One of the things that I appreciate about being a part of Automotive Performance & Chassis is the wide range of vehicles we find in the shop from day to day. We might have a Porsche Boxster, a Classic Corvette Stingray, along with a Bullet Mustang, a crossover or SUV.
We might be rebuilding the cylinder head of a track Miata, and when a car like this is in the shop, I never get tired of looking at all the work that has gone into a finished product that represents countless hours of thought, trial and error to fit the right combination of pieces together from the protective roll cage, lightweight race seats and multi-point harnesses, to the removable steering wheel, and emergency battery disconnect switch.
Everything in a car like this has a clear purpose, and anything that doesn’t serve the purpose of going fast safely has been eliminated to save weight.
I also appreciate modern, factory built performance vehicles like this Porsche. It is hard not to be a bit star struck when something like this, or even a Ferrari rolls in. This represents an automotive passion – it is rolling art not just a method of transportation. It is an experience.
The classics many of us grew up with have largely faded from view, so it is interesting when we have something like this Studebaker Cruiser in the shop. Today’s cars are largely made of aluminum and plastics to save weight, and to improve safety. We have hybrid powertrains with Lithium-Ion battery packs, airbags in the dashboard, doors, and seats. We have satellite radios and GPS navigation systems with color LCD displays. Automatic transmissions now have 7, 8 and even 9 forward gears.
In contrast, this Studebaker provides a lense into times past when cars were made largely of steel, transmissions were manual shifts on the column and cruise control and air conditioning were optional features that often appeared to be retrofitted to, rather than designed into the car. I appreciate machines like this as treasured rolling time capsules, and am glad to see this owner investing to preserve this particular piece of history for himself and others in years to come.
