The Minnesota State Fair, like most state fairs, has a thing for putting food and other items on a stick. I’ve heard that Texas even has deep-fried-butter-on-a-stick, whoa. This 1950 Studebaker Champion isn’t really on a stick, that’s just the way that most of these display vehicles are referred to, it’s perfectly complete and ready to be restored without a big hole through the center of it. This yellow Champion is listed here on Hemmings by someone who owned the restaurant listed below the car, which unfortunately recently closed. It’s located in beautiful Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan – gateway to Canada, or one of them. Also, it’s home to the world-famous Soo Locks. The seller is asking $5,000 or best offer for this stationary Studebaker.
Disclaimer: the photo above is from “Traverse Magazine” and “MyNorth.com” which is the online home of that fine magazine. The photo is not part of the Hemmings listing. The seller only included one photo of the car, but there are quite a few of them on the ol’ interwebs, as they say. It’s always a shame to see a business close down, especially one that has been around for decades, and especially one that used a sweet yellow two-door Studebaker Champion as its namesake. Here is the seller’s listing: “This car has not been on the road in almost 40 years, it is mounted as a sign topper outside of a restaurant that I recently closed. I have original title. Before being put on the sign it was a driver for the man who built the restaurant.” Have any of you gotten a car that was used like this for advertising and then gotten it back on the road again?
I am posting/subscribing to this one for a single reason: I want to see what other people post here! :-D
My thoughts are that this would be a nice project car as long as you can find needed parts for it. I can’t tell for sure but I don’t think this is a bullet nose model. Which would be ok by me I think they’re kind of cartoony. Even though this car has been outside all these years I doubt it has suffered the ill effects of sitting on the ground, as the saying goes it’s been high and dry for years. It reminds me of the pick and pull franchise that have old fifties cars on poles also painted yellow out side there yards. I like that it’s not a Camero or Mustangs its unique and that always appeals to me and it’s a two door.
“CamAro”
1950 and 1951 Studebakers were the bullet nose models.
This car might have been high, but
certainly not dry. Sault Ste Marie gets an average of 33” of rain a year and 124” of snow. Can you imagine what water seeping around rotted out door seals could have done to this car over the years?
They deep fry Mars bars in Scotland..
Actually,last time I was in Portland there was a food trailer selling them.And Portland is a million times more fun than Glasgow!
Having read the Hemmings ad, it brings a whole new meaning to ‘ran when parked…’
I’d suggest that any perspective buyer would want to have a close look at the condition of the body and chassis before handing over their hard-earned cash.
I wonder how many stateside would believe UK Paul’s comment… (LOL)
More info on the Mars bar ..
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/who-can-blame-scotland-for-trying-to-distance-themselves-from-the-deep-fried-mars-bar-10402948.html
PS. Thank you for spelling “their” correctly….
This one’s hard to miss when traversing I-94 between Milwaukee and Chicago. Apparently it’s been up there since the ’80s.
Groovy neon lighting, strategically placed. Even at night, easy for any halfway knowledgeable car person to recognize the outlines of the body shape and the cove on the side.
Valenti is gone, but the Vet is still there. It’s now an auto repair shop, whose name I can’t remember. My girlfriend drives car at the Manheim Auto Auction location next door to this place. It’s at I-94 and 7 Mile Road, about 30 miles south of Milwaukee.
We had the business coupe Stude way up about 20 or 30 feet up on an old oil derrick at a dirt track – near Yello Belly drag strip – named Sportsdrome Speedway in Grand Prairie,Tx. It stayed up there looong after the dirt track closed – most likely as it cost to much to get it down – not there now but I think the derrick is still there. The drag strip is still going on some 50 years..
they had a Studebakers restaurant by us in Bartonsville PA. only they had a gold GT Hawk by us…im pretty sure it was owned by the same person
I had lunch in that one a few times. Right on Ret. 611. Not a bad place to eat.
I was at the restaurant this car was at back in ’93 . Very good food !
My ex-daughter in law was friends with a woman here in Utah. DIL kep telling me that her friends dad had a car museum in downtown Salt Lake City. On Memorial Day weekend of 2009, I came from Las Vegas (my home at the time) to see for the first time 3 new grandsons who were all born that year, 2 in February and 1 in April. DIL told me she had arranged for me to see the car museum; it was open only by appointment. The owner had a real mix of old cars, none were museum quality but there was some interesting stuff and right now I can’t remember anything specific.
A few years later, my DIL’s friend died of cancer, then about a year later her dad died and DIL kind of lost track of the family. The museum is about 6 blocks from where I live and now the only sign of it is a Studebaker bullet nose car mounted on the roof of this building. And as of last month when I drove by, it’s still there. There is fencing and the building is boarded up so I’m not sure what the status is but safe to say, its not open for visiting. As soon as winter is over, end of April or so, I’m going to go by and see what the story is. The picture is of that weekend, me and 3 baby grandsons and a 6 year old grandaughter, almost 16 now.
I hope someone goes over and checks out this car. I would love to hear about its condition after sitting out for decades.
In the mid 1990s the Studebaker’s chain of restaurants opened up a location in Rockville, Maryland. As the owner of a local restoration facility [and a Studebaker collector], I was contacted by the restaurant owner about finding a nice bullet-nose 2-door Studebaker as a publicity piece.
I sold them a very nice, 100% original, Champion Deluxe 2-door, a car that would have been at home at any antique car show. It was a really great looking and running car.
About a year later, I went by the restaurant only to find the car had been moved inside, the roof removed, the drive train & passenger door gone, and the passenger area had been turned into a 4-person restaurant booth and table set. The workmanship was horrendous, they even used a brush to paint the body!
A few years later the place declared bankruptcy, and the car was junked when the place was leased out to another restaurant.
Wow, I remember a Studebaker’s restaurant/bar in Tysons Corner, VA – I didn’t realize they were a chain. They had a red bullet-nose inside, near the entrance.
I live near Sault Ste. Marie and was saddened when I heard that Studabakers restaurant was closing. I would call this a project car, it is complete, but has some needs. The car was hand painted on its perch a few years back. I recall seeing a little bubbling rust before it was repainted. I have no idea what kind of prep took place before the painting nor have I examined the car closely since. I do know that up on its perch it hasn’t gotten any parking lot dents recently. LOL!
I don’t know if it is a Stude only feature, but I remember seeing it on a car that set on the street in Columbia, MO. Many years ago.
Look at the drivers side photo. Notice the seam where the back door would have been. They used the same body shell for 2 and 4 door models. Located the B pillar accordingly and added a filler panel on the 2 doors. Saved a lot of tooling money.
I would change one side to the 4 door configuration and see who noticed at the next cruise-in.
Mike
I dunno…
Seems to me that what is seen in the photo is a pollution-caused dark area where rain runs down from the drip rail. I don’t recognize a seam.
I can’t find a straight side photo of the driver’s side of a 4-door anywhere on the ‘net. Going to try and post comparison photos of the passenger side.
If I was good at this stuff, I’d superimpose them, and see if there were other differences as well. I think your idea of making one side different from the other is awesome. Make the Driver’s door long, and back seat people have to get in from the right.
But since these were “suicide doors” cars anyway, having both open on one side gives a lot of access.
Yellow one
Blue one.