Subject: 200mph Door Slammer Guys, I'm a big fan of the Studebaker Coupes. Was it designed by Raymond Loewy's group/team when he was at Studebaker ?? This team at times consisted of other designers like Virgil Exner, John Ebstein, Bob Andrews Tom Kellog and I bet a few others I can't find yet. Lets look at 1 of my favorites "Mr. 400" as I call it. Most likely last run by Neil Thompson. Like many racer cars it passed through many hands. I've heard rumors it's in New Jersey now ?? From what I can find online it started as the "San Chez" Bill Crenshaw #157 ?? Big iron Hemi under the dash just about Mid-Engine. I can't find any pictures before the "rounded off" (missing) headlights. According to AMHF web site in 1957 it ran 210mph without the top chopped !!! Today we call it the first "200mph Door Slammer". Anyway I found pictures on line of it running with "Fender/Headlight pieces duct taped in place. Plus pictures of an engine swap taking place most likely in a gas station in beautiful downtown Wendover... I'm looking for more pictures of this "Studie" B/W color..what ever you have. Corrections and edits are always welcome '
Somewhat of a sophisticated journey. Thank for posting this. I like the changes, and the job you've done to show them... My father had an early 50 something. Can't help with the designer name. He changed cars like his hats. I never got real familiar, with it (or him )
It was in fact Raymond Lowey's design team, however the primary designer of the C series was Robert (Bob) Bourke. There are several books written on the history of this design. The Ansen-Sanchez coupe was a partnership between Louie Senter the owner of Ansen Engineering and Belmont (Beachball) Sanchez who I believe was a car dealer. I never met Sanchez but I got to know Louie in his later years through my partner Geisler. Louie was quite a colorful character and I always enjoyed listening to his stories of their adventures. According to Louie their partnership ended very abruptly late one night at Ansen Engineering for reasons that I will not go into here. Yes, I believe it was the first Stude to go over 200, however the body was highly modified areodynamically as allowed in Comp Coupe. Our #219 however was stock bodied as is the requirement in Gas Coupe. 219 set it's first record at over 200 at Speedweek in 1969 at 201.744 mph driven by Geisler four more records of over 200 were set by Geisler and his partners Bob Kehoe and Don Stringfellow, using Gale Banks preped Engines (all small block Chevrolets) I came on the scene in the early 80's and fully restored 219 in 90-91. I drove the car for the next several years and was fortunate enough set 3 records until we retired the car in 2006. All in all #219 set a total of 57 records at Bonneville and El Mirage in it's 40 year history. I believe Brandon and Les Leggit now have the fastest Stock bodied Stude at well over 300 mph.
I last saw “Mr 400” 5 or 6 years ago tucked away in the “boneyard” at El Mirage, looking a bit worse for wear. Regards Jon
Studes made such great LSR cars. My effort at the record in my 53 Champion was a trip around the block well in excess of 22 MPH. Traded it for the rolling chassis under my 34 Ford.
I also saw the car tucked away in the corner at El Mirage in Calloway's yard this was about a year ago I believe it was still there
Bob Bourke! as Saltracer219 said. Bob Bourke was the designer that came up with the design, with help from Bob Koto. They were employees of Raymond Loewy and associates. Loewy got all the credit. The guy had style, and connections/history, but Bob did the initial drawings, and one side of the clay mock up. Bourke designed that car to be a show car initially, but the suits liked it so much they put it into production. It was rushed, and they had a bunch of issues with dies and front sheetmetal fit with the willowy 13 gauge frames. Bourke was a genius, he styled almost the entire car, including the gauges and handles. He hated excess chrome, wanted pure design style. As the 50's wore on, Studebaker had to keep selling the same car, so their solution to keep up with the competition was to heap more trim on the Bourke design, year after year. Bonnevillains took to the slippery shape immediately. '53 Studes have been a staple in land speed ever since. Aerodynamically, it was miles ahead of the competition back then. Racers discovered that despite their slippery shape, they have a rear lift issue. Several approaches out there to combat this, one popular route was to vent under car pressures through a duct to behind the back glass. eventually ECTA nixed that idea. Leggitt's car relies on a BIG deck spoiler and lots of ballast. I believe Brandon has gone faster in their Studebaker than anyone else in a production bodied car anywhere. He's seen almost 340 MPH! Granted, his dad knows more about building huge but reliable hemi power than anyone, but the old Bourke Stude shape still gets 'er done. I may be a little biased....
I have always been impressed with what there were able to do with the # 400 Studebaker but I did not know the history. They went very fast without a rear wing and spill plates. I studied the aerodynamics of the Studebakers at Bonneville before I built the body on our car. Some things worked better than others. The holes behind the rear window is interesting. We built holes into the body below the window. The intention was to add ductwork to some part of the belly pan. Some people would look at the car and say that we had too many holes, others would say that we needed more, and others would say that they were too big or too small. In reality we never hooked duct work to them, they were just holes in the body.
Google "Jack Chisenhall Studebaker" and read about his streetable 200+ air-conditioned coupe. A couple of my racing friends worked on it at Bob McCall's when it was built; interestingly, they also worked on Jack's " America's Most Beautiful Roadster" winning '32 during the last few years. vic
[/ATTACH] View attachment 5657866 That's funny, so did I! When I decided to do the Studebaker land speed thing, I thought, "These guys have been doing this since before I was born, maybe I ought to go look at what they have already figured out." So I took my camera to Bonneville my first visit, and walked around and took pics of all the Studebakers. I went home and copied in sheet metal what the fast cars had. Guess what? It worked! The thing drove like a Cadillac cruisin' down main street!
Thnx for the great ifo guys.... What I'm really looking for is more info and pictures about the Louie Senter Ansen Engineering-Belmont Sanchez-Neil Thompson (I bet I missed a few, my apologies) Studebaker..... It sounds like I should start a tread about Stude' that raced at B'Ville ?? like this Terry Hunt built "Guam Bomb" truly a work of Art !!!
This Stud should be displayed in a Museum as it is, with all its accessories : https://www.goodingco.com/lot/1953-...MOcerdgJdUBNPggzEz0seTrpU7nllPYoJm3AhHxV8iSss
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