Today in Studebaker History, May 12, 1959
On this day, May 12, 1959 the 100,000th Lark rolled off the assembly line in South Bend. The Lark was a pioneering "compact car" designed and built by Studebaker and introduced on November 14 1958 as a 1959 model.
In addition to being built in Studebaker's South Bend, Indiana plant, the Lark and its descendants were also built in Hamilton, Ontario plant, from 1959 to 1966 by Studebaker of Canada Limited. The cars were also exported to a number of countries around the world as complete units and completely knocked down (CKD) kits.
Lark-based vehicles represent the bulk of the range of models produced by Studebaker after 1958 and sold in far greater numbers than the Hawk family sports car and the later Avanti.
At the time the Lark was conceived, the Studebaker-Packard Corporation was under a management contract with Curtiss-Wright. Studebaker had been losing money for years when the company president Harold Churchill came up with the plan of abandoning the full-sized market in favor of building a new compact car that he hoped could save the company.
The Lark was ingeniously designed around the core of the full-sized 1953-1958 cars. By reducing the front and rear overhang and shortening up the wheelbase, the car would still seat six people comfortably. It was hoped that the vehicle would save America's oldest vehicle manufacturer when it was launched, much like the 1939 Studebaker Champion had saved the company in the years prior to World War II.
With its simple grille, minimal, yet tasteful use of chrome and clean lines, the Lark "flew" in the face of most of the established styling cues fostered by Detroit's Big Three automakers. Studebaker's 1957-58 Scotsman had proved the existence of a demand for a less-flashy automobile, and while the Lark was not nearly so undecorated as the Scotsman, it was unmistakably purer of line than anything Detroit would offer for 1959.
The car was redesigned in 1962 and again in 1964 but once the other makers introduced their own lines of compacts the Lark struggled in sales and failed to save the company. The closure of the South Bend plant was announced on December 9, 1963, and the final Lark-type car, a Bordeaux Red 1964 Daytona two-door hardtop rolled off the assembly line on December 20. This car is now housed at the Studebaker Museum in South Bend.
After the South Bend closing, production continued at the Studebaker's Canadian plant in Hamilton, which was overseen by Gordon Grundy, the president of Studebaker of Canada, Ltd. Grundy, like Egbert before him, wanted to see Studebaker continue as a builder of automobiles. Despite Grundy’s best efforts the board moved to close the Hamilton plant as soon as possible, and the last Studebaker car, a Timberline Turquoise Cruiser four-door sedan, was built on March 17, 1966. It was the end of a transportation legacy that stretched back some 114 years.
