CERLIST DIESEL 1963 STUDEBAKER ZIP VAN

Another possibility of a road application for the Cerlist came from Studebaker or the U.S. Postal Service. At the end of 1963, Studebaker won a contract to produce a postal van. It was called the Zip Van, appropriately named since the postal Zip Codes were just being introduced at the time.

Production Zip Vans were powered by Studebaker’s 110 hp/156 lb-ft (gross rating) OHV 170ci gasoline six, but Cerlist repowered at least one with a Model 3C diesel. It isn’t clear exactly when this occurred but it was in the ’64-65 timeframe. It’s also not clear if it was instigated by the USPS or Studebaker. This might have gone farther but Studebaker went out of business as the Zip Van was being built. In a strange twist of fate, when the last of the ordered 4,328 Zip Vans were being built in April of 1964, Studebaker was already officially out of business in the U.S. and the Zip Van was likely the last vehicle built in the U.S. under the Studebaker nameplate.

In another odd quirk of fate, that single prototype has survived. It was built January 9, 1964, and delivered to the government on January 17. It is unclear when the conversion was done, but the engine production date was February 19, 1964. We located it in the extensive Ron Hackenberg collection and Ron was kind enough to let us photograph it. The vintage photo shows Peter Cerf, then the Sales Manager for the Cerlist Engine Division of Waukesha Motors, with the newly converted van. The other images show it today in a corner the storage facility where it has lived for many years, still wearing the original postal colors and still containing various postal accoutrements within. This vehicle will be up for sale on July 15, 2017, when Hackenberg’s 750-vehicle collection of cars and trucks will be auctioned off in Norwalk, Ohio.