eBay Find of the Day: Studebaker Taurus
click the pic above to see a gallery
Studebaker mash-ups with later Ford vehicles aren't an entirely new idea, but we've never seen something quite like this. The seller of this car should be beaten with a sand-filled hose for attempted robbery. $7500 for a Stude-nosed Taurus wagon with a ratty interior? Wait, now, before we get all indignant, this is powered by the potent powertrain combination of the 2.3 liter four backed up by one of the world's vaguest-shifting five speeds. There's nothing wrong with the Pinto-derived cammer four - it's one hell of an engine, in fact. The manual transaxle, well, it gets the job done. But really, a car being advertised as a "one of a Kind Kustom!" may be more enticing were it to have, say, an SHO powertrain. Not that it would soften the blow of the weird visage, but there would at least be something redeeming here. The bodywork is claimed to be all steel, but the pictures don't make it easy to tell whether that's a prevarication or not. We do question the merit of all that time and effort (and expense, if the body man was working for more than MGD) of grafting 1950s sheetmetal on a 1980s car. The ensuing clash never looks right, not even on those Thunderbird-based abominations.
Thanks for the tip, Mike!
[Source: eBay]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
blogfascination 8:48AM (6/10/2007)
Old news. saw this a week ago on Jalopnik.
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Barney 11:54AM (6/10/2007)
I imagine the Studebaker nose would add a lot more weight. The time and effort to build what nobody wants. A lot of hindsight and little forethought went into this project.
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iQuack 2:41PM (6/10/2007)
To have authentic Studebaker appeal, that car must burn oil and its clutch must chatter.
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drstrangegun 9:37PM (6/10/2007)
If it's a 2.3 Taurus, sorry guys, it's not the cammer 4. It's the HSC, an OHV engine derived from the 144/170/200 straight sixes. The motor's durable but it's no great shakes as to power and there's no upgrading.
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Dan Roth 10:08PM (6/10/2007)
Whoops - right you are about the HSC.
http://www.tempotopaz.com/main/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=35&page=1
I guess my 1980s PTSD has blocked out pretty much the entire decade :)
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roadside observer 9:01AM (6/11/2007)
I like Studebakers, especially the Hawk model line - but good lord, what an abomination this is.
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Joe 9:26AM (6/11/2007)
IF the engine was sourced from the Taurus, it was the HSC, as was said earlier, however, that motor was a 2.5L. It was also a major piece of crap.
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Dustin 1:38AM (6/12/2007)
This is horrendous, and someone deserves a dull fork in the eye. It had to be said.
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Roy 5:16PM (7/08/2007)
It's different and why not? It's just a car. I kinda like it just to spite the purists.
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