1962 Lark Regal Hardtop, taken at Tippiecanoe Place in South Bend
In 1997 the 33rd annual International Meet for the Studebaker Drivers Club was being held in South Bend. I had just finished publishing my first Studebaker calendar and reserved vendor space to sell them at the meet. I decided to drive my 1962 Lark to South Bend for the meet since it’s always more fun to attend these events in a Studebaker. I spent the week before the meet getting the car ready, just doing little things to brighten it up a bit. The car was a 60,000 mile original that I had bought in 1995 having seen it advertised during the International Meet in Dearborn.
On Sunday the 22nd of June I headed out for the "Promised Land" deciding to take the highway for a while even though the Lark was a six cylinder with a three speed tranny and no overdrive. I figured if it seemed to be taxing the car too much I would get off the highway and take secondary roads the rest of the way. I was cruising along and the car wasn’t straining at all. When I looked at the speedometer and saw I was running at 70 miles per hour. Obviously the highway speeds were not too much so I took the highway the whole way. From where I am in northwestern Pennsylvania to South Bend is about 400 miles.
Things went along smoothly till I stopped for fuel just the other side of Cleveland and noticed a film of oil on the rear of the car. That wasn’t normal so I checked the oil and it was down two quarts and there was a puddle forming under the car. Being an early 1962 model it didn’t have a full flow block and the oil filter is connected to the block with a piece of hose and a copper line for the return. The rubber hose had spring a leak and was pumping oil onto the ground (a lot even for a Studebaker). I was able to reroute the return line and bypass the filter and make the rest of the trip without further incident. I knew I would be able to find the hose I needed in South Bend to make the needed repair.
I arrived in South Bend and got settled in, vending started Monday morning and calendar sales went well. On Tuesday I pulled into the parking lot at Century Center where the swap meet was taking place and there were cars for sale. A young man and his family approached my Lark, he circled the car once and asked if it was for sale. Well I had no intention of selling the car as it was my ride home but I told him I guess anything is for sale if the price is right. I threw a price at him which was roughly twice what I had in the car and after taking a test drive he said he would buy it. Now I had to start looking for a ride home.
I wasn’t too worried about getting home as there were plenty of people there I knew who were heading my direction. Thanks to the generosity of some good friends in Ohio I was able to arrange a ride home right away.
The new owner wanted to pick the car up on Thursday but I explained to him that I had registered the car for the show on that day and would be tied up all day there. We decided to finish the transaction on Friday morning so I took the car for judging at Notre Dame after all. It took a third place award, not bad for an unrestored car that had an oil bath on the trip out. Friday morning came and the Lark went on to it’s new owner. He explained that what caught his eye about this particular car was that when he was a child his folks had ne that looked just like it.
The Lark was built in South Bend in September 1961, sold new in St Louis, Missouri, where it lived til I brought it to Pennsylvania in 1995. It’s new owner lived in South Bend so it had now completed the circle and had gone home.
