The Studebaker was like several other cars of that era. The Hudson, the Packard, the Henry J. Incidentally, the Studebaker line was owned by Packard. Each automobile had a little something that was ahead of their time. The Tucker utilized a 3rd headlight in the center of the grill that turned with the steering wheel to aid in rounding curves. At least one year, the Studebaker did the same.
The Hudson Terraplane and the Hudson Hornet were popular in the race circuits and won lots of major races. I believe both were powered by a Flathead Inline 8 cylinder engine. I had a classmate around 1960 that had a 48 or 49 Hornet with a straight 8. They, along with the Mercury of that time period were possibly some of the first lowered cars around and had a very long, sleek fastback design. They were popular for the young gearheads to 'Chop, Channel, and Section' thereby creating some very unique vehicles.
Studebaker was one of the earlier manufacturers to produce an OHV V8. Sometime around 1950. Ford didn't produce one until around 53 or 54 and Chevy didn't have one until 55. The Oldsmobile and Cadillac were the cars that introduced new technology for GM and they preceeded the Chevy with an OHV V8, as was and did Mercury for the Ford Motor Company.
Even after Hudson's demise, it continued to live on in the form of the Nash or Rambler and eventually, I think the Jeep. Though they had OHV engines, Rambler continued to produce a flathead engine up into the 60's. A neighbor had a 62 Rambler wagon with a flathead. Interestingly, the car badge on the rear tailgate read R A M L B E R. One of the assembly line persons must have been dyslexic.
Rambler, under the name of American Motors continued manufacturing on into the late 80's. I owned a 70 Javeline with a 390 V8 derived from a Ford engine. Melanie owned a 74 Hornet Hatchback with a 304 V8, also derived from Ford.
