Diesel Powered Lark (2025 Update) Featured

It's real and a very cool piece.... I believe it belongs to Torey Kirby (spelling could be off). I've been to his place and there are a LOT of really interesting pieces simply rotting away in poor, outdoor storage in tall grass.

I saw the Lark at the Martinsburg meet in '06 and it was running and driving. Really an interesting sound and it just clicked 'em off nice and smooth. I think it would be a really cool example to have around.

Other than that, I cannot tell you much about the car.

Lee DeLaBarre Daytona62

Yes, he is Torrey Kirby. He has had the car since new or near new (I believe)- bought it in DC suburban Maryland. Email me off group and I'll give you his contact info. Just call him- he'll be happy to tell you about it. Paul Johnson

Hi there, Lenny Visnick here. My family were Studebaker dealers in metro Boston MA, tilll the end. Had quite a bit of knowledge of these Larks, one was assigned to our dealership to demonstrate to fleet customes in boston. the fleets included: Boston Gas Company, New Emgland Telephone, Boston Edison Co. Grossman's Lumber, Boston Taxi Assoc. (ITOA) Commonwealth Gas Co. and Massachusetts Electric.. At the time of South Bend's closing we had a firm order for 25 63D-F1's for Boston Gas Company. we were also compiling an order of 63D-Y1's for the ITOA, a group buy amoung independent taxi owners. The Black y1, that I own (2021) has the perking P4 diesel, with a three-speed standard trans, floor shiter, direct to top of tranny, no other gearshift linkage, kept simple. All the protental sales came to the end with South bend's closing. I have never regestered my car, as i have allways had access to a dealer or repair plate to use on it. Somewhere I have a letter from the factory with all the history surrounding these cars. There were 10 Larks and Ten Champs built with P4's havf automatics, as10, and half three on the floor. The Champ i have is likely the only one that was not sold to a tractor dealer in the midwest with the understanding that the were to have the engines removed for replacement use in farm tractors. I was never able to find-out why they did not do this with the larks, they were sold to dealers for $1500.00 per, that is what was payed for mine. The Champ survived only due to Chuck Orsborn, the Revere Factory branch Mgr, He wanted to keep it to take packages to the Post Office, as he dis-liked Railway Express.

It was at Revere, along with my GM Detroit powered Truck Tractor, has a 453 engine, like the rest, standard nose, not the "compact" It is red with the only marking being One of the larger "uniform Identity" decals on each door, Other than a few demos, it spent it's life indoors in the loading dock, and was used to move trailers in/out of dock, The Champ and The Tractor were left behind when they closed Revere Depot, and the firm that bought the building had my phone number in case they found any "hidden" parts. It was a good ten months later that they told me the two were abandoned there. I call South Bend and they told me they were "off the books" and tht if i was interested, i could buy them for $500.00 each. I mailed them a money order and a few weeks later, the Manufacturer's Certificates of origin arrived in the mail. They have been stored indoors with little use since then, both have about 15,000 miles. and are all 100% origional, except the batteries and the tires on the tractor.The Champ has it's origional GATES tires and they are not checker, cracked or bumpy, they are bias ply nylon core. Have several other Studes with Gates Tires and they are useable to this day, no leaks.

Gates tires were on the check list for vehicles built for sale west of the Mississippi River, In the East, the option was Firestone tire, If you did not check off any box on the order form, you got the standard US Royal tires Also have two Factory cars, that have factory installed Kelsey Hayes Mag-Star wheels with wider Gates Tires,, The wheel centers are the same they used on the wire wheel hubcaps. (listed in parts book) I think the black two-door was the Phila. Zone demo, somewhere i have the serial numbers of all the Diesels, along with the parts break-down for all the special parts, and a list of contact/warranty parts for the Perkins.

I do remember our dealership changing the clutch on a two door, It came in on the hook if i remember right, and one of the factory reps was driving it around, likely after hamilton closed, and they sold off all the factory cars , along with the remaining new "65+66 cars, and a few factory service people were given the diesels to drive as they were not considered sale-able. Having moved recently i am still sorting out the Paper-work from my own and the Dealership (recently given by a relative who did the final paperwork when the dealership was sold 1n 1980.

The diesel program had 20 larks and twenty champs, evenly split automatics and 3-speed on the floor. They were assigned one lark and one champ to each sales district. When the decision was being made to transfer production to Canada, the program ended. The Perkins engines were they exact same ones that Perkins was selling to Farm tractor makers. As most people know, used studebakers were not worth much, even in the good years. The factory held-on to most of them at the parts depots for bringing parcels to the post-office and important things like take-out food.They made that decision due to the fact that the Perkins engine peole handled the warranty on the engines, and studebaker dealers had no tools for them at that time. As the dpots closed the diesels were sold to amoung the remaining SASCO dealers. Most went to the farm belt and donated thier Perkings to saw a Deere! When the boston zone parts depot / sales office (Mercedes / Studebaker) closed in 1970 and i cleaned-out most of the Studebaker parts, and Feldman Motors, across the street from the depot got to clean out the Packard parts. The depot was at 590 Revere Beach Parkway, Rever,51 Mass.The Mercedes parts went to the Mercedes parts depot in New Jersey. Prior to the Revere Depot, there was a Packard Depot on Commonwealth Aveue in Boston, and a studebaker depot on Forseyth Street in Boston, after the S-P merger they were both moved to the Revere location. The building was built to spec and leased by S-P. When the lease ran out in 1970, Chuck Osborne, Branch Mgr. was visited by the folks from SASCO and was told to load the items in short supply into a railcar and return the to South Bend. I remember that opperation, The only parts that went back were for the Zip-Vans and the Avanti. The rest were to be scrapped. Orders were given to Chuck to get 3 Roll-of boxes, one for Iron, one for Glass and one for what-else. Chuck did'nt think too much of that idea. I was told that if i could come-up with receipts to prove that he followed thier plan, that i could help myself. A local trucking company, Capitol Transportation, who was the main trucker out of the Revere opperation, at one time they did a lot of delivery to the New England dealers, but at that time they were more interested in renting-out the remaining ttralers for storage. They were really happy to bring trailers to the depot and store the loaded ones in thier yard untill i found a place to put all that stuff. My Father Henry and his brother Bernard thought that i was nuts, and did not want anything to do with the stuff, as they had pleanty at thier Studebaker Dealership that was not going anywhere, Most of what they did sell over time went to Sheldon Henderson, who lived just about 1 mile away. So much for the parts.

A new tennant, the Ogan Company, who makes Bakery mixes, such as donut filling and such. I get a call from thier warehouse man asking when would the remaining Studebakers find thier way out of the parking lot. I told them that i would find-out from South Bend. After some delay and it was like we thought that Chuck Osborne had taken care of that. I get a call from South Bend and was asked if i would be willing to at least get them out of there untill they could go through the Revere paper work and find the "Mfrs Cert of Origon" for the Three Studes. I was able to use the Studebaker Dealership's Dealer plates (and jump-starter) to get them back to my place. I still have the 1963 63D-y1 taxi package, Three on the floor, the RED Champ pick-up, still has the origional "uinform Identy"big round decals on the doors, that has the automatic transmission. The thir is the Diesel Demo truck tractor, Detroit 4-53 engine, manual transmission, standard nose, not the Mobile home deliver one. I have the "MCO" for all, as they have never been regestered or titled. Piad $1500.00 for the three, $500.00 each and they could not thank ne enough for taking them!. By the way Chuck Osborne beacme the National Parts Manager for Toyota. I have stored these and my other Studes for 50 years, and it is getting more costly to do so. I was planning on donating them to the planed new car / truck wing at Smithsonian, but looks like Trunp might be painting them into a corner. I drove the diesel Lark when it was new and demoed / loaned it to some of the big Boston fleets, Boston Gas Company, New England Telephone, Boston Edison, not much interest, as even 1963 they were still buying gasoline powered trucks for thier fleets, only diesels they had were Backhoe/loaders, only due to the fact that the only came that way. Thre was a lot of interest amoung several of the Taxi co,s in both Boston & Worcester, but they could only drive them around, could not pick-up ares, as the Lark did not have a Taxi meter, and each city had to certify the meter if one was put-in. By that time, the Fall of '63, we all knew that the leaves were not the only thing falling. If Grundy and the other decision makers would have made 1965's Perkings powered and GM powered, Studebaker wolud might have had a better chance. The p-4 perkins with the 3-speed gets 50 miles per gallon of fuel, and it is not that noisy, and with good oil and fuel would likely go 200k with no trouble That kind of low-cost high fuel mileage would have been an eye opener for any fleet. GM had Diesel pick-ups in testing as early as 1967, and they were junk compared to the Perkins. i am still going to drive a Studebaker, not every day , for ever. Lenny Visnick