I was 13 years old when I got my third Studebaker. See the story of the first two here. The third one was a 1961 Lark VIII four door sedan that was bought from some very unusual folks near my house.
A couple moved from Buffalo to a back road near where my family lived. They wanted to drop out of the rat race, both had been professionals though I suspect they may have been flower children of the 1960s originally. They were Calvin and Mary, I never really got to know Calvin well but Mary who we referred to as "Hippie Mary" was a pleasant person. When they first moved here they drove a Volkswagen bus and the 1961 Lark. Along the way the Lark’s right front upper A arm broke but they finished the drive anyway. After they finished moving their belongings they gave up driving the car and the Lark sat behind their barn. They hired my father to remove the furnace from the house as it was gas and they were only going to use wood heat. They also were rejecting all other modern ways like having the electric shut off and they removed the toilet from the house, put it in the front yard and planted flowers in it. That was sort of a landmark around here for years.
My father spotted the Lark and struck up a deal to buy it. I’m not sure what he paid for it but it wasn’t much. The Lark was brought home and the A arm repaired. I learned how to work on cars early on by helping my father as he did tractor and automotive work for others. This Lark had the 259 cubic inch V-8 with an automatic transmission and was quite quick. Aside from the broken A arm the car was quite solid but at some point in its life it had gotten way too close to a very hard object and the passenger side was all beat in. I thought it would make a good project to try to fix but in the meantime I drove it around the track in our side field for a while.
I never did get around to fixing the Lark, a friend of my brother wanted to buy the car to go racing at the local dirt track. I’m not sure what prompted me to sell it but I did and we set to work making a race car out of the Lark. This was in 1975 so there weren’t many Studebakers left around here on the road let alone on the race tracks. Maybe it was the thought of seeing a Lark out on the tack that got me to turn loose of the car.
The Lark was entered in a class called the Spectator class which was supposed to be a car with just the doors welded shut and roll bars for safety. Other than those modifications it was supposed to be completely stock.
When the Studebaker was finished and ready for it’s racing debut it was an unusual sight on the track and really got the crowd talking. This was the first year for this class at the track and the hot car to beat was a 1968 Roadrunner that was winning almost every week. It was quite a sight when the Lark lined up out there. I don’t think many people were expecting much from it but with the V-8 in a light car it was quite a surprise. Down the straight away it flew, passing everything in sight including the Roadrunner. This little Lark could fly! Nothing was able to keep up with it in the straights. I don’t know if the car didn’t handle well enough or if it was the driver but when it went into the corners all the cars he had passed on the straight away came right on past agin. Then back on the straights he went flying past again. It was back and forth over and over, as each lap ticked off the scoreboard. In the end I think the Lark finished in mid pack.
As each week of racing went by the Lark continued to perform in the same manner, out performing all the other cars as long as it didn’t have to go around a corner. I think it ran about half the season when during one race it was being pushed hard and went into the wall with a terrible crash thus ending the life and racing career of a valiant little Lark. The car was retired once again to the back field behind a barn. It may not have come out of retirement for long but it sure made an impact when it did.
Contents copyright Madd Doodler Publishing 2010
