Thank you for mentioning Studebaker. every one else pooh-pooh's them off. My father was a Studebaker man and we had a 59 Lark from new and my father was looking at the new 64's in late 63. Our local Studebaker dealer was a gear head and in late 63 he had a Wagoneer with the sliding steel sunroof and ordered the R-2 "Super Lark" package which gave suspension upgrades, and disc brakes to name a few. I saw it and fell in love. It was dark blue with a light blue vinyl interior. He loaded it out with options relatively rare in the 60's (for a dowdy Studebaker). The only option you couldn't get was A/C with the R-2 engine. My eyes glazed over when he took it for a test drive. My mother had kittens when he pulled up to the house and my sister and I were in the third row seat with the sunroof open. She quashed THAT idea real quick. She was worried (as were a lot of overprotective mothers at the time) saying it wasn't safe and we'd get thrown out if we were in an accident and she knew my father would let us ride in the back with the sunroof open if we got bribed with a DQ treat if we wouldn't rat him out. So, that 86'd that. So what did they buy? A 64 VW bus. With a canvas sunroof. I was crushed, but what could I do? We picked it up at night so my mother didn't notice it until the next morning. Talk about madder than a wet hen, but we were stuck with it for 3 years. She did everything she could to fix the roof so it wouldn't open. One of my neighbors were Studebaker fans and had an assortment of Larks and Daytona's and the oldest son bought a R-2 Avanti. Black on black and it sounded mean. I was always begging for a ride but he put it into a small pond in January about a year after he bought it. I was heartbroken.

You should have mentioned the Hurst Rambled shown in your thumbnail. My cousin owned one of these and it was surprisingly fast.

The "hippo" 289, sheesh. I have that engine in my 65 Falcon convertible with a top loader. That's an awful strong 271 hp, feels more like 325.

Studebaker 😮