The Commander Volume 49 Issue 1 January 2017

Editor Lynda Welsh 24121 Ridge Road Germantown, MD 20876 301-253-3723 Lynwelsh@aol.com

Web Master Bob Johnstone 12161 Holly Knoll Circle Great Falls, VA 22066 703-450-0754 Rfjohnstone@cox.net

Historian Ed Lemanski 7875 Red Jacket Way Jessup, MD 20794 301-776-9893 edwardclemanski@verizon.net

Membership Nadine & Mike Farris 4313 Landgreen Street Rockville, MD 20853 301-460-4341 ndfarris 1@verizon.net

Secretary Murray Welsh 24121 Ridge Road Germantown, MD 20876 301-253-3723 MRWL8AGN@aol.com

Treasurer Mike Farris 4313 Landgreen Street Rockville, MD 20853 301-460-4341 david.farris @verizon.net

Vice President Chris Kidwell 3303 Sallisbury Avenue Sparrows Point, MD 21219 443-224-8379 cbkidwell@verizon.com

President: Steve White 17801 Farley Farm Road Rockville, MD 20855-1661 301-977-2627 stevedk66@yahoo.com

Potomac Chapter Studebaker Drivers Club

Activities Director Terry & Shirley McDaniel 580 Welltown School Road Martinsburg, WV 25403 304-263-3915 (hm) 304-671-6704 (cell) mcdaniel46@frontier.com

The Commander is the monthly publication of the Potomac Chapter, Studebaker Drivers Club. Subscription is by membership to the Potomac Chapter at $15.00 yearly. Canada/Mexico $20.00, all other countries $25.00. Direct all membership correspondence to the Membership Director. Direct all correspondence relating to The Commander to the Editor, who retains the right to edit or modify any contribution. Deadline date is the 15th of the month for the following month’s issue. The Commander is also an internet publication. The Potomac Chapter is an officially chartered chapter of the Studebaker Drivers Club, Inc.; its by-laws were approved, and charter granted by SDC in June 1967. Membership is recruited from the States of Maryland, West Virginia, Northern Virginia and Washington, DC. And those from other areas wishing to join the chapter are welcome.

Steering Column Steve White

This year’s Potomac Chapter SDC events get started with our luncheon at Barbara Fritchie Restaurant in Frederick on February 22. I am looking forward to seeing you there. More information about the luncheon is found in this issue of The Commander. I have a good friend, Ross Stansfield who may be able to give us a presentation during the meeting if the Fritchie Restau-rant has the ability to seat us in an area that will allow Ross’s talk. Nadine may schedule another day and time if the Fritchie Restaurant cannot accommodate the presentation in February. I send my appreciation to Nadine for coordinat-ing the event. Ross is a well-known expert regarding the work of Raymond Loewy and has worked with the Loewy family over the years. I met Ross at the Shady Grove (Rockville, MD) Cruise-In shortly after I started going there on Sunday mornings with my GT Hawk. He has taken some terrific pictures of the cruise-in cars over the years. I have some bad news. This year’s Orphan Car Tour is being cancelled for want of a coordinator. I was hoping one of our members could find time to do this but we all have busy schedules. Jon Battle and his veteran Orphan Car friends will help anyone who is willing to do the scheduling work. Jon has done this over a number of years and still maintains the Orphan Car Tour website. Another important item: our treasurer Mike Farris has our Club’s account in a friendlier bank. We owe Mike a debt of gratitude for ensuring that our funds are used parsimoniously. One last thing – I’m on my way to the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction. I am sitting at Dulles Airport now and, of course, my flight is delayed although it is not because of weather but due to the incoming plane being late. My three adult children gave me a pass to the auction for my birthday last year. Our daughter, Jessica, and her husband live near Scottsdale so that makes this possible. My son-in-law, his father and uncle have attended a number of the auctions and I will be enjoying everything as an observer with them as advisors. I will fill you in next month if space allows.

January Birthday’s

Robert Scott 1/5 Ruth Carr 1/9 Leonard Summers 1/11 Chris Webber 1/21 George Marshall 1/24 Irene White 1/17

Jeff Bradel 1/28 Bee Hamlin 1/28 Sam Brighman 1/29 Mary Veit 1/30

Potomac Chapter, SDC Activities 2016

3

Event Date Contact Luncheon 02/22/17 Nadine Farris York, PA (Final Meet) 03/09-11/17 Spring Event 04/08/17 Paul Johnson International Meet 05/03/17 South Bend, Ind. 05/06/17 Pat & Larry Orphan Car Tour 05/ /17 (TBA) Steve Spring Picnic 06/10/17 Bee Hamlin Sully Plantation 06/18/17 non-SDC Collector Car Appreciation Day ` 07/14/17 SEMA Activities Network (SAN) www.semasan.com Rose Hill Manor Car Show 08/ /17 non-SDC International Drive Your Studebaker Day 09/09/17 TBA Fall Picnic 09/16/17 Murray Welsh Hershey Fall Meet 10/04/17 AACA Bradfield Show 10/08/17 non-SDC Rockville Antique & Classic Car Show 10/14/17 Bill Morgan Reedsville Sway Meet 10/ /17 Keystone Chapter Fall Tour 10/20/17 Paul Johnson Chapter Planning Meeting for 2018 11/04/17 Terry Holiday Party 12/10/17 Terry

Historian By Ed Lemanski

4

ON THESE JANUARY DAYS IN STUDEBAKER HISTORY

1/06/1917: Gold-plated Studebaker displayed at N.Y. Auto Show at Grand Central Palace

The Grand Central Palace was an exhibition hall in New York City. Built in 1911, the 13-story building was located on Lexington Avenue between 46th and 47th Streets, occupying the air rights over the railroad tracks leading into Grand Central Terminal.

1/16-31/1942: 1942 Studebaker cars built January 16th to the 31st were SERIES 90

Studebaker cars built from January 16, 1942, continued the successful 1941 designs but were considerably altered in appearance by war-time regulation. Stude-baker referred to these cars as "series 90," since 1942 was the company's 90th birthday. Today, however, they are generally referred to as "blackout" models. In order to provide vehicles that would ap-proximate the beauty of their more glittery predecessors, Stu-debaker researched use of noncritical metals like Indium silver, and utilized baked-enamel finishes in colors that would offer pleasing contrast to that of the body.

Production of the series 90 during the last two weeks of January 1942 came to 4,612 Champions, 1,688 Com-manders, and 408 Presidents -- about 13 percent of the model-year total. The last Studebaker off the assem-bly line was on Jan-uary 31, 1942, it was a President Sky-way Land Cruiser bound for Mexico. Almost four years lapsed before civilian car production would again resume. During that period, all sales of new cars still in dealer or factory stock would be strictly monitored by the Office of Price Administration.

Note: Production figures are sourced from the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide

LOOKING BACK - 60 Years Ago - Hot Rod Magazine, priced at 25 cents, featured a test report on the supercharged 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk in their January distributed March 1957 edition (both cover photo and a featured article).

1942 President Skyway Land Cruiser

5

TECH TIP

By Ed Lemanski

SOLVING VAPOR LOCK ISSUES (Clothes Pin on a Fuel Line) Q - While participating in a local parade, our Studebaker stalled and wouldn't restart due to an apparent case of gaso-line vapor lock. We pushed it to the side and had to wait over 20 minutes before it would start. A local friendly me-chanic stopped by to chat. He suggested that some spring-type wooden clothes clips were the solution. He said to put them on the fuel line close to the carburetor and that would solve the problem. Is there any truth to this? A - Your Studebaker succumbed to vapor lock due to a combination of hot weather, slow engine speed and volatile gas-oline. When a car with a mechanically belt driven fan is moving slowly, the engine doesn't get much cooling air around it and the fuel begins to boil from the heat radiated off of the exhaust manifolds and engine block. This combination will boil the gasoline in a line, a fuel filter or a carburetor bowl. Bingo - you get vapor lock. The "Clothes pin on a fuel line" might work if it kept the fuel path away from the heat sources. In, an of itself, wood is an insulator and will not transmit heat away from the fuel. This technique probably works because one takes a con-scious effort to keep the fuel lines away the heat sources. A more scientific approach would be to purchase some heat shield material (such as sheet aluminum) and place it between the major heat source and the fuel path. If someone knows of an explanation as to why a clothes pin would solve a vapor lock problem please share it with us. Enjoy those Studebakers.

...at General Auto. Not General Motors, please note.

6

ITINERARY TRIP TO SOUTH BEND IN April 30 - May9, 2017

April 30, 2017 Meet Hancock MD 8:30am Lv for Ashland OH Driving thru Hancock, via Rte 144 joining Rte I-68 West to Morgantown WV to Rte I-79 North Connecting with Route 22.30 West. Route 30 splits from 22. Take the Exit for Rte 30 West traveling through PA and WV to Ohio. Remain on Rte 30 till just West of Wooster, OH exit to Rte 250 North. We will stop in Ashland OH staying at a Holiday Inn Express (Phone No. 419-281-2900) May 1, we will travel Rte 250 to Norwalk OH taking Rte 20 West to Fremont OH continuing on Rte 6 West to Rte 31 in IN. North on Rte 31 to South Bend. We are staying at the Doubletree Hotel (Phone 800-328-7349 or 574-234-2000) in South Bend. This is the Host Hotel for the meet. Our return trip will basically be the same as going out to South Bend with a couple of changes. We will be leaving on May 7 driving South on Rte 31 to Rte 6. We are planning on visiting Amish Acres in Nappanee IN for sev-eral hours. Driving East on Rte 6 to Kendallville IN where we will be stay-ing at a Holiday Inn Express. (Phone No 260-343-0000). On May 8 we will continue our trip East on Rte 6, 20, and South on Rte 250, to Dover OH. We will stay at a Comfort Inn (Phone No 330-440-0911). We plan on visiting the Warther Museum and Gardens. On May 9, we will continue on Rte 250 to Rte 22 East to Rte I-79 South and then East on Rte 68.

7

8

Saturday mornings October 1 - March 18 8:00 am - 10:00 am Cars N Coffee Olney 3425 Emory Church Road Olney, MD 20832 Free coffee and donuts Sunday mornings year-round Shady Grove Cruise-In 9:00 am - 1:00 pm McDonalds parking lot 16701 Crabbs Branch Way Rockville, MD 20855 Sunday mornings year-round Church of the Holy Donut 7:00 am - 10:00 am Shopping Center parking lot at Intersection of MD-198 and MD-29 There are more cruise-ins. Here are some other year-round ones that Chuck McDonald posts on his cruise-in site (that's where I got the above information too).

Friday Evenings Year-Round Laytonsville Cruise-In Shopping Center Parking Lot 6840 Olney-Laytonsville Road Laytonsville, MD 20882 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm Sunday Mornings Year-Round Potomac Cafe Racers Cruise-In 10220 River Road, Potomac, MD 20854

Running first in The Reader's Digest in late 1970 or so, it featured a 1962 Lark that had been, um, rigged up for the pur-pose of illustrating a point. It drew so many protests from Studebaker people that Allstate felt constrained to take out an SDC membership, point out that a Studebaker was the first car the company ever insured, and airbrush the car into something unrecognizable (second photo). The result ran in Look magazine 13 July 1971. It still had the grammatical error in the subhead (you don't hyphenate -ly adverbs), and more extra hyphens in the second sentence of the copy. Lat-er the company began running a different car's photo in this ad - a late-'60s Chrysler. As luck would have it, one chap in my office owned two cars: a 1962 Studebaker and a 1969 Chrysler. He phoned his agent, shouted something about Allstate's being determined to devalue his investments, and changed insurance compa-nies. A footnote: many jurisdictions that enacted the type of periodic inspections this ad calls for, later discovered no statisti-cal difference to justify the cost, and abandoned the idea.

9

Membership Corner

Just a reminder memberships for 2017 are due now. THANK YOU to all who have renewed. Work on the 2017 roster is in progress, if you haven't renewed, PLEASE do so soon so you can be included in the roster THANK YOU one and all. Nadine (Membership). ALSO February Luncheon Remember the luncheon on Feb.22 at 11:30 AM at the Barbara Fritches restaurant in Fredrick,Md. Landmark is the Candy Cane out in front.

PLEASE RSVP to Nadine, if you plan to attend so she can make reserva-tions. 301-460-4341 ndfarris1@verizon.net

Please note that the 2017 Rockville Antique and Clas-sic Car Show will be held on Saturday, Oct. 14 (rain date: Saturday, Oct. 21). This information has been updated on the Car Show website. Registration forms will be available starting July 1.

NOTICE

My name is Barbara Herlihy. I work for Santa Clara County and we have an estate with three Studebakers in it. I am a returning SDC member. (I was a member of the Karel Staple Chapter for a number of years when I lived up there). We need to sell these cars a.s.a.p. I tried to contact a number of officers in the Sequoia Chapter but did not receive a re-sponse. I wanted to put out the information to SDC members before I list them on “Govdeals.com”. I was hoping there was a way to let your members know about them. We don’t have any paperwork on them other than a court order au-thorizing us to liquidate this estate. Here’s what we have: 1. A ’50 or ’51 Land Cruiser 2. A ’58, ’59 or ’60 Silver Hawk 3. A ’54 Champion? They are all stored at our warehouse lot in San Jose. I have pictures. They are fairly complete and would be good resto-ration projects or parts cars. Is there any way we can let your members know about them? As a long-time Studebaker owner, I’d like to see them go to a good home!! Thank you, Barbara Herlihy Santa Clara County Public Administrator/Guardian (408)755-7627

This item of local interest also turned up in my housecleaning expo. My uni-versal calendar sez that 20 April, during the possible time span, had to be 1974. Bake sale! Can't do THAT any more, thanks to things idiots have done. Ah, those were great good times. Geo

COLLECTIBLE AUTOMOBILE, containing lots of details not previously dwelt on, covers Stu-debaker's flirtation with Porsche in the 1950s. This piece, written by Paulo Casar Sandler, runs 12 pages, contains many fascinating photographs, and draws on few sources the Studebaker community is already familiar with. The author, who ap-parently hails from Brazil, has previously written material on Porsche. The current issue of COLLECTIBLE AUTOMOBILE is dated April 2017 and should be on magazine stands now.

10

YOU MUST BE A MEMBER OF NATIONAL SDC IN ORDER TO JOIN ANY SDC CHAPTER

2017 Potomac Chapter SDC Membership

Application or Renewal

Please complete this form and mail a check for $15.00, payable to POTOMAC CHAPTER SDC. Send the completed form and check to: Nadine & Mike Farris, 4313 Landgreen Street, Rockville, MD 20853 email ndfarris1@verizon.net Phone: 301-460-4341

Yearly dues apply from Jan 1st to Dec 31st of each year

I am a member of

SDC International National Membership #

This is a NEW Application Renewal/Update

Name: Spouse: Address: Phone: City/ST/ZIP: Cell: E-Mail: Spouse cell: Birthday: Month Day Spouse: Month Day I own the following Studebakers (including Rockne, Erskine, EMF, Avanti) Year Make Model Body Style

I am joining SDC International at this time-Upon receipt of your national membership #, Please send information to the address to email above.

The Commander 24121 Ridge Road Germantown, MD 20876

FIRST CLASS MAIL

We invented Cool!!

Potomac Chapter SDC web site: http://potomacsdc.org

January 2017

Nearby AACA events you may want to tuck into your respective publications'

calendars if you don't have them already:

4-9 Jun 17: AACA Founders Tour, Gettysburg

4-7 Oct 17: AACA Eastern Fall Meet, Hershey

There's an AACA Spring Meet in Huntington, W. Va. in May, but that place is half-way to Saint Louis despite the W. Va. tag - hardly local.