Studebaker had a brief but prolific period of offering superchargers on its cars, the first being the Golden Hawk. In 1957 and 1958, the Golden Hawk was Studebaker’s top dog in price, sportiness and performance, and as such, it was equipped with a McCulloch supercharger as standard equipment atop its Studebaker 289-cid V-8. Superchargers would become optional on several Studebaker passenger cars in the 1960s, but would you believe there were two Studebaker trucks built with superchargers?

Robert Paxton McCulloch, who founded the company that originally built McCulloch superchargers, sold McCulloch Engineering in the 1940s to Borg-Warner. He continued to dabble in superchargers and even continued to file new patents, and by the 1950s, had new superchargers to offer. He eventually put his new supercharger efforts under the Paxton name. By 1958, McCulloch had sold Paxton to Andy Granatelli who, four years later, sold Paxton to Studebaker Corp. of South Bend, Ind. Incidentally, Granatelli was head of Studebaker’s racing division at this time.

Beginning in 1963, Studebaker began offering the Paxton supercharger atop its 289-cid V-8 on some passenger car models and gave these supercharged cars the R2 designation. Production records exist for the 1963 R2-powered Avanti (1,552 R2 cars built), Lark (327) and the Gran Turismo Hawk (278) — but we’ve never seen mention of an R2-powered Studebaker truck. That is, until the accompanying documents were uncovered by the Studebaker National Museum and sent to us via Old Cars reader Mason Maynard. The period documents — Studebaker Truck Production Order forms — show two 1963 Studebaker Champ 8E7 Series 1/2-ton trucks built with the Paxton supercharger of the 289-cid V-8-powered R2 passenger cars. Not surprisingly, these documents show one of the trucks was delivered to the Paxton Products Division of Studebaker; the second shows the destination as “Indianapolis, Ind. Snider” — likely Snider Auto Service, an authorized Studebaker dealer in Indianapolis.

The R2-powered truck with the earlier serial number (E719327) and earlier order form date (Oct. 18, 1962) is the truck that went to Snider in Indianapolis. The 1/2-ton truck was built on Studebaker’s 122-inch wheelbase, making it a long wheelbase/longbox truck, and it was painted “Parch. White” for Parchment White with trim 1316A. It was further fitted with five Firestone 500 series 8.00-15 nylon blackwall tires, an automatic transmission and 3.73:1 gears in a Twin-Traction differential. Under “Special Options,” the production order form says “Avanti Jet Thrust 289 Engine with supercharger — Dev. 5338” (a regular-production 8E7 Series Studebaker truck had a 259-cid V-8). Truck E719327 had a final assembly date of Nov. 7, 1962.

One day later, on Nov. 8, 1962, the R2-powered Studebaker truck built for the Paxton Products Division of Studebaker underwent final assembly. According to its two Studebaker Truck Production Order forms, it was built on the Studebaker 112-inch truck chassis, making it the short-wheelbase/shortbox version, and it was painted Velvet Black with the same trim (1316A) as the white R2 truck built for Snider. While the tires were also Firestone 500s, they were smaller in size (6.70-15), and a handwritten note on the earlier form states the tires are to have narrow-band white sidewalls. This truck’s forms also differ by noting a three-speed transmission and 4.55:1 gears in its Twin-Traction rear differential. It was fitted with a radio and given VIN E719345.

The second truck is unique for having two separate Studebaker Truck Production Order forms. Both show a final assembly date of Nov. 8, 1962, but the dates the orders were written are almost two months apart, the second form having a “date written” entered as Dec. 17 — more than one month after the truck was built. However, both forms agree with each other, though the later form dating to December 1962 provides more detail in the “Special Options” section of the production order form, probably to reflect changes to it after it left the assembly line.

Under special options, the Dec. 17, 1962, form for the black shortwheelbase Studebaker truck outlines many special features: the Jet Thrust engine with supercharger (R2), of course, but also a T10 passenger car four-speed transmission, dual exhaust, gauges, a radiator with an oil cooler, a special propeller shaft, disc brakes and power steering, all of which were to be added by the engineering department. It appears this truck had an engine change from the Oct. 30 to the Dec. 17 production order forms. Both forms mention the engineering department, with the earlier form identifying a Mr. P. Deblumenthal as the person to whom the truck should be directed. The second form identifies this man as M. P. Deblumenthal, presumably Studebaker engineer Michael P. de Blumenthal.

In 1963 and now, these would be fast, powerful trucks — especially the shortbox/four-speed pickup — and both would certainly be worth remembering 60 years later. So, where are these hot supercharged ’63 Studebaker trucks now? If you recall the trucks, or know of the present location of either one, email oldcars@aimmedia.com. 

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Lately there’s been a move afoot, on the part of Shelby-collectors, to add Bronco sport utility vehicles (SUVs) to their collections. Seth Burgett is one of the drivers of this movement. He is chief executive officer of Gateway Broncos (www.gatewaybroncos.com), a firm that refurbishes 1966-1967 Broncos using assembly line techniques to do its builds. Burgett adopted his manufacturing system from Henry Ford and is a fan of Ford products such as Shelbys and, of course, Broncos.

“Actually, I’m a bit of a Shelby nut,” Burgett said during the Milwaukee Concours d’Elegance (www.milwaukeeconcours.com) in early August. “I’ve got a 1967 GT500 that I describe as ‘my donation to B.F. Goodrich.’ Every time I drive the car, I shred the tires a little more. I have a lot of fun with the car. I road race it at Shelby American Automobile Club (www.saac.com) events whenever I can.” At the Milwaukee Concours d’Elegance, he showed a 1967 Shelby GT350 he’s restoring.

In 1977, the second owner lost his job working on Hilton Head Island. He told Burgett that, at the time, he had a couple of kids. “He said that the kids needed to eat,” Burgett explained. “He decided it was better to feed them than to keep the Shelby. He reluctantly sold the car.”

Two weeks later, the second owner got another job. He then went on to become a successful businessman, working as a corporate controller and later as a chief financial officer. According to Burgett, he also wrote several songs for the Eagles rock-and-roll band for which he still gets royalty checks.

The man also built up a large car collection and bought and sold many cars over the years However, about once a month, he went on eBay looking for Shelby No. 1933. Burgett had Shelby No. 1933 and eventually made contact with the second owner, who then committed himself to assist with the restoration and help bring the car back to the condition it was in when he sold it.

“I talked to him recently and he decided it was time for him to own the car again,” Burgett explained. “So, I sold it back to him exactly 40 years after he had to sell it. We’re going to restore it back to the way it was when he first owned it.So, he had a four- to five-year period when he owned it when it was Brittany Blue with white stripes and also had the Paxton supercharger and the air conditioning.”

Burgett’s company is going to put the car back to that condition even though the Paxton supercharger and air conditioning were not available from the factory or dealer on a 1967 Shelby GT350. As it sits today, it is the way it was when the second owner last owned it and had it painted white with blue stripes.

Burgett said he’ll need to do a little engineering to return the car to its former state. “That’s how he wants it,” Burgett stressed. “We’ll deliver it to him at his Kentucky home and we plan to allow him to have a raging burnout and make more donations to B.F. Goodrich using the Paxton as the motivator behind that.”

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