A classic car sale in New Zealand seldom develops into a major news item. An exception was the 1958 Studebaker Champion auctioned at Wellington in January 1993.
This surf-green American beauty from the year Elvis Presley went into the army caught the imagination of the media and public alike. Interest in this Studebaker comes again with the publication of Matthew Wright’s book, Cars around New Zealand (Whitcoulls, 2005), for the car and a former owner, Tony Edwards, appear in one of the cover illustrations.
The file print of the photograph Wright sourced in The Dominion Post Collection at the Turnbull Library was originally published by The Evening Post in December 1984.
Using the photograph’s publication date as a starting point for research, I found aspects of the Studebaker’s legend disagreed with the auction reporting of 13 years ago.
As recorded prior to the sale, a Nelson man had bought the Studebaker as a present for his wife, but the marriage soured and she never received her gift. The car was locked in a garage for more than 25 years, stored in its original condition, maintained, but never driven. Not disputed are the protective seat covers, fitted at Studebaker’s South Bend, Indiana, plant which are still in place, and the 72 miles on car’s the odometer, although they result from a combination of delivery journeys and drives to keep the car in good running order.
History file
As for the rest of it, the actual details are these. Wellington, not Nelson, was where the car was garaged. Vincent Roberts, a Kilbirnie plumber, registered the car new in the capital on June 25, 1958. It had been bought as a honeymoon vehicle for a wedding that failed to take place. Roberts stored the car on blocks in his suburban Wellington garage where, according to Henricus Van der Storm, he painted the chassis grey in 1962, ¨then in 1966 he began painting the chassis black.
Van der Storm was approached by Roberts in 1974 to get the car going. He received firm instructions from his customer: he must not do anything that would make the car known to the public. Van der Storm towed the Studebaker to his repair shop in Newtown, where the car was prepared for a warrant of fitness behind closed doors.
In 1984, Van der Storm again checked over the vehicle for a warrant. With the Studebaker now warranted, Roberts, retired and living in Kerikeri, asked Cress Thirkell to sell the car on his behalf. Tony Edwards, a Lower Hutt car dealer, bought the car from Thirkell in mid-1984 and planned to keep the Studebaker as an investment.
Jessie Thirkell, Cress’s wife, confirmed what Edwards said about Roberts. She described him as a very private, semi-reclusive man who never married. Sadly, her husband had a severe stroke some years ago that has robbed him of his speech. “Cress would have loved talking about the car,” Jessie said, as she remembered their conversation about the auction reporting errors.
Column change monster
When interviewed by The Evening Post in December 1984, six months after buying the car, Edwards said he would prefer to have the cash at the time, and chose to sell. His asking price was $16,000.
Edwards said the person who bought this column-change monster would have to have the car towed away on a trailer for fear of taking its mileage over 100. “They can’t use it because every mile they do devalues it.”
Henshaw Motors, a Timaru firm, bought the car from Edwards in March 1985 for a collector’s price. Within a month, two offers for it had been turned down, and Carroll Studebaker had inspected this low mileage rarity.
Studebaker, a member of the National Studebaker Owner’s Club of America, claimed a direct blood line to Clement Studebaker. “The club president heard I was going to New Zealand and asked if I would look at the car and photograph it for the club magazine.” ¨Studebaker called the car “priceless.”
A few days after his visit, The Christchurch Press reported the car was expected to be sold to the National Studebaker Owner’s Club. But this sale never eventuated and the car later went on display at the Queenstown Motor Museum.
The Studebaker won the 1988 Queenstown Winter festival Concours d’ élegance, with the museum negotiating a sale on behalf of Henshaw Motors to an undisclosed buyer some time after the event. It isn’t known whether it was this mystery buyer who put the car into the 1993 auction.
A photo of assistant auctioneer Andrew Grigg pushing the 1286kg saloon into position for pre-sale viewing appeared on the front page of The Evening Post — TV1 had earlier featured the Studebaker’s story in its main evening news bulletin.
Crowd scene
In the days before the sale hundreds of curious Wellingtonians swarmed to Maginnity Street, just to see the Rock ‘n’ Roll era Studebaker that nearly everyone was talking about.
Interest in bidding came from as far away as the United Kingdom, and an American Studebaker enthusiast was faxed details before the sale. Auctioneer Dunbar Sloane told Radio 2ZB that this Studebaker had all the fins and a dashboard like a juke box. “It’s just a magic car.”
Sloane said he expected about 50 people at the auction, and predicted the Studebaker would fetch $20,000 to $30,000. Nearly 200 people saw it go under the hammer at $33,550, which included a one-per cent buyer’s premium.
Within minutes the story led Radio 2ZB’s news bulletin. The Studebaker had been bought by a group of Wellington businessmen who wished to remain anonymous. A spokesman for this group of classic car enthusiasts said there would be no taking the car for a spin. “The car shall never be driven — will never be allowed to be driven.” He would do all that he could to prevent it.
Syndicate members appear to have stuck to their word about the Studebaker never being driven. An enquiry to the Motor Registration division of Land Transport New Zealand in late December 2005 confirmed the plate EB8617 is not attached to any licensed vehicle.
Words & Photos Christopher Moor (Photo credit: Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection)
