Main Street Rides

It’s been over 40 years since the demise of the Studebaker auto company, yet I recently came upon http://www.studebakermotorcompany.com.  Near the bottom of the page is the the quote “A time honored name, a company for the future.”  A company for the future?  If you know your automotive history, you’ll know that Studebaker bit the dust back in the 1960’s.  Beginning in the 1800’s as a wagon builder, Studebaker joined the automobile fray in 1902 and for over 50 years, hung with the best of them.

Unfortunately, just as we’ve seen too much of over the past ten years, with a number of companies, Studebaker came upon hard times and never recovered.  As we’ve seen with DeLorean, there is always someone out there that is either crazy enough, or resourceful enough to try and make a comeback.  So far, Delorean has been pretty successful but DeLorean had the advantage up picking up the pieces of moderately recent demise and was able to reuse most of the parts.  Studebaker has been gone for over 40 years and even if the parts were still kicking around they’d be so far out of date that it would just be restoration project, not a legitimate modern company.  According to the website, Studebaker will have cars that are powered by gasoline, diesel, and hybrid drivetrains.  

Visiting Studebaker’s website will reveal several renderings of concept vehicles, motorcycles and scooters.  A six step plan on how the company will go about designing its vehicles and putting them into production can also be found. If Studebaker does get any of its vehicles into production, I hope it’s the motorcycles, and if any of the cars do, they better get better looking.  A couple of the models are OK looking, but the Lark looks like the hood was used as a seat for a 2,000 pound animal, and the Sport Sedan looks like its parents were cousins.  The motorcycles on the other hand are much more finished looking.

Succeeding in the automotive industry with a start up is a tall order.  The few that are in the thick of it now, like Fisker and Tesla, are having plenty of struggles of their own and there are billions of dollars flying around in those endeavors.  Still, if any car company is worthy of being resurrected, Studebaker is a worthy namesake.  While the founders of the new Studebaker Motor Company state that they are not affiliated with the original company, you can bet the company is comprised of the most dedicated of Studebaker enthusiasts.

[Source: Studebaker Motor Company]

Related articles

• DeLorean Motor Company: Bringing Back the Futuristic Past (mountainhighmotoring.com)