I’ve always liked the idea of a sleeper, a plain-Jane car with hidden hot rod performance designed to surprise the muscle-car guys when the light turns green. A street-rod-building buddy of mine once took a ’65 Rambler American and tuned it with a 500-horsepower V8, race-spec drivetrain, disc brakes and suspension mods, while keeping it essentially bone stock on the outside.
The Pick of the Day is something along the same lines, a 1963 Studebaker Lark VI two-door sedan that packs a 350 cid Chevrolet V8 under its hood. Although the Lark has been slightly lowered, has a louvered hood and wears a set of American Racing wheels — plus those little Moon eyes behind the front wheels – it stills look stock enough to fool the locals.
The Chevy V8 installation gleams with chrome and polish
Some Larks did come with Studebaker’s own 289 cid V8s, which provided some spunk for the lightweight compact car. But this car’s Chevy 350, which has been treated to such performance touches as an Edelbrock carburetor, should make this Lark really fly.
Contrary to prevailing taste, I always thought the Lark’s unique styling was cool. They were kind of stubby, but with a bold grille up front and subtle chrome touches that highlighted its curvaceous shape. They were also nice to drive, as were Studebaker’s entire lineup of cars and trucks in the final years before the company’s demise in 1966.
According to the listing on ClassicCars.com from a Homer City, Pennsylvania, muscle car dealer (and Homer would be the perfect name for this car), the Lark’s custom build sheet includes an 8-inch Ford rear end, B&M Converter lock up switch for the automatic transmission, aluminum valve covers, aluminum radiator, air conditioning with a polished compressor, chrome details in the engine compartment, power brakes and Uro headlights.
The custom blue-and-black interior includes a Lecarra blue-leather-wrapped steering wheel, billet tilt steering column, reupholstered blue-velour bench seats, Shark aftermarket gauges and a handmade center console.
While the blue velour and the boxy console might not be to everybody’s tastes, the Lark looks good in the photos, with an aggressive stance over the custom wheels and performance tires. The photos of the engine compartment and undercarriage show a car that looks very clean and well-built.
The asking price is $19,900, which seems fair enough for this hot little rod, a unique ride that would be just the thing for a Saturday night cruise or an out-of-town road trip.
To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day
This car is not a ’63 at all.
Appears to be a ’59-’61 model.
you are right about that we had a studebaker dealership in delray beach,fl along with mercedes benz and triumph along with a two cycle car called a dkw.
Actually, it’s a 1960, as shown on the VIN. The first two numbers are the year. A ’63 is considerably different. Very nice job on the car though.
Albertastude
It does appear that the dealer got the year wrong. Just looked at photos of 1963 Larks and they have quad headlights and a restyled rear. This looks like an earlier car, perhaps as you say, a 1959, ’60 or ’61. .
Looks nice on the outside…. Open the hood….. Never mind…….
great car!… the studebaker 289 would make it shift almost as fast
Big Mistake I made was selling my 1963 Avanti with a 289 stock engine—-
Great car, I purchased a used 1949 Studbaker in 1955 as a teenager & used it or work in rural ND & for about 5 years.fun.Extremely realiable. great car and very affordable which accomodiated my budget at the time. I am left with wonderful memories of being its owner.
Linus
Yup…I had a 61 4 door Lark with quad headlights and the standard Stude 259 V8…I believe not too long after this yearage Studebaker in it,s infinite wisdom started to power up with Chev V8s … the full race kit Stude V8s with anti splash sump; high compression pistons and Paxton Supercharger would probably snot a modern Chev race motor to this day. My mate here in NZ had one and ran out of speedo reading at 230 mph !!…
When the author can’t even know what year a car is, time for new contributors.
we bought a ’63 lark custom new and am sorry i ever got rid of it.Had the best ride i’ve ever had in a car ours was the 269ci v/8 and would run with the best of them.we traded it in in ’67.took the new didge in for service only to find out it was coming in again. bought it to find out the second owner didn’t take care of it, i drove it home that night and had it fixed ths same night. Drove it again for 5 yrs.then sold it again, my only mistake was getting rid of it the first tims.would like to find another like what we had.
Had a 1963 2 Dr 259 with auto when I got married, in 1963, purchased it while in the Army, stationed at Ft Riley , Kansas. Loved the car sold it , the guy called me bad about six months, couldn’t keep it running,purchased it again, rebuilt the carb and it ran great . I have looked for one-off and on have never got one. Have a PT conv with HO Turbo.
Had what was titled a 61 Lark coupe but the vin indicated a 60 model year.Great little ride,but maybe that was just a sign of overproduction and flagging sales.It was a bare bones unit,no heater,no radio,but prior owner had done a nice bare bones resto.Wish I had it now to gift my son with a simple,easy to work on first car.
This is definitely a 1960 Studebaker [F body] 2 Dr. Sedan most likely started out as a six cyl. automatic which would be the lightest post war Studebaker body [the 1939 Champion 2 Dr. Sedan would be the lightest pre war body] my first Studebaker was/is [yes I still own it] a 1960 Lark VIII 4 Dr. sedan.
Studebaker did factory build a Lark with disc brakes pozi rear and the Avanti supercharged engine during the muscle car era.