Finishing-up today are the combined International Meets of the Studebaker Drivers Club, Antique Studebaker Club, Packard Club and Avanti Owner's Association in South Bend. I couldn't get away for the entire week - just ran-up yesterday to see the assembled multitudes at the county fairgrounds. (The only Chrysler connection here: put about 600 miles on my '95 LHS.....set the cruise and air.....performed flawlessly.....with all the around-town stop-and-go driving and congestion, my combined mileage for the trip was "only" 24.6 mpg - I won't complain. Pleasant surprise: gas was just .93 on the Indiana toll road) So....I'm a Stude-Packard-Avanti nut and enjoyed looking at (I'm guessing) 500+ Studes, at least a hundred Avantis and another 100 Packards. Of course, you always make a bee-line to the Speedsters, Golden Hawks, Packard Patricians and Caribbeans. But I guess what amused me the most was spending a little more time looking at the "last gasp" '64 Stude sedans (the last time they could afford to restyle their cars). For '64 the poor, struggling little company offered the Avanti and G T Hawk, and a line of sedans (2 and 4 door sedans, 4 door stationwagon, 2 door hardtop and convertible). Pretty good looking cars, even today. You could get the 170 ci six engine, "regular" 259 & 289 ci V8s, then the R1, R2, R3 and R4 Avanti engines: 112 to 335 horsepower range. You could get 3 speeds, 3 speeds with overdrive, 4 speeds, automatic or "Power Shift" automatic with manual override. The sedans came in 4 trim levels: Challenger, Commander, Daytona and Cruiser (not including HD fleet versions). Then, within each trim line you could have bench seats, individual seats or bucket seats. These came with your choice of cloth or all vinyl trim, and each combination came in blue, brown, red, green, blue or black. Oh, you could also get blue, red or green broadcloth in the Cruiser. Anyway, had to leave and went back to the parking lot and tried to find my gray Chrysler with the gray leather in a sea of gray cars with gray interiors. BTW: also made my first visit to the new Studebaker museum (opened in October, replacing the old one) WOW.....very well done. Many of the same cars as in the old location plus new ones and they have enough to rotate displays several times a year. Extremely well presented, new dioramas & displays.......well worth a special trip when you're looking for something to do.....allow about 2 hours for a visit, and you can also tour other parts of the historical complex, the Oliver Mansion, and have lunch at Tippecanoe (Studebaker Mansion).
