In 1959, Studebaker had been in business for 107 years, first building wagons and then automobiles. Studebaker became a pillar of the American auto industry in every sense of the word, but by the early '50s, it was clear those days were over. Studebaker continued slugging it out, and if a couple of things had broken the company's way, we might have had it around much longer if not until today.
Studebaker had been building trucks in one form or another from its 1904 beginning in auto manufacturing. These ranged from light- to medium-heavy, though by 1959 the only heavy trucks the company built were for military contracts. Studebaker trucks were value based and popular with those wanting a no-frills rig with a bottom-dollar price tag. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say they were the tightwad's first choice ... but that didn't make them bad trucks.
Besides military rigs, Studebaker had stayed out of the four-wheel-drive game until the mid-'50s. At that point, the company's marketing people began looking at a way to enter that growing market without a lot of development cost. They found an easy and well-marked road to that destination, namely Northwestern Auto Parts Company (NAPCO), who built four-wheel-drive conversion kits.
NAPCO had started making its Power-Pak kits in 1951, using a World War II Dodge front axle design. The kits were sold to dealers and individuals wanting to convert their light and medium trucks to four-wheel drive. While the kits were mostly directed toward GM trucks, they did build kits for other makes. In the mid-'50s, General Motors looked at getting into the four-wheel-drive game and tapped the familiar NAPCO to supply kits for installation on the GM assembly line. GMC came first, offering a NAPCO four-wheel-drive option in '56 with Chevrolet following in '57. The front axles used a GM third member. The relationship with NAPCO carried on through 1959, when GM started sourcing parts direct from Spicer and other manufacturers.
Studebaker announced its 4x4 option in July 1957 for the 1958 model year. A test/demonstrator vehicle was built in October 1957, and production began in December after the first orders came in. The NAPCO conversion consisted of a Spicer 44 closed knuckle front axle and a divorced Spicer 23 two-speed, single-stick transfer case. The kit was available on all civilian models up to 1-ton capacity and on all three wheelbase lengths: 112, 122, and 131 inches. For '58, they could be ordered with the miserly 118-hp, 245ci Work Star flathead six or the 180hp (141 net), 259ci Power Star V-8. For '59, the 210 hp (154 net), 289ci Torque Star was the V-8 option. The V-8 came standard with a two-barrel carburetor, but the optional Power Package delivered an extra 15 horsepower via a Carter WCFB four-barrel. All the 4x4s used a Warner Gear T98 four-speed transmission. Half-tons used a Spicer 44 semi-float rear axle, and the higher GVWs used a Spicer 60 full-floater. A rear Powr-Lok (which Studebaker called Twin Traction) was optional.
By the end of the '50s, Studebaker's truck manufacturing had slumped from about 60,000 units per year at the end of the '40s to under 7,000 for 1958. Car sales had fallen off, as well. Early in the '60s, hard marketing work brought Studebaker sales up a bit, and things began to look better with a new car called Lark and a new pickup called Champ. Then a 38-day UAW strike staggered them. What finally cut them off at the knees was an erroneous report in the financial news that Studebaker was quitting the car biz. The specter of being left out in the cold by a belly-up company kept buyers out of Studebaker showrooms and stopped the sales resurgence in its tracks. The report became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
