Raymond Loews's designs for Studebaker are still beautiful, even today, all these years later.

I was working for Daimler-Benz shortly after they suspended Studebaker' exclusive North American import license. Many who worked at Daimler were of the opinion that while the union with Packard hurt Studebaker a great deal, the biggest most damaging factor was Studebaker's location in South Bend, Indiana.

There's not an American teenager born, who doesn't know that Detroit is the heart of the automobile industry in America.

Studebaker's insistence on staying in South Bend insulated it from the pulse of the industry, made it more difficult to find experienced talent and made it harder for factories to get needed parts from vendors "just in time", most of whom were in Northern Michigan.

If any of you historians had any doubt about the origins of that grill on the last of the Studebaker Larks, take a look at the Mercedes-Benz 280 SEL of that period.

Innovation not always wins out, it can work against you.

Take Preston Tucker for an example.

Gee Mercedes copied another American design! I am not surprised in the least.

Both my Dad and my Granddad worked for Studebaker. My Dad was born and raised in South Bend and worked on the assembly line before going into the military. My Granddad was a fine mechanical engineer, and was mostly involved with truck design. When Studebaker folded he move over to White Freightliner trucks...

Here is a military truck that Granddad developed... a truck that ran on coal, something that might be useful now....

Fascinating! Thanks, Steve. Was this vehicle ultimately steam-powered, or did it use coal-gas as the fuel source?

Coal gas. That is a gasifier on the side there... These pictures were taken near my Granddads house in the early forties. He drove the truck to Alaska for trials on the Alaska highway.

Thanks, Steve. I figured that was the case, but wanted to be sure. Otherwise, the back of the truck would have to be heaped high with coal - making it unsuitable for carrying much else!

I wrote a story about the Alaska Highway last fall in the "On This Day in Engineering History" blog. Building it was no small task, and it was a quite a fight to build 1500 miles of road like that in just eight months.