I was wondering if anyone is running the stock front suspension in their Studebaker Lowboy. If so, how does it handle and drive? I know all about clips, subframes, full frames, etc. etc., has anyone any experience with using the stock front suspension. I was thinking about a front disk brake kit, some good shocks and a rebuild. What do you think?
We've run our 53' on the salt with a slightly modified stock front end. Stable at 137mph. Check out the planar front suspension in 37-49' studes. It will remind you of tricks used in corvettes. Look at the Tribaker website.
Years of running them. Trick is sway bars - look for a '62 taxi bar as a start, and HEAVY duty shocks - Koni used to have them in the catologe for the Avanti. Shocks can make or break that suspension. No gas filled, just heavy hydraulic units. anothe good mod is to get the spindle upright and upper control arms off a '58 - '64 car for a little better geometry. and the '58-64 springs - they are progressive instead of the earlier linear rate springs of the earlier cars. there are disk kits for the car and I have heard - never used - they work very well. You can alos maybe find the rear sway bar from a '56/'58 President sedan and simply bolt that in. Lots can be done with the stock stuff that works well and much less work that clippping the frame.
Thanks jagfxr1949. It sounds like you know what you are doing and those seem like some easy changes to make.
Weird, must be Canadian slang. The guys around here call them Hawks or a variant Hawk/Commander, Hawk Speedster, Hawk/Gran Turismo.
Raymond Lowey designed (lowboy) coupes are the body style made between 1953 and 1955. The Hawks came after that. Look at the number of these aerodynamic cars that are/were raced at Bonneville. Here is a "Lowboy" custom .....
Raymond Loewy did not design the 53' K or C body cars. It was one of his designers named Bob Bourke. Loewy was only too glad to take the credit.
The Jalopy Journal
