Saturated Saturday

I almost titled today’s post Studebaker Gran Turismo Saturday. About twice a week I look at Hemmings and the Classics part of Autotrader for Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk listings. No, I am most definitely not going to buy one anytime soon, but for not the first time I will quote the movie Diner: if you don’t have dreams you have nightmares.

Regular readers will probably remember the resto-mod Gran Turismo Hawk I mentioned and showed in the blog about two weeks ago. That car was listed on Autotrader and sold not long after I found it.

The same site now has the car pictured below in its listings.

This is a stock Gran Turismo Hawk, a 1962 model. I showed the dashboard because it has the desirable full gauge cluster. Some GT Hawks only have the five gauges in the middle with two empty spaces (or one empty space) on the sides.

The seller, a dealer in Illinois, is asking $27,900. Once again, barring a huge lottery win there is no way I am buying this car. One silver lining is that if/when the time comes that I begin to look in earnest for one of these, despite their low production volume (about 16,000 in total) it seems as though I could find a desirable example without having to look for years.

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From this Why Evolution Is True post:

“The obsession with Iran, with pleasing them and with turning them into an ally, is one of the creepiest and most underreported stories of this White House.”

“Amen to that. A bad misstep on not just Biden’s administration, but Obama’s as well.”

As long as that country remains a theocracy with an unchecked dictator at the helm, I believe everything should be done to cripple that country, not to appease it.

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Time to give the readers the “microphone.” What topics do you want to see more in Disaffected Musings? Obviously, the entire universe is not in play. I will not comment on topics about which I know nothing or next to nothing. In real life, Cliff Claven (the “know-it-all” postman in Cheers) would not be funny.

Still, a subject may have remained unexplored in which you have interest and about which I might have some knowledge. I would like to expand the horizons of this blog, but need some guidance. Thanks.

#SaturatedSaturday

#StudebakerGranTurismoHawk

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Insomnia Encore

It is about 1:50 AM local time as I begin to write this post. No, I am not “still” up, but woke up about an hour ago too hungry to go back to sleep. Since I decided to eat, given my GI tract physiology I cannot attempt to go back to sleep anytime soon.

My sleep patterns are anything but a pattern. I am well aware that such a state of affairs is deleterious to my health. Ironically, something that is good for my health is playing a major role in the sleep disturbances.

I am trying, and usually succeeding, to spend three hours a week on the treadmill. That amount of time increases my metabolism and my hunger. Since I cannot eat dinner without risking reflux, very often when I awake in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom (I am a male over 60) I am simply too hungry to go back to sleep.

I am not crazy about the idea of having a surgical procedure (called a fundoplication) to “fix” my GI issues. A 2019 study reported that four percent of patients had to return to the hospital after that surgery. In another study, while 78 percent of patients said they would recommend the surgery, a not insignificant 15 percent said they would not. In any event, my hiatal hernia (where part of my stomach is actually above the diaphragm), might not be considered severe enough to have the surgery.

OK, that’s probably too much medical information. Long story short, one hand giveth and the other taketh away. The result is irregular sleep and some very poor quality days as I walk around not quite with it.

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This CNBC article is titled, in part, “Why it’s hard to find an inexpensive new car these days.” The two authors write that this is a manifestation of consumers’ preference for more features and not for the base model of a car.

As my wonderful wife and I have been on a journey to find a grocery car/taxi, we have also decided we have to have certain features, some of which are not included in the base model of many cars. I think that very few car buyers are willing to custom order a car and wait for weeks until it is delivered. Car manufacturers add options to cars because they know those will sell better than cars without even though they cost more.

One problem, though, is dealer-added options, such as window tinting. (That is an all too common practice here in the desert.) Obviously, that’s just a way (along with “garbage” fees such as a document fee) to increase a dealer’s profit margin.

Speaking of which, a salesman told us that, at least where he works, the dealership makes nothing on the sale of an electric vehicle, not even in service. However, in this affluent suburb some demand for EVs exists, but they have to be sold at a very low price relative to dealer cost in order to clear inventory. Excess inventory is really the bane of existence for automobile dealers.

This salesman seemed quite surprised by my staunch opposition to mandates designed to force people to buy EVs. He also seemed surprised when I told him that in most of the country virtually zero demand exists for EVs. However, since he wanted to sell us a car I don’t think he wanted to argue with me, anyway.

Of course, I am still thinking about this car.

#InsomniaEncore

#AutomobileOptions

#StudebakerGranTurismoHawk

#28And84

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Tired Of Technology

Originally I was going to title this post “The B*ts Are Back” and wonder aloud if my mention of the robots yesterday led to yet another day in which they distorted blog readership statistics. (Sort of like the movie “Beetlejuice.”) However, I am really getting paranoid about b*t activity.

Here are the numbers: yesterday’s number of views was 86 percent higher than the day before, which itself was not a bad day for views. However, the number of visitors actually declined 17 percent. In addition, two-thirds of yesterday’s views were of the main page compared to the usual 25%-40%. These are telltale signs of b*t activity.

In addition, for the past few months I have been dealing with an ever increasing amount of spam/junk email. For some reason, Apple’s mail app does not allow for blocking an entire email domain. Also, these emails don’t seem to show up in Outlook on my PC, which may still have that feature. Of course, these emails not appearing in Outlook might be because I usually check my email on my phone first and with an IMAP email system, if I delete them on my phone then they are prevented from showing up in Outlook.

Dutifully, I go through each junk email and block the sender, which means if the same entity sends another email it goes straight to the Trash folder. That does help a little, but it is disconcerting to receive so much spam/junk email and frustrating that I cannot block a whole domain, which would be helpful. Apple’s email app does do a decent job of identifying junk/spam as such and these emails almost always end up in the Junk folder.

All of this almost makes me want to go back to the analog days. However, I wouldn’t be writing this right now.

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Although my wonderful wife and I don’t really watch this show anymore, we used to be regular viewers of “American Pickers” on the History Channel. (Sorry, I will never refer to it as simply “History.”) One of their pet expressions was that the time to buy something is when you see it.

I can’t really see this car, but I can see the listing.

Yes, Philip, it’s yellow. This is a 1963 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk, which has already been resto-modded with a Chevy small-block V-8, a Turbo Hydra-Matic 350 transmission and front disc brakes.

At an asking price of $22,500 it seems like quite a bargain to me given the work that’s already been done. So, why am I not going to buy the car?

First, we have well exceeded our “budget” for home expenditures for the first year in the Goose Bumps House. That’s an even bigger problem when one considers that today is 26 weeks we have lived here.

Second, it is likely/possible that we will be buying a modern grocery car/taxi in the very near future. The Gran Turismo Hawk would not be practical in that role and, at least at the beginning, would not be reliable enough, either. I guess there’s no room at the inn or in the wallet.

I guess you can’t always buy it when you see it, no matter how much you might want to. C’est la vie…

#TiredOfTechnology

#StudebakerGranTurismoHawk

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Monte Carlo

980,545

This will be a strange, disjointed post. (How could anyone tell?)

Intelligence is not a disease and is not something of which to be ashamed.

Today’s post title does not refer to this:

SS Four- Fifty Faux - 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo | Hemmings Daily

Or to this:

Monaco and Monte Carlo | 10 places to visit in Monaco

Instead, Monte Carlo refers to this: “Monte Carlo simulation is a computational algorithm that uses repeated random sampling to obtain the likelihood of a range of results of occurring.” I have written many times that I think life is a type of Monte Carlo simulation.

I am as close to absolutely certain as one can be, asymptotically approaching 100 percent, that if it were somehow possible for a person to live their life 10, 20, 100 times, it would NOT turn out exactly the same way each time. Well, one event has a 100 percent probability.

I think life has a range of outcomes with theoretical probabilities that, except for the one event, are not absolutely knowable. I absolutely reject the idea of destiny. If one’s actions have no effect on life outcomes, then what’s the point of living?!

The probability that I accepted the offer to work for the San Diego Padres and move to California in 1995, instead of accepting the job offer from a company much closer to home, was not 100%. If I had not moved to California, then I would not have met my wonderful wife. Of course, if I had not moved I might have married someone else or remained unmarried, but the point is that nothing is pre-ordained except the end of life.

Of course, we don’t have total control over our lives. Exogenous events occur and often we cannot totally escape the effects of such events. However, we still have choices and would not necessarily make the same choices in every life if we could live multiple lives. In addition, the same exogenous occurrences would almost certainly not happen in every life.

Anyway, all of this is a long way of saying that choices matter and that a person should not live their life on auto-pilot. In a way, this also means–at least to me–that it’s OK to admit a mistake and to move on, instead of trying to pour time, money and effort into trying to justify past decisions.

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This post from Why Evolution Is True is about FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) suing California’s community college system for requiring professors to adhere to DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion or Deny Excellent Individuals as far as I am concerned) requirements.

Compelled speech is also a violation of a person’s First Amendment rights. I am almost certain that if this case were to end up in the Supreme Court FIRE would prevail and California would lose. That state’s community college system is a government entity and, as such, must adhere to the US Constitution.

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From this piece on Yahoo Finance:

“China’s economy has hit the skids in ways that suggest 25 years of supercharged growth may be ending, well before China achieves economic superpower status. China’s economy never powered out of the COVID pandemic the way the US economy did — and it’s barely growing now. Instead of marveling at China’s prosperity miracle, economists are now pondering whether China’s woes will bring down other parts of the global economy.

Desmond Lachman of the American Enterprise Institute recently told Reuters that China’s economy is unlikely to eclipse the United States anytime within the next 20 years. Economist Paul Krugman, also a New York Times columnist, likens China to Japan in the early 1990s. That’s when runaway growth came to a screeching halt and worries about an Asian nation’s world domination proved wildly unfounded.

Japan, at least, had become a rich country by then. China still isn’t, and it may never join the ranks of so-called advanced economies.”

I have written many times that China’s government is engaged in a desperate effort to raise that country’s per capita economic output to something at least approaching first-world levels before its population implodes from the effects of the One Child Policy. I have also often written that people in this country who admire China’s governmental “system” are utterly clueless.

I trust China’s government as far as I could throw Mount Everest.

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This recent piece from Mac’s Motor City Garage is about a car of which I am very fond, the Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk. More specifically, it’s about the last edition, the 1964 model.

As you might remember, the Gran Turismo Hawk was included in Ultimate Garage 3.0, which is probably the last such endeavor I’ll publish. From the Mac’s piece:

Although any such purchase would be years away, or not happen at all (remember that only one life event has a 100% probability), with the knowledge that “my mechanic’s” shop will do “light” resto-modding, buying a Gran Turismo Hawk is an event with a probability greater than zero.

The model year designation notwithstanding, no Gran Turismo Hawks were built in calendar year 1964. Their production ended when Studebaker closed its facilities in South Bend, Indiana in December, 1963. The sad thing is that some Hawks had been built at the Canadian production plant that manufactured Studebakers until the cessation of automobile production in March, 1966. The car could have continued to be produced.

So many CARS just one life, after all.

#MonteCarlo

#DEI=DenyExcellentIndividuals

#ChinaIsAPaperTiger

#StudebakerGranTurismoHawk

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Wandering Wednesday

This is not a recent comment, but seems relevant in light of recent events. The remark was made by Alecia Beth Moore, better known to the world as Pink or P!nk. She tweeted more than a decade ago, “Kanye West is the biggest piece of shit on earth. Quote me.” I’m just doing what she asked…

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My daily computer football league playoff game was really a tale of two games. The Los Angeles Cobras scored 23 second-quarter points to take a 23-21 halftime lead over the Texas Tornadoes. LA was the only team to defeat Texas during the regular season and the score was 46-44; the first half of the playoff game seemed like a repeat of the regular season game would occur.

However, LA did not move the ball well in the second half. Matthew Stafford, the Cobras’ quarterback, had very little success after halftime and threw two interceptions to boot. Texas QB Joe Burrow did not have a great game, either, also throwing two interceptions, but both were in the first half. After an otherworldly 144.3 passer rating in 573 regular season attempts, Burrow’s rating for the playoff game was just 90.9. (The real NFL record for single-season passer rating is 122.5 by Aaron Rodgers in 2011. Of course, adjusted for league averages I don’t know what the best performance is.)

The Tornadoes just kept grinding out yardage in the running game (Damien Harris had 129 yards rushing on 20 carries) and made enough completions in the passing game to keep moving the ball and adding points, mainly Justin Tucker field goals. Texas’ defensive lineman Dean Lowry had two huge fourth-quarter sacks of Stafford and Texas advanced, winning 40-26.

Just five playoff games remain and it is exceedingly likely I will write about all of them. In many ways, this most recent season was the most enjoyable of any computer or table-top season I have ever played. Unlike most of my seasons, where–for some reason–the majority of games were decided by 10 points or more, nearly half of the games were decided by one score (8 or fewer points). Of course, in the real NFL more than half of the games are one-score games.

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My long-time friend Vin, we met in graduate school and have known each other for 40 years (wow, we’re getting old), graciously sent some photos he recently took at a local car show (local for him, not for me). Here are two of them:

Can’t go wrong with any Hawk from Studebaker and a C6 Corvette, in Red no less. Part of me still wants to buy a Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk (shown below), but I worry about maintenance and safety.

If anyone wants to offer an opinion on a potential purchase of a Gran Turismo Hawk, as opposed to a Pontiac Solstice GXP, I would like to read it. Thanks. Oh, “buy both” is not an option, at least not at any time in the near future.

#WanderingWednesday

#FuckKanyeWest

#ComputerFootballSeason

#StudebakerGranTurismoHawk

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Freeform Friday

I am not exactly a fount of ideas today.

My Mustang has already had its first hiccup. A couple of days ago and out of the blue, the nav map seemed to have no idea where I was and did not correctly show my heading. When I started the car yesterday, the map righted itself after a few minutes, but I was unable to play audio from any source other than Sirius/XM. I could not switch to FM or use the songs from my iPhone.

I decided the only solution was something Ford discourages, a Master Reset of the SYNC system. That, as of now, seemed to fix all of the problems. I hope this is not an ongoing issue. Even though the car is still, obviously, under the bumper to bumper warranty, the last thing I want is a repeat of the Z06 nonsense where repairs take an inordinate amount of time because parts are not available.

My wonderful wife’s Corvette memory seat setting has been finicky for quite some time. In order to get the steering wheel and seat in her desired setting, my wife first has to move the seat a bit. Then, pressing the #1 setting button in the door finishes the job. The car is supposed to automatically go to the correct settings for her key fob. On occasion, it does function properly, but most of the time she needs to “remind” it by noodging the seat.

EVERYTHING comes with a trade-off. The modern safety, convenience and entertainment systems in cars add complexity. I am not an electrical engineer and don’t know if such issues are the result of too many devices for a standard 12-volt system to handle. Once again, I fully understand why many automobile aficionados prefer cars from the pre-computer era. No, I am not going to show that picture of a Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk in light green with a white top.

Well, it’s not the one in light green and white. What do you think of this paint job? This is a 1962 model, which I would not prefer over a ’63 or ’64, but supposedly the interior has been replaced. The ’62s were notorious for a bad vinyl interior that virtually disintegrated over time.

The seller, an independent dealer of classic cars in Michigan, is asking $15,900 for the car. That’s not an outrageous amount, some sellers are asking twice that much for allegedly pristine examples, but that doesn’t leave much money for modifications for me. Hemmings has another Gran Turismo Hawk listed at $9,900, but it’s a ’62 with no mention of a new interior and is in an exterior color that does not appeal to me. Good paint jobs are VERY expensive.

So many cars, just one life.

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We received rain yesterday that, once again, was not really forecast by the National Weather Service. My admittedly anecdotal impression is that WeatherNation seems to be a bit more accurate in forecasting rain for our area. Here are a couple of videos from yesterday.

Hopefully, in one of these videos you can see the mountains in the distance that are in sunlight while it was raining at our house. When I write a post and insert videos I do not exactly know the content as all I see is wpvideo and some numbers/letters inside of brackets. I think the video to which I refer is the second one.

#FreeformFriday

#EverythingIsATradeOff

#StudebakerGranTurismoHawk

#DesertRain

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Sluggish Saturday

I couldn’t drag myself out of bed early enough this morning to attend a nearby car gathering. Am I already taking the car culture here for granted? I hope not…

I don’t know if it’s allergies or something else, but my quality of sleep has not been good for most of the time we have been in Arizona. To be honest, though, it wasn’t that good before we moved, either. I think the last time I had consistently good sleep was in the summers between school years and that was a LONG time ago.

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Two years ago today I unveiled the first automobile in my 11-car Ultimate Garage 2.0. (It was a 1956 Packard Caribbean convertible, by the way, in case you don’t click on the link, or even if you do.) It simply doesn’t seem possible to me that it’s been two years. The ever increasing swiftness of the passage of time is the most powerful indicator of advancing age, in my opinion.

I am thinking about and trying to formulate Ultimate Garage 3.0. If I do publish the list, though, I will not do it one car at a time. It is a virtual certainty that 3.0 would have more cars than 2.0 and I just wouldn’t want want to drag it out. If I finish and publish 3.0, I will do it in two or three posts. Also, I will not have posts prior to the reveal writing about the cars that just missed the cut.

I have decided to have fewer restrictions than before. Who knows? I might even include a car that was only available with a manual transmission. However, I will not include cars of which only 10 or 50 were made. That might be the only restriction.

Of course, I would be very happy if any of you decided to submit your Ultimate Garage. You can have as few or as many vehicles as you like with as few or as many restrictions as you like. Be assured, though, that my Ultimate Garage 3.0 will remain highly idiosyncratic and personal.

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Lot F276 at the Mecum Auction in Indianapolis, a beautiful 1963 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk restomod, was bid to $50,000, but did not sell yesterday. Dirty Dingus McGee speculated the build cost $100,000 and the reserve would be around $60,000. For the nth plus nth time, Mecum does not allow its online photos to be captured (why?) so I cannot show the actual car. Although I haven’t quite finished watching yesterday’s broadcast, I don’t think the car was shown, anyway.

Once again, I will use my recently purchased 1:18 model as a stand-in for a photo:

Yes, I have written many times that my “ideal” Gran Turismo Hawk would be in British Racing Green, maybe with a Cream top, would have wire wheels and probably be a restomod. If you’re going to dream, then dream big.

#SluggishSaturday

#INeedBetterSleep

#UltimateGarage3.0

#StudebakerGranTurismoHawk

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Happy Mothers Day 2021

Happy Mothers Day to those for whom this day is named. This is the 18th Mothers Day without my marvelous mom.

Today also marks 26 weeks that my wonderful wife and I have lived in our Arizona home. Yep, a half year has come and gone.

The wheels of time turn relentlessly.

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One might dismiss the remarks of Andrew Bailey, Bank of England Governor, as being those of an old fogy. (By the way, Bailey is 62.) Nevertheless, this is what Bailey recently said about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, “They have no intrinsic value. I’m going to say this very bluntly again. Buy them only if you’re prepared to lose all your money.”

Once again, sovereign fiat currency is backed by a nation’s ability to tax and to borrow. Cryptocurrencies are backed by nothing except people’s faith in them.

I also believe that the dramatic rise in the value of many of these “instruments” will be halted by the same event that legitimizes them: governments regulating cryptocurrencies. It is also possible that countries will begin to issue their own digital currencies.

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In this article from Classic Cars, Andy Reid (no, not the NFL coach) shares some tips for buying your first collector car. The article is worth reading. I particularly liked this passage:

“Complication does not mean computers, but could mean a non-syncro gearbox, a 2-stroke engine that requires oil to be added to the fuel at each fill up, or expensive service needs.

You may find out that after doing this you don’t really want a classic Hemi Cuda or an MGB but instead want a newer Dodge Challenger Hellcat or a BMW Z4. This is where you need to listen to both your heart and your head.”

Without deep pockets and/or excellent mechanic skills many collector cars will simply be too much to handle for many owners. A relevant passage from Reid’s piece: “However, you also need to understand that, at a fundamental level, no collector car, especially one 25 years old or older, is going to be perfect…This is not the owner hiding anything from you but simply a fact of life with older cars.”

As I have written before, while at this particular moment in time I am not in a position to buy a car like the one shown below, my lack of mechanic skills would also give me pause before purchasing such a vehicle, although in the end my heart might overrule my head.

See the source image

Yes, this is another picture of a Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk. If you plan to watch the upcoming Mecum Auction from Indianapolis, pay particular attention to lot F276 (meaning the car will cross the block on Friday, May 21st). I have mentioned this car before and it would be the best of both worlds because it looks like a GT Hawk, but has a modern drivetrain, suspension, brakes, etc. Still, this is where the deep pockets would be relevant assuming I had room for another car.

Dirty Dingus McGee estimated that the car cost at least $100,000 to build and might have a reserve of about $60,000. The latter is simply beyond what I want to spend right now for an automotive “toy.” Of course, I have no place to park it, anyway.

I would very much like to read any thoughts or suggestions you have on buying a collector car, whether or not it would be your first.

#HappyMothersDay2021

#WheelsOfTime

#Cryptocurrencies

#BuyingACollectorCar

#StudebakerGranTurismoHawk

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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I Couldn’t Help Myself

Yes, I finally bought one:

OK, where will I keep it? We already have three cars in our three-car garage and our lot has no room for another vehicle. Surprisingly, my wonderful wife was not upset with this purchase at all. Maybe this will make things clear:

Well, I did finally buy one…a model of a Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk. Apparently, it was shipped all the way from the UK and arrived in pristine condition. Cleverly, the side view mirror was shipped in a little plastic bag to protect it during transit as was the driver side window “assembly.” Both were easily affixed with a dab of Gorilla Super Glue. Here are some more photos:

Maybe not so ironically, I would say the probability of my acquiring a real one someday has increased dramatically. Maybe that means that if I publish an Ultimate Garage 3.0, then the Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk will have to be a part of it.

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From Corvette Blogger comes this piece titled, “Corvette is the Fastest-Selling New Car for the Third Consecutive Month.” Here is a chart from iseecars.com via Corvette Blogger:

Corvette is the Fastest-Selling New Car for the Third Consecutive Month

Note that the average price of a new Corvette sold in March did decline by about 5 percent compared to the price in February. It is also very sad to me that besides the Corvette, the Lexus IS 350 is the only car on this list. Also notice at least four hybrids on the list, but no pure EVs. From the Corvette Blogger piece, a picture of a new C8 Corvette:

Corvette is the Fastest Selling New Car for the Third Consecutive Month

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I guess I should note the death of POS Bernie Madoff. Yes, he was evil and ruined the lives of many people. Still, all I can hear in my head is that the success of a scam doesn’t depend on its cleverness, but instead depends on the greed of the mark.

Many of those people “receiving” years and years of above average returns must have had some doubts, but decided not to look that gift horse in the mouth. Despite receiving warnings about Madoff’s operation from Harry Markopolos as early as 2000, the SEC did nothing. Even Madoff said he could have been caught in 2003, but:

“I was astonished. They never even looked at my stock records. If investigators had checked with The Depository Trust Company, a central securities depository, it would’ve been easy for them to see. If you’re looking at a Ponzi scheme, it’s the first thing you do.”

As most people know, it was the financial crisis of 2008 that led Madoff to turn himself in as he could no longer meet redemption requests. As of December, 2020, the total of recoveries and settlement agreements was about $14 billion. How much Madoff actually stole during the years of his Ponzi scheme is a matter of some debate.

Madoff gave capitalism and Jews a big “black eye.” It is ironic that the lunatic socialists in this country want government to control our lives, but government failed to intervene sooner in the Madoff case despite years of warnings. EVERY institution of human beings is flawed, because EVERY human being is flawed. That includes government.

#ICouldntHelpMyself

#StudebakerGranTurismoHawk

#C8CorvettePopularity

#POSMadoff

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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The Countdown Continues

17 days until my wonderful wife and I receive our second vaccination against the damn virus, 31 days until “full immunity.” As I fully understand, at our age that time will fly by.

We cannot wait to attend car shows and to visit car museums, to dine inside at restaurants, to visit antique shops. Those activities are really all we’ve missed as we are not partiers nor did we travel multiple times a year. I have mentioned to my wonderful wife that when we are “fully immune” I would like to go back to the last restaurant where we dined indoors before all hell broke loose, an IHOP in Sun City, Arizona. Remember, we were vacationing here last year at this time to attend the Mecum auction.

I hoped, but did not expect to be living here at the time of this year’s Mecum auction. I certainly never expected to be here and be unable to attend. No one can consistently predict the future with any degree of accuracy.

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I keep thinking about this car, a Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk that was offered on Bring A Trailer back in 2018. It looks like a 1964 model given the landau roof, but it doesn’t have to be from that year. For me, I differentiate the years by the rear deck molding or lack thereof.

IF I ever acquire one I would like to have it painted green, although a little darker than this one, and would like to fit it with wire wheels. Granted that I have never seen this car in person, but other than one I saw at the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, this is the nicest Gran Turismo Hawk I have ever seen. For me, dark exterior colors muddle the lines and I am not a fan of white cars, either. Here is a photo I recently “published” of a 1962 model at the Mecum auction in Arizona last year:

Note the rear deck molding is basically all metal; that is how the ’62s were outfitted. For 1963, the bottom of the molding had a black strip so “Studebaker Hawk” stood out. For 1964, the molding was removed as the deck stamping was finally changed from the original used since 1956. For the ’64s, “Studebaker Hawk” was shown as a badge in stainless or some other “chrome-like” metal against the “plain” rear deck.

If space for another car were not an obstacle, one reason I would hesitate to buy one of these is service. I am certainly not qualified to fix one myself–my acquisition of a service manual for all 1959-64 Studebakers notwithstanding–and I have little idea what shop would be qualified to work on the car. I have read about one shop that specializes in working on “classic” cars located at the Scottsdale Airpark although the name eludes me for the moment. (Damn advancing age!)

Any thoughts or opinions you have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

#TheCountdownContinues

#GetVaccinated!

#MecumGlendaleAuction

#StudebakerGranTurismoHawk

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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