Famed Milwaukee-based industrial designer Brooks Stevens was probably responsible for at least one car you think is stylish. The Studebaker GT Hawk, Jeep Wagoneer, Jeepster, and even the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile bear his stamp. He also created the coolest “neoclassic” of them all, the original Excalibur Series I. Built to emulate the Mercedes SSK from the golden era of classic motoring, it was mounted on a Studebaker chassis and powered by a Lark engine before Studebaker backed out of the project. No matter, Stevens procured some Chevy 327s and made the car anyway, and this one is for sale on eBay with a starting price of $55,120 (and no bidders yet).
My initial impression of the Excalibur was formed when I was a little kid, when the less purposeful Phaetons appeared on the weekly nighttime soap operas that would occasionally crowd the ambient background of my childhood home. In essence, I didn’t think much of them. Later, however, I realized that the originals were true back-to-basics sporting machines built for a time when such a thing might sell a few cars. They somehow paid homage to the Mercedes while also projecting an identity of their own. And they were rip-roaring fast.
With 300 horsepower and just over a ton of mass to overcome, the Excalibur would easily crest sixty miles per hour in under six seconds, all the while peppering the countryside with its roaring side pipes. I’m not an expert in Excaliburs, but I’m fascinated by the exhaust manifolds. They’re rectangular logs that appear to bolt directly to the cylinder head, and I wonder if such a design sacrificed horsepower. The narrow Lark chassis might have restricted the exhaust system even further, so perhaps it’s a wash; maybe a reader in the know can supply more information in the comments.
The Excalibur was available with an automatic or a four-speed manual; the original owner (the 3M Corporation, according to the selling dealer) wisely chose the latter. With its era-evoking engine-turned dashboard, this car is ready for a few laps around the original Watkins Glen road circuit, or something equally glamorous.
The original Excalibur is a car I don’t think about often, but I go bananas when I see one. Although I may prefer a more subdued color on mine, this flashy red is appropriate for such a romantic vehicle. The advertisement says that this one has a mere 10,419 miles on the odometer, and while readers here at Barn Finds are often rightly skeptical about low-mileage claims, a car like this may be more likely to back up such an assertion. Regardless of the mileage, this Excalibur is worthy of the name, and while it might not be a magical sword, it’s a heck of a cool car.
Ok… Show of hands…. How many of you thought of “The Big O” when you saw this Excalibur? Oh well, I did, if it was great for Roy Orbison, who definitely had a liking for cars, boats, and mortorcycles had one of these. As a side note, if you ever read about his life story, and all the pain he went through, you walk away with a whole new respect for him.
As for the car, its in incredible condition. And I hope someone can enjoy it, just as much as Roy Orbison enjoyed his.
Huh, and here I thought Roy Orbison was blind,,,
I may be wrong, but I read that the dark glasses started by accident, I think he forgot his regular glasses and all he had were his dark ones so thats what he went on stage with. I’ll have to look that up again.
I had no idea that the Excalibur had any history before the junky, gaudy pimp-mobiles that I remember from my ‘70’s childhood. No chrome air horns or landau bars here, just a nice, clean profile and side pipes that are actually functional. Thanks Aaron, good write-up.
Those later monstrosities severely tarnished the legacy whatever they could have built based on this car. Look at Avanti, their later products didn’t age well either. Too bad.
Steve R
Didn’t know Roy had one, I thought Tony Curtis right off, looked at his at an auction years ago. I wonder how many other high profile owners there were? I think these cars had a pretty good build quality compared to most others.
In the “careful what you say” dept., most here know my connection with Excalibur, in case not, I delivered auto paint to the plant in W.Allis in the 70s. I’ve mentioned a person named Alice Preston, who was the head mechanic for Excalibur. What surprised me, is I got a friend request from an “Alice Preston”, so she may be listening.
This car is incredible, and could very well be one of Stevens 1st examples. I’m sure Ms. Preston would recognize it, as she maintains an active file on all Excaliburs sold. She was horrified when 2 Excaliburs were crushed in the Cash for Clunkers program. Many, I heard, are still with the original families. Phyllis Diller had 4. I read in late ’65 and ’66, was the 1st full year of production, 97 roadsters were made, and a red one was one of the 1st, so who knows. Alice would. And I’m proud to say, it was made in my hometown, and I helped,,,kind of.
I never owned one of these,but I have a lot of time in the left seat. I had a fraternity brother in college a,nd we became great friends. He loved cars, but never really worked on them, I became his go to guy for everything automotive, and it continued until he passed away. We were both in Vietnam and when we got out he stayed in Alaska, his last post. That was when Alaska was booming and he made a BUTT load of money in real estate. He wanted to spend a large portion of it on cars and so did many of his friends. Problem was the cars are not in Alaska and they couldn’t leave the money, they were making. So I just eased into being his agent and also most of his friend too. It was a great time, he would tell me what he wanted or what he or the others wanted or bought and I handled it from there. It was a blast. Most of the cars were exotics /sport cars, Corvettes, Mercedes, Porches, Jensen’s, and some real odd balls sprinkled in. One day he called me and said “do you know what an Excalibur is?” I said yes, he said great ,a guy is going to bring one to you this week. When the car arrived, I told the guy stop. I ran to the phone and asked ,did you buy this car? He said yes, I said its junk. He asked can you fix it? Depends on what you mean by fix, I might be able to make it drive-able. OK do that. That was not a small job, when I finished about 2 months later and said now what? Drive it up here, Denver to Alaska. That started a great adventure, for my wife and I on a road trip from Denver to Anchorage AL. Obviously not enough space for that story, but that is how I got all my hours in a Excalibur.
Tulsa mid 1980s, a restauraunt named “Molly Murphy’s” used one of these for their salad bar! The hood had holes cut in for ceramic containers, under was a large tray of ice! The engine was there (I imagine they changed the hood, and saved the original)?
Lol salad 🥗 bar chimes in. Incredible. Thanks Brian 😃
Close, but I had to look that up, and images show the car was a red XKE roadster with holes in the hood for containers. Ms. Preston would never allow one of her “cars” to become a mere salad bar!!!
I have two memories of these.
1) An article around 1979 or 80 in an issue of Sports Car Graphic that as a 14 year old, I probably read 1,000 times, where a German designer at Mercedes or BMW was quoted as asking “Why do Americans do such things?”
2) There was a TV commercial about a playboy driving it around who seemed to have everything but it turned out he was empty inside. I think it was a commercial for the Mormon church or something.
Looks like it has the Borg clock used in the Studie GT Hawk.
I did probably the very last TV interview with Roy Orbison for “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” at his home in Malibu that was stocked with cool cars..but not an Excalibur by then. ( The interview shows up on You Tube and ,I believe, Barbara Orbison has it still on Roy’s website). As for the “blind” rumours Roy told me in the interview that he flew to London for a show where The Beatles were his opening act and grabbed the wrong pair of glasses before exiting the plane, by stairs in those days, to face the media..and the fact they were dark started the rumours. Roy was an amazing telent, a great guy who survived a lot of tragedy befofre making it big all over again, solo and with “The Travelling Willburys”. He was so happy with my Lifestyles segment he invited my wife and I to his extremely privte Black and White Night Show for his TV special with everyone from Springsteen to Elvis Costello and a slew more.I saw Roy one more time as he sand the national anthem at the LA Kings game the night Gretzky played his first game for LA..Long story but Roy was indeed a gear head..RIP Roy..
I had a teacher in highschool that had an Excalibur and a Cobra
jesh, I got the same impression as you back in the day. A junky wanna B or some one’s expression of what was supposed to B (but Y are they putting it out now? mid? late ‘60s). Thought it might be poorly constructed (think Ronco & JC Whitney) and gaudy in a ‘look at me’ kinda way. Some here are moving me slightly in the other direction tho. May B I need some reading material to come to mid/center point on these. No spare time tho (spendin it right here).
@ArronToth the very first one had a R2 Avanti engine which was available in a Lark but was always considered a Avanti engine not a Lark engine,
anyone else amused by how this “2 owner car” goes on to list ~ 5 owners?
Neoclassical? The rear wheel, exhaust, cutout not door, and driver all in one tight grouping perhaps.
Regardless, fighter pilot kind of car for sure.
First time I sae one was in The Andy
Griffith Show in it’s last season where
a big singing star was gonna sing about Mayberry. Thought the car was
cool then and Bud Lindeman road tested one on the Road & Track TV
show in ’68, that sealed the deal for me. I was hooked and still am some
56 years later. I can still recall the waaaaah
of the 327 mouse motor under the hood and how the car shot around the test track with a very happy tester driving it. Some cars just leave an impression on a young Motorhead and this car did it in spades.
Last time I looked wasn’t a 327 an 8 cylinder? Why are they’re only 3 pipes coming out? Did they run the last 2 cylinders on each side into one pipe? Just saying!
They were trying to keep the original appearance. Exhaust goes into a log type manifold. Not terribly efficient, but it attains the desired effect.
Good looking car until you get to the rear. The tire cutout and trunk look like somebody ran out of parts. But SO much better than the later cars!
Believable miles. Not exactly the run around car but rather the special toy.