1984 Studebaker on ebay

Wonder about the warranty.... Jeff (Might be fun to crush JT's Honda with it... ) rice

"John Poulos" wrote...

That Honda is far too nimble to be caught by an obsolete behemoth like that...

JT

Jeff Rice wrote:

I have been told that in Russia & in Iran, "Studebaker" is a generic word for a big truck, like to some people, "Coke" means any kind of carbonated soft drink. One Iranian I talked to could not believe that my car was a Studebaker. He told me that I have a CAR, not a truck, and asked why I would call a car a Studebaker. He had no clue that a maufacturer by the name of Studebaker was ever in business, and did not know why big trucks were called Studbakers.

-- Barry'd in Studes

Well, Russia was technically an ally at the time, but I know what you mean. Trucks that went to Russia essentially "vanished" from the consciousness of Americans because it was such a closed society. And the Russians themselves did not advertise the fact that they were made in the USA.

I remember reading an account written by a Canadian airman who was on a bomber crew tasked to attack the German vessel Tirpitz at anchor in a fjord in Norway. Plan involved flying to Russia, landing there, refuelling, and making the bombing run from there. The bomb was a special device intended to go deep beneath the ship, and then explode, creating a large bubble which would cause the ship to instantly founder.

Anyway, when they landed in Russia, they missed the "runway" with their Lancaster bomber. The Russians came with Jeeps and Studebaker US6 trucks, and sheer manpower and dragged the plane several kilometers to the runway. Anyway, the airman, in conversing with one of the Russians, said something to the effect that they must be grateful for the modern new vehicles shipped from the USA. The Russian said, in all seriousness, that they weren't American vehicles, but were made in a huge secret factory east of the Ural Mountains. That was the propaganda line that Stalin fed his own people.

The Studebaker US6 also got shipped, in lesser numbers, to England and Australia, and was the truck most used in the construction of the Alaska highway.

Gord Richmond