Here’s the Porsche-powered Studebaker you never knew existed

While going to the Studebaker Nationwide Museum in South Bend, Indiana this week, I simply cannot say I was expecting to uncover nearly anything within that could be even tangentially Porsche-associated. Whilst Studebaker did contract Porsche to establish a handful of prototypes, which includes a entrance-motor V6 sedan in the early-1950s, none ever came to pass. This is not that automobile, nor was it commissioned by possibly Studebaker or Porsche. It is a 1959 Studebaker Lark powered by a 1500cc Porsche 356 engine stuck out back again.

As the tale goes, New Jersey-centered Curtiss-Wright bought the Lark for the engineering physical exercise, and stripped it of its unique front-engine/rear-generate running equipment. Applying the 60-ish horsepower Porsche engine and some Volkswagen Bus bits, the agency cobbled jointly a rear-motor aircooled Lark. Thinking about the “compact” Lark was really a bit more substantial and heavier than a 356, and its smallest engine from the factory—a 170 cubic inch inline six—produced all over 90 horsepower, the aircooled Lark could rarely be regarded speedy or sporty. Heck, at the time Studebaker presented a V8-run Lark that could dash from zero to sixty in less than 10 seconds, a main feat for the late 1950s. I anxiety this Porsche-run Lark may perhaps not have been equipped to even accomplish sixty!

In any case, Curtiss-Wright experienced a short while ago gained the rights to generate Wankel-style rotary engines in the U.S. beneath contract from German automaker NSU. The business planned to use the engines in aircraft, but some think that this Porsche-Stude mashup was meant to be a prototype for a new rear-engine rotary-powered American compact. Curtiss-Wright engineers developed a fuel tank and spare tire mount system in the Lark’s original motor compartment which looked maybe output-ready, and taken off the transmission tunnel from the automobile to exhibit the flat-floor comforts afforded by moving the motor to the back.

The prototype by no means created it beyond that phase, obviously, and the car or truck was swiftly overlooked about. Perhaps it was a pet challenge of somebody at Curtiss-Wright, or most likely it was a swift hodge-podge that no person took any notes about, but there is incredibly little documentation about this car or truck out in the globe. Evidently it was offered off as a regular old utilized auto. These times it sits in the reduce gallery open up storage of the Studebaker museum, telling its untold story. And a weird just one at that. If you are at any time in the place, you owe it to you to stop in and check out out this oddball of Porsche-adjacent historical past.