How to Feel Sexy Again at 51
Public reaction is what matters in the machine industry, and "The Next Expect" 1950 Studebaker, featuring the company'southward signature "bullet-nose" look for the first fourth dimension, was a winner -- more than pop than even the 1947. Sales began in August 1949, nearly a calendar month ahead of other 1950 cars.
The 1950 models were Studebaker's most
successful in terms of sales.
Hundreds of dealers sent glowing telegrams describing announcement day: "Showroom crowded to capacity." "Public acceptance best e'er." "Huge crowds, all agreed Studebaker nonetheless leads the way." "Showing a definite flop, showroom holds 100 people, needed room for 500!"
For all this hoopla, the 1950s were identical to the 1947-49 models except for the bullet olfactory organ, minor trim, and vertical instead of horizontal taillights. Nonetheless, the new front added an inch to wheelbases, taking Champions to 113, Commanders to 120. Both lines once more offered 2- and four-door sedans, a convertible, and a five-passenger Starlight coupe with its distinctive panoramic rear window.
Champion also listed a three-passenger business coupe. Commanders once again included a elevation-line Country Cruiser sedan, now on a 124-inch wheelbase, with extra rear-seat legroom and rear-door vent windows. All models offered DeLuxe and actress-cost Imperial DeLuxe trim save the convertibles and State Cruiser, which were Regals just.
The Champ's Regal package, priced at $79, included stainless-steel rocker-panel and window moldings, wool upholstery in identify of pile cloth, front floor carpeting instead of a safe covering, and a fancier steering wheel with chrome horn half-ring. In Commanders, the $124 option substituted luxurious nylon-cord upholstery.
All models connected on 15-inch wheels, but Commanders were heavier, and so they came with 7.sixty tires on vi-inch-wide rims versus 6.40s on five-inch-wide wheels. Commanders also had 11-inch cast-iron brake drums, while Champions used nine-inch drums.
Added in March 1950 were Champ Custom sedans and coupes with no hood ornamentation or rear fender shields, painted rather than chromed headlamp/taillight rims, and only a small round trunk handle/light assembly. They looked spartan, but at $1,419-$1,519, they were among the most affordable full-size cars around. Studebaker was targeting traditional low-priced leaders Chevy, Ford, and Plymouth, and thus advertised Champ Community with the clever slogan "It'due south 4 To Encounter Instead of three!"
All 1950 Studebakers boasted a new double-A-arm front suspension, with Champions featuring tubular shocks mounted inside new "long-travel" coil springs. Commanders had slightly unlike geometry to handle their extra weight and retained lever-activeness shocks. Champs used an antiroll torsion bar in front; Commanders added a rear bar, plus center-signal steering.
But the large engineering news was Automatic Drive transmission. Developed jointly with the Detroit Gear Sectionalization of Borg-Warner, information technology became available for State Cruisers in late April 1950, then spread to other models as production increased. Automatic Bulldoze was superior to most competitive automatics in several ways.
First, it was air-cooled, so it did without costly, circuitous water-cooling. It also allowed push-starts if needed, did not "creep" the motorcar forward from a stop if the driver released the restriction, and included a hill-holder that prevented rolling downwards an incline at idle. Selecting Reverse at more than than 10 mph automatically put the transmission in Neutral to prevent harm.
Studebaker was the merely independent besides Packard to develop its own automatic transmission. Ford Motor Company wanted to purchase Automatic Drive for its 1951 line, but Studebaker declined, thus missing a chance to brand considerable actress money. This transmission continued through 1954, afterwards which Studebaker switched to the less-costly Flight-O-Matic.
Need for the bullet-nose '50s proved so strong that Studebaker added a 3rd shift at its large South Bend factory and ran its Southern California and Hamilton, Ontario, assembly plants at or near capacity. A xiv-month model "year" (July 15, 1949, to September 27, 1950) produced 343,164 cars -- the most for any vehicle in Studebaker'due south long history. Past the end of 1950, visitor employment was up to 25,000, a peacetime record.
The dealer count grew too, swelling from ii,628 in December 1949 to two,851 a year subsequently. Net sales totaled $477,066,000. After-taxation profits were more than than $22.5 million. And Studebaker's market share, which had improved every year since 1936, reached a new high of 4.25 percent (or more than than v percent including truck sales). With that, Studebaker could again claim to be America's most successful independent vehicle maker. Some analysts began speculating that the Large 3 might soon be the Big Iv.
Studebaker had a terrific follow-up to blockbluster 1950: a mod new Five-8. Like the trendsetting 1949 Oldsmobile and Cadillac engines, information technology was a light, compact, and efficient overhead-valve design. Engineers led by Stanwood Sparrow began work in 1948, with development headed by engine specialist T. Due south. Scherger. The consequence was another Studebakery exclusive among the independents, and years alee of the Chevy, Ford, and Plymouth overhead-valve V-8s.
Arriving equally standard for the 1951 Land Cruiser and Commander, the Studebaker Five-viii was an oversquare design with 232.ix cubic inches on a bore and stroke of three.38x3.25 inches. Horsepower was a lively 120 despite a conservative 7.0:1 compression ratio.
Some have likened the engine to a smaller Cadillac V-8. Indeed, the two were close in physical size. Only there were pregnant differences. The Studebaker engine used solid lifters instead of hydraulic, camshafts driven by gear rather than chain, conventional instead of "slipper" pistons, and locked rather than "floating" piston pins.
It was also 54 pounds lighter than the Caddy engine. Both put spark plugs above the exhaust manifold for piece of cake admission, a characteristic lacking in the afterwards Ford and Chevy overhead-valve V-8s.
Studebaker engineers didn't overlook fuel efficiency with their V-8. In the 1951 Mobilgas Economy Run, a Commander won Class B with a 28-mpg average. A Land Cruiser posted 27.6 -- nearly three mpg improve than the previous year's Commander Half dozen. (The Champion, with an unchanged six, managed 28.6 mpg, tops for all total-size cars entered.)
The new V-8 Commander was non a muscle motorcar, but "Uncle Tom" McCahill termed it "a rip-roaring, hell-for-leather performer that tin belt the starch out of practically every other American car on the road."
His overdrive-equipped test model clocked 0-60 mph in 12.5 seconds and reached nearly 100 mph. After driving two more '51s, McCahill ended, "The new engines are swell. Condolement, performance, and durability are first-class, and I believe Studebaker people are due for ane of the biggest years in their history."
For more picture-packed articles well-nigh great cars, see:
- Muscle Cars
- Sports Cars
- Consumer Guide Automotive
- Consumer Guide Used Car Search
Source: https://auto.howstuffworks.com/1950-1951-studebaker.htm
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