by Wallace Wyss –

Y’know, when my publisher at Enthusiast Books asked me to revive my out-of-print book Porsche 356 Photo Album, I thought hey “How hard could it be?” with only four models, the pre-A, the A, the B and the C.

But the more I dig into Porsche 356 history the more I keep coming across models that don’t fit. Take the Type 542: a Porsche Studebaker.

Now I am a Studebaker fan, turns out. I like the Hawk, and the GT, even the ugly Lark convertible. Not enough to buy one, mind you, but I admired them for what they achieved.

I didn’t know why they failed, other than dark rumors of the Big Three sabotaging them by discouraging suppliers from giving Studebaker a break (hey, maybe there’s a movie there…where’s Jimmy Stewart when we need him?).

But basically by about ’56, they were in deep horse picky, selling models that were old fashioned in styling (the Big Three had conditioned the public to want an all new car every three years), and they had huge quality control problems.

Plus they were trying to be relevant to new events like the experimentation with fuel injection. They tried that too, working with a Bosch and Simmonds system.

Then somebody tried a “Hail Mary” pass—going to a company renowned for engineering; Porsche. So it was, in 1952, Porsche built a prototype, the Type 542, called by Studebaker the “Z-87.”

Now the reason this car won’t make my Porsche book is that it didn’t have a flat four, but it’s still an interesting insight into the failure of an American automaker. This prototype used a 120-degree V6 designed to be either air or water-cooled, with air-cooled cylinder heads and water-cooled cylinders.

Well, it was a good idea on paper but later they did one version that was air-cooled, like the 356, and another that was water-cooled.

A running car, I don’t know if it was the air-cooled or water-cooled, was built in Germany and shipped to Studebaker which, amazingly, didn’t get around to examining it until 1956. And guess what engineer worked on it? A tall good looking guy named John Z. DeLorean.

Now as we all know, by his later career, DeLorean was complemented for bringing European ideas to American cars but back then he was toeing the line, on an “America was Best” theme and wrote a report that tore apart the prototype sent from Germany, pointing out its tendency to oversteer, and critiquing the design that it didn’t look American.

Well, that was a big crime back then. And, horrors he said it looked “short and buglike.” Well, la de da, the guy never heard of the VW bug?

He concluded his report praising the 1956 Champion or Commander in comparison to the Porsche for American driving…

Even though Studebaker spurned that model, they weren’t entirely turned off by Porsche. They even entertained another prototype proposal, a car that looked like the “square-back” Volkswagen that was built by VW in the late 1960s.

Well, we all know what happened to Studebaker. Oh, they built some high performance V8-powered cars like the supercharged Avanti, but mostly their product line became totally irrelevant to the American market and they skulked off to Canada.

Now the question is: did the Studebaker prototype built by Porsche survive? I think it did because I found a picture of this Porsche Studebaker on a Google search with the caption Greater Michiana Auto Auctions.

Which means at some point it was for sale. Also on Google is a magazine picture of the car in blue, on a cobblestone street, a picture that looks “modern day.” But I can’t open up the website picture to read what magazine it’s in. I am betting the car survived but don’t know if 356 fans will take this car to heart.

I am wondering, does this Porsche Studebaker have Porsche SN? What would it be worth, since its styling is so ugly that it contravenes all the accumulated love built up for the 356; it is as if it were an ugly stepsister kept in the attic.

At this point, with the book scheduled for 2017 publication, I’m still at the fact-gathering stage. I am passing on this Studebaker/Porsche but meanwhile discovered the existence of yet another Porsche prototype built in the 356 era that is not quite so ugly, a model called the 530; like to hear anything about that, if it survived, who it was built for and will entertain offers of pictures of it. I can be reached at Photojournalistpro@gmail.com.

Let us know what you think in the Comments.

THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss reports his newly published fourth volume in the Incredible Barn Finds series can be purchased direct from the publisher Enthusiast Books (715 381 9755)

Summary

Article Name

The Strange Romance Between Studebaker And Porsche

Description

The Porsche Studebaker Type 542 did not make it to production.

Author

Wallace Wyss