topped what was otherwise a clean, European-flavoured facelift of a coupe shape dating back to 1953.

Which future Las Vegas casino mogul sold his charter airline to Studebaker in 1962, then bought it back?

Kirk Kerkorian took $2.7 million in Studebaker stock for Trans International Airlines, then paid $2.5 million in cash to get it back in 1964.

Which aircraft maker signed a three-year contract in 1956 to manage Studebaker's struggling car business?

Curtiss-Wright gained idle car plants and tax relief on its aircraft profits, while the carmaker received working capital to keep production going.

The Studebaker carriage showroom built on Chicago's Michigan Avenue in the 1880s is known today by what name?

Fine Arts Building is its name now, and it still houses the Studebaker Theater, dedicated in 1898 when the block was extensively remodeled.

What long-rumored secret was found in the woods inside Studebaker's old proving-ground test oval?

A graveyard of prototypes had been left to rot there. Studebaker Drivers Club members found a wood-bodied 1947 station wagon in it, later rescued, restored and put on museum display.

The initials of Studebaker's early partner E-M-F, mocked as Every Morning Fix-it, really stood for what?

Three founders' surnames made the name: Everitt, Metzger and Flanders. Fixing their unreliable cars at owners' homes cost Studebaker $1 million.

Which Wall Street firm joined Lehman Brothers in financing Studebaker's 1911 incorporation?

Goldman Sachs also supplied a board member, Henry Goldman, whose contribution to the newly formed corporation was especially esteemed.