TheV8Kid's build thread got me thinking about Studebakers, and now I'm wondering can confirm or corroborate an old rumor for me.
My Dad grew up here in central FL, and he has told me for years about a story he heard in the 1960s about some REALLY fast lark police cars. The rumor is that the cops had a handful of larks that were painted just like their other police cars, but these were caged and powered by some sort of ford/mercury engine prepped by a nascar team. Supposedly these hopped up cop cars were moved from area to area, just to keep the moonshiners wary of all the similar looking police cars.
Does anybody know if there's any kernel of truth in this story? I know that there were lark police cars with thawk V8, but have not heard anything about them being caged or modded, or swapped by the cops.
Maybe my google-fu is weak. Has anybody else heard/found stuff about this?
I've not heard about this and I've heard a lot about Studebakers.
Seems unlikely to me, but anything's possible. You could get the Studebaker Daytona with a supercharged engine from the factory, they were pretty fast cars.
JThw8
UberDork
10/7/12 8:54 p.m.
I'm going to go with myth. When studebaker switched from its own motors they were set up for Chevy not Ford so it is unlikely they would swap over to Ford just to make the police cars. Alot of folks hear that the Studebaker V8 was a 289 and incorrectly assume it was a Ford derived motor but it was their own motor of their own design.
There were some Larks with the R series motors from the avanti. But most likely the rumors are around the 64 "marshal" model which was a police package offered on the Lark, by 64 the cars were purely powered by chevrolet engines.
JThw8
UberDork
10/7/12 9:16 p.m.
Zomby Woof wrote:
JThw8 wrote:
by 64 the cars were purely powered by chevrolet engines.
Started in 65
Indeed correct, I always confuse that, body style changed in 64 engines switched in 65
ST_ZX2
HalfDork
10/7/12 9:20 p.m.
stuart in mn wrote:
Seems unlikely to me, but anything's possible. You could get the Studebaker Daytona with a supercharged engine from the factory, they were pretty fast cars.
I think that they made some R2 Larks as well (supercharged)...I'm guessing this was the car in question.
yamaha
Dork
10/8/12 11:40 a.m.
ST_ZX2 wrote:
stuart in mn wrote:
Seems unlikely to me, but anything's possible. You could get the Studebaker Daytona with a supercharged engine from the factory, they were pretty fast cars.
I think that they made some R2 Larks as well (supercharged)...I'm guessing this was the car in question.
Sounds about right......theres a crafty old man near me that races one every week at the local dragstrip. Shows up with it on the back of a vintage stude' rampback truck....
Yea, I've seen a few R2 Larks.
Hal
Dork
10/9/12 8:50 p.m.
Never seen any hot-rod Lark police cars but everyone hated the ones the City of Pittsburgh used back in the 60's. They were plain black with a small city seal on the door and a very small light on the top.
At night in the city they were damm near invisible. Never knew when one was going to sneak up on you.
