One more Standard found.

Matthew Burnette, a Georgia SDC member, emailed me after seeing my post about 1963 Lark Standards. He writes:

Hey Clark. I see you're searching for Standards. There's a fella in North GA that has a really nice one.

And he does indeed. This photo from the North Georgia Chapter website shows an immaculate Standard 2-door sedan in white (just like mine!) belonging to chapter member Terry Smith.

Anyone else have a Standard? Let me know; I'd love to hear about your car and maybe post a pic or two.

Marshal the troops!

Here's a great video of a 1964 Studebaker Marshal police cruiser - one of only 20 made - taching it up at the Chicago Emergency Vehicle show. It's owned by SDC member Joe Fay of Naperville, Indiana. Here's what he has to say about the car:

This Marshal is one of the twenty experimental models made just before the South Bend closure. Each one was equipped with a R1 engine, roll bar and a special bench seat. These cars were all used in a program that would loan out the vehicle to selected cites or states across the US. Each car was then specially equipped to the designated test city/state.

The test program fell apart (about the time of South Bend closure) so many of the vehicles did not make it to there intended test city/state. The Youtube Marshal was designated for State of Kentucky, but was actually delivered to the State of Indiana.

It was field tested at the Charlestown barricks and serviced at Sellersburg Motors. It then went back to Studebaker where it was later sold the The City of Phoenix (can't confirm, but pretty darn sure). In 1983 it was donated the the Studebaker Museum by the estate of an Arizona SDC member. It was sold at the museum auction at the SDC show in 1997.

Of the twenty R1 test vehicles about seven survive.

Lots more pictures and details about Marshals here.

Searching for a Standard.

Ok, I'm a little obsessed about Lark Standards (since I have one). It's kind of a rare model in that it was offered to the general public starting midway through the '63 model year, and did not appear again in 1964. The F2 style was instead assigned to the bottom-of-the-line Challenger model (a Standard by any other name...).

So I did a little searching on Google and found another fellow with a Standard: Marc Weimer of Punxatawney, PA. He's got a beautifully-restored 2-door Standard, and a couple nice photos on a web page dedicated to his Stude. I've corresponded with him a bit and he's a very nice guy.

After a bit of looking, I found pictures of another Standard, this one a P2 4-door wagon (they weren't called Wagonaires unless the roof slid, and this one doesn't). This one belongs to fellow SDCer Gary Ash from Massachusetts. He's got a lot of work to do on this puppy, but it's going to be a sweet car once done. (Gary's page has a pic of that funky "glove box" they fitted in the Standard too. If there was ever an uglier cost-cutting measure, I'd like to see it. Chevette headlight knobs on Cadillac Allantes don't count.)

Maybe a registry for Standards would be a cool thing. Sure, little trim-free loss-leader plain-Jane sedans aren't sexy - but they are more representative of what was really on the road back in the day than all the flashy hardtops and convertibles. And they've got to be getting somewhat rare by now. Gotta think on this.