Vehicle Description
Even as late as 1964, Studebaker was a full-line manufacture:
compacts, sedans, station wagons, personal luxury cars, and even
pickup trucks like this 1964 Studebaker Champ. Always the
innovator, Studebaker brought the same unique blend of style and
practicality to the Champ as any of their other vehicles, and
you'll probably discover that standing out can be a good thing in
the pickup truck world.
Studebaker got very good at doing more with less, and if you see
the familial resemblance between this Champ and, say, the Lark,
you've got a good eye. The cab was based on Lark tooling, which was
perhaps one of the first times a manufacturer tried to make a
full-sized truck a bit more car-like in use. The bed is also a
clever recycle, as Studebaker bought the tooling for Dodge's
1958-60 D/W series pickup truck beds. Together they give the Champ
its own identity and the way it flows together looks neat today.
The bed has swept-back styling that works quite well (check out the
way the door blends into the cab) and the big bed gives you a lot
of hauling capacity for a relatively compact pickup. The
no-nonsense paint job has an industrial look to it that works
rather well, and it shines up nicely with no signs of issues
underneath. It's not too perfect (you don't want that in a pickup
truck anyway) but it shows that someone took their time when they
were doing the work. Even the bed remains in excellent shape with
very few signs of use.
The interior has a much more car-like feeling than you'd expect,
and the comfortable cloth bench seat is part of it. There's also a
wrap-around windshield that gives it great visibility and the Champ
sits high enough to see over traffic. Sensible rubber flooring
makes it low maintenance and the seat cover has a period look and
is made of durable materials suitable for a pickup. The gauges are
original and include the basics and the giant steering wheel makes
it easy to manage around town. Three-on-the-tree shifting is easy
to master and we do like the contrast of the turquoise paint and
light door panels which really soften the interior nicely. No
radio, but it does have a heater, which was still optional in 1964,
believe it or not.
The engine is a torquey 170 cubic inch inline-six that pulls the
Champ around without working very hard. It's quite stock under the
hood and we like the detailing of the bright yellow valve cover on
the black engine, which is how Studebaker might have done it back
in the day. Plenty of recent service items mean that it's ready to
enjoy and you can imagine that an engine like this is bulletproof
reliable. There's also a massive radiator up front that should
pretty much eliminate overheating and the original heavy-duty air
cleaner still protects the single barrel carb. The transmission
shifts cleanly with decent clutch action and there are reasonable
gears out back, so it feels quick enough to be used in today's
traffic. The single exhaust system has a nice 6-cylinder grumble
and it rides pretty well for having live axles on leaf springs at
both ends. It's original but quite clean underneath and the
color-matched steel wheels carry fat 235/75/15 whitewall radials
that still look fresh.
A neat truck that's still practical and stands out in a crowd. At
this price, that's a great combination, just as it was back in
1964. Call today!