Blast from the past: Studebaker Light Six tourer tested in London

Ninety-four years ago, Autocar magazine reviewed an American Studebaker Light Six tourer on the streets of London. How did it rate the car?
Studebaker Light Six / Public Domain
Image: Derek Jensen
Sarah Bradley|Autocar8 November 2016

Having first been published in 1895 as The Autocar, the publication is touted as the world's oldest motoring magazine. It’s tested most models that have ever been produced – so we decided to revisit one such write-up from those earlier years, of a 1922 Studebaker Light Six tourer.

The luxury manufacturer, which hailed from Indiana, USA, and had earned a reputation for quality and reliability, started out with all-electric vehicle in 1902. Studebaker then introduced a petrol model in 1904. The Autocar took charge of the Light Six for a week in February 1922, billing it as “a car in which practical points for the owner-driver are emphasised”.

The five-seater represented remarkably good value against rivals, as it featured a strong-performing 3,396cc 23.5hp six-cylinder engine – hence the name – and cost around £500. Today that equates to around £25,630, which would buy a new Audi A4. The Light Six impressed the road testers from the start: “Its road qualities are entirely in keeping with its up-to-date design and specification.”

They went on: “The engine is the heart of a car, and it is in the possession of a sound heart that the Studebaker excels.” They reported that the motor was “remarkably silky”, “silent” and “flexible to a wonderful degree”, with “vibration-less qualities”.

In London traffic the controls were found to be easy to use, while the engine was “content to tick over in top gear even below normal walking pace with no sign of distress”. Long-distance performance was excellent, and hill-climbing a joy, with a light, well positioned clutch that had no tendency to slip.

The road test’s wintery conditions allowed the drivers to experience the engine’s starting mechanism, ease and speed of warming up, and battery efficiency, under the most severe conditions, and in these the Studebaker excelled.

Of the Light Six’s brakes, the magazine reported: “Though of a popular type in the States, they are not common on British cars. The hand brake is internal expanding, and the foot brake external contracting. In use, they are extremely efficient, and come into action progressively and smoothly.”

Cars of the era required regular owner-driver intervention to keep them going, and, crucially, the Studebaker’s chassis was “of direct appeal for accessibility, and prompt dismantlement and assembly of components”. Happily, over seven days of daily driving the testers had only to replace a burnt-out fuse for the dash lamp and horn, which they found easy thanks to “spare fuses accessibly placed in a tiny compartment of the dashboard itself”.

The 3.4-litre model returned an exceptional 25mpg over a 300-mile run, which the magazine partly put down to the car’s light weight. And the ride was praised, too: “Of the suspension, no adverse comment can be advanced. Nor can anything but praise be said of the 32x4in cord tyres with which the [wooden] wheels are shod.”

The written test went on: “In the matter of comfort also, the coachwork is distinctly better than might be reasonably expected on a car in which so much is offered for so little money. The springs of the seats, their angle, and the style of the upholstery are all good. There is ample room for five passengers and a fair amount of baggage.”

The Light Six’s review concluded with a glowing: “This is a car of remarkable all-round achievement, particularly when its performance is reviewed in conjunction with the very moderate price at which it is marketed.”

Studebaker was clearly a manufacturer of great renown; sadly, in a time of great change and financial upheaval in the automobile market, that marque’s success didn’t continue beyond the mid-1960s. One can only wonder what could have been…

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