RIDE-CT – Classic Cars Celebrating Classic Cars in Connecticut
COLEBROOK, CT – With its oxidized black paint and rusty running boards, Jon Gray’s “rare but not priceless” 1937 Studebaker President always gets attention at car shows because it hasn’t been restored cosmetically.
“It’s the best kind of show car to have because it only requires mechanical maintenance and a wipe down every once in a while,” he said. “We’ve tried to actually pretty it up just a little bit and it doesn’t really respond. It is what it is.”
Gray located the Studebaker in a barn a few miles away from his Colebrook home about 12 years ago. “Found it purely by luck. Hadn’t been run in 28 years. The couple that had it was married in it, and then they parked it not soon after. The car was in their family for about 45 years,” Gray said.
Extracting it from the barn was a challenge. “When we went into the barn that it was located in there was stuff piled all over. The rumble seat was out of it. The skirts off the side for the engine were missing. The stuff you had to crawl over, through a nice little walkway to get to it, was a lot of work. But it was very interesting to see it.”
See the 1937 Studebaker President in action in this YouTube video…
Using seed money from the sale of a 1936 Ford, Gray bought the Studebaker after determining it was a premium President model. Somewhere between 161 and 181 Presidents were built during the 1937 model year and “probably six or seven that people know of” survive today.
That it’s a rarity on the road doesn’t deter Gray from driving it. “We’re not afraid to drive it,” he said, referring to himself and his wife, Sherri. “We did trailer it for a while just cause we were skeptical. It is fun to drive and the looks and the smiles you get and the honks that you get is really rewarding in the end.”
The President is 87 years old and looks every bit its age, but it gets attention thanks to its unrestored condition and numerous peculiar features. It’s a rumble seat coupe that was built at a time when rumble seats were fading into automotive history.
The Studebaker has a bat-wing rear window, banjo steering wheel, hood ornament that doubles as a hood latch, and “Planar” front suspension. The AM radio in the dash looks like a relic; the speaker for which is located above the windshield between the two sun visors. “That way the speaker is located closer to your ears,” Gray explained.
Gray has attached a vintage Colebrook Fire Department vehicle sign that he found in his barn to the front bumper. His father was a founding member of the department and Gray is a longtime member. “It has no real significance other than I love it,” he said.
—
—
The President is powered by a 115-horsepower straight eight engine. “It drives very nice. Has a nice ride to it. You sit sit pretty central in the wheelbase of the car,” Gray said, noting that it has 123-inch wheelbase.
Studebaker, which was based in South Bend, Ind., built a President model from 1926 to 1942 and again from 1955 until 1958 when the name was retired. The company began as a wagon-maker in 1852 and produced its last car in 1966.
What pleases Gray the most about the President is the patina. “We really like the fact that it’s original,. It’s easy to keep that way,” he said.
What’s difficult now is avoiding temptation and accepting an offer for the Studebaker. “We’ve been offered a pretty good amount of money for it – under $50,000 but over $30,000. Is that good or bad, I don’t know.”
(Photos by Bud Wilkinson)
(This story is from the RIDE-CT archives and original appeared in the Republican-American newspaper in November 2017. Gray stills owns and drives the Studebaker.)
