Chapter 16: Red Wing and into the fall.

7/30/01  RedWing:   Well, as I said, I intended to get the car down to RedWing and upset the purists.   The classically held image of the Studebaker Drivers Club is one not entirely open-armed to  hot-rodders, though subtle mods have always been accepted, as this is a “Drivers” club…  There is usually a section in “Turning Wheels” on hot rodded Studes, and there was a modified class at Redwing for judging these cars.  I think there were about 10 cars which really fit in this category for judging.  All were cosmetically superior to TurboStude, but cosmetics was never the point with my car.  I don’t believe that I won anything except the unanimous grins of all who saw the car.  Many copied down this URL to follow my escapades and I always appreciate hearing from anyone.  I got hoarse giving my blow-thru turbo speech.   The car ran down there just as expected, with a little hesitation off idle, but otherwise, cool, straight and with the 7 pounds of boost I allowed it (by the radiator cap).  I can see that my next major hurdle will be with the remaining stock driveline, which will likely fail with the addition of more spirited driving and more boost.  The clutch slips wildly once the car starts to get on the turbo, and the overdrive/freewheeling tranny doesn’t give me enough control to sense how to apply the torque to the ground.  I’m told I’ll need a 700R-4 with “machined cylinders” to do the job.  I’ll also need a more substantial one piece driveshaft.  Got a chance to show the car to Ted Harbit (my hero….) and got a few bits of advice from him about oiling and carburetion.  One fellow who has been following my progress for about a year brought me another intact used turbo from a Saab to play with (I owe him some 47′ parts).  I got a beat up hood to cut up to clean up the looks of the TurboStude’s nose for $30.   Another fellow donated a bunch of old Dick Datson newsletters for me to consume. I’m into the quiet month of August, and won’t do much more development until September.  Stay tuned! Home                            Next

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