12 replies to this topic

[Ray Bell]

Back in 1963/64 Studebaker produced some of their Larks with supercharged engines...

Though I used to have M/T and all that stuff at the time, that's now gone... so I'd like to have a few bits of information refreshed in my mind...

1. When did the supercharging option come out (it was in the Avanti as well, IIRC)?

2. What might Rodger Ward have had to do with the company or the model?

3. Were they a limited number model, or produced in very small numbers?

4. I feel sure they were homologated in some way... anybody know for sure?

5. What was the advertised horsepower and the improvement in performance?

I'd appreciate any help that might be forthcoming... and I'm well aware of the Needham car that ran at Sandown in 1965/65 with Weldon, Ward and Slattery driving.

[ray b]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
Back in 1963/64 Studebaker produced some of their Larks with supercharged engines...

Though I used to have M/T and all that stuff at the time, that's now gone... so I'd like to have a few bits of information refreshed in my mind...

1. When did the supercharging option come out (it was in the Avanti as well, IIRC)?

2. What might Rodger Ward have had to do with the company or the model?

3. Were they a limited number model, or produced in very small numbers?

4. I feel sure they were homologated in some way... anybody know for sure?

5. What was the advertised horsepower and the improvement in performance?

I'd appreciate any help that might be forthcoming... and I'm well aware of the Needham car that ran at Sandown in 1965/65 with Weldon, Ward and Slattery driving.

1 late 50's fad ford had a superch on the 57 t-bird
stude started with a hawk 59? maybe, forsure on early Avanti before they switched to chevy V-8s.
2 indy winner ??
3 lark-daytona model top opt fairly small run unsure exact #
4 ?? maybe at sebring??
5 about 300+hp maybe 325, and 270-250 without S/C Stude was allso a 327 but not the later chevy 327 same size different motor used in same cars after stude began to fail confused yet????? I donot think chevys 327used a S/C in the studes sedans maybe in Avanti only

[Buford]

We raced a Lark for several years and cleaned up in Midwest stock car racing with just 320 cubic inches but it was not supercharged. We also raced Golden Hawks. My dad's team was factory backed.

[Ray Bell]

Lark Daytona does strike a chord... but I must stress here that I'm not after guesses...

Yes, Rodger Ward, Indy winner.

[Milan Fistonic]

I have a road test of a Studebaker Daytona R-4 Hardtop from the February 1964 edition of Car Life. It mentions that the R-4 is powered by a non-supercharged version of the 304.5 cu.in. R-3 engine.

The article gives the following power outputs for the various engines.

289 unsupercharged R-1; 240 bhp at 5000 rpm
289 supercharged R-2; 289 bhp at 4800 rpm
304.5 supercharged R-3; 335 bhp at 5350 rpm
304.5 unsupercharged R-4; 280 bhp at 5000 rpm

All R-3 and R-4 engined cars were run for 500 miles on a chassis dynamometer before delivery.

The Daytona R-4 had a high peformance package fitted which included heavier shock absorbers, stiffer springs, front and rear anti-roll bars, traction bars on the rear axle and a limited-slip diff.

It was good for 132 mph at 6000 rpm and did the standing quarter in 15.8 secs.

[Ray Bell]

And disc brakes?

Thanks, Milan... that's great info.

[eldougo]

Racing STUDEBAKERS that brings back a few images of Bathurst RAY .!!!!
Now that was a test for them to drive no a real track not going round & round turning left all day.

[Ray Bell]

And led the first two or three laps each year...

Till they fried their brakes... always started on pole because they were the dearest cars in the race... they were different days, but no superchargers there.

[Milan Fistonic]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
And disc brakes?

Only on the front.

Studebaker's vacuum-assisted power brakes, with 11.5-in discs on front and 11-in finned cast drums at the rear, are just about the best available for domestic cars.

[Stefan Ornerdal]

Is it true that Studebaker had the bad taste to name their 1939 model - Dictator ?

Stefan

[Milan Fistonic]

Some more info from a road test of a Lark R-3 in Hot Rod Magazine of January 1964.

In the early sixties a new young president named Sherwood Egbert took over the reins at Studebaker and set about restoring the faded image of the company. In mid-1962 the Avanti was introduced which did a lot for the company’s styling image and it was followed by a program to enhance the performance image of their cars.
One of the 13 companies that Studebaker had taken over when Egbert came on board was Paxton Products, the supercharger manufacturer of Santa Monica, California. As well as the physical assets of Paxton, Studebaker also got the talents of the Granatelli brothers, Andy, Joe and Vince. Their first job was to see what they could do to increase the power and reliability of the Studebaker V8.
By late 1962, Paxton-blown Avantis had established a large number of National and International speed records, not only with the Avanti but also with Hawk and Lark models.
There were many items introduced on the Avanti which management felt would appeal to potential Hawk and Lark customers and some were offered in 1963, but it was the ’64 model year when customers were really encouraged to “build a car to meet their needs.” Every engine, transmission, chassis and brake feature that was standard or optional on the Avanti was available in both the Hawk and Lark lines.
Lark Daytona models were equipped with a two-barrel 259-cu.in. V8 engine rated at 180 bhp but engine options that had been part of the Studebaker lineup for years included a four-barrel version of the 259 with 195 bhp rating, a two-barrel 289 cu.in. V8 rated at 210 bhp and a four-barrel 289 with 225 bhp.
Prior to the Avanti the 225 bhp engine was the top of the line but then came the R series.
R-1 was the standard engine for the Avanti. It had the same 289 cu.in. as the 225 bhp model but had higher compression (10.25 instead of 8.5) and a larger four-barrel carburettor. The R-1 was rated at 240 horsepower.
R-2 was the supercharged version of the R-1 but with 9-to-1 compression and a single four-barrel carb. It gave 289 bhp.
R-3 was the top of the power range. It was 304.5 cu.in., had 9.6-to-1 compression, a hotter cam, larger valves and ports and a Paxton supercharger. Studebaker rated it at 335 bhp.
R-4 was basically the R-3 without the supercharger and gave 280 bhp.
Both the R-3 and R-4 engines were hand built at the Paxton division, and run on the dyno before being shipped to South Bend to join the assembly line. (There is a picture in the article of Andy Granatelli running one of the engines on the dyno.)
There was an optional high-performance cam and inner valve springs were also available. The R-3 had an aluminium cam gear instead of the standard fibre gear.
Other options for the R-3 owners who planned to race their cars were an extra-capacity oil sump with electric recirculating pump for the blower and a high-capacity electric fuel pump.
R-3 engined cars could be ordered with either a four-speed or automatic transmission. There were two sets of ratios available for the 4-speed Borg Warner box. Diff ratios of 2.87, 3.31, 3.73, 4.09, 4.27, 4.55 and 4.89 could be ordered, all with the limited slip feature.

A note about the power outputs.

Studebaker originally refused to publish the figures but the NHRA required an advertised rating to compute against car weight for classification in Stock classes so eventually they complied. Some believe the figures were derived only after consulting NHRA’s rule book and weight chart to ensure the cars ended up in the ‘right’ class.

[dmj]

Originally posted by Stefan Ornerdal
Is it true that Studebaker had the bad taste to name their 1939 model - Dictator ?

Stefan

Not sure about this year, last Dictator I know was 1937 model...

[Catalina Park]

Originally posted by Stefan Ornerdal
Is it true that Studebaker had the bad taste to name their 1939 model - Dictator ?

Stefan

They also had a car called the President and some of those South American Presidents were pretty nasty....... or how about Nixon?
and what about the Studebaker Scotsman! I would hate to meet one of them when its had a few drinks!

Some names can look bad in hindsight and some words can have there meaning changed over the years.