STUDEBAKER CHAMPION

Year of manufacture 1950 Recorded mileage 13,617 Asking price £25,999 Vendor County Classics, Gloucestershire; 01452 731289; www.countyclassics.net

WHEN IT WAS NEW Price $1419 Max power 85bhp Max torque 145lb ft 0-60mph n/a Top speed n/a Mpg 16

Having spent some time in the company of a Bristol 404 recently and being not exactly enamoured by its proboscis, quite why I was taken by this Studebaker Champion while flicking through last month’s classifieds is anyone’s guess.

The distinctive bullet-nose/spinner design by ex-studebaker staffer Bob Burke, who Raymond Loewy pinched to replace Virgil Exner, just about works here where elsewhere the brief cyclops fad often flops.

Regardless, there’s probably nowhere you could go and not get noticed in this car, so left-field is its appearance. The shape, with long bonnet and even longer rear deck, is just about cab-forward but only because of what vendor Andy Lerry has labelled: ‘The outrageously long rear trunk/decklid that gave the Business Coupe its rather “from another planet” looks!’ No arguments here.

Ideal for the pushchair and garb that comes with it, then, but being a Business Coupe this car has a front bench only. No back seat, but stick one of those toy steering wheels to the dashboard and my car-mad daughter will never want to leave. It has a very Cars look about it, after all…

The colour is peak 1950s, a pastel creamy yellow that suits the Champion just right, and who can deny a secret liking for an external sunvisor? Especially with added spotlamp on the A-pillar. The details are seemingly endlessly appealing. “It’s stunning,” reckons Lerry.

As you’d expect it’s left-hand drive, but the airy-looking cabin is full of flat glass so there shouldn’t be any problems there, and the unfamiliar starting procedure will soon become the norm, so too the three-speed column shift. It won’t be particularly rapid, with its in-line ‘six’ pumping out 85bhp, but nor will you want to ever drive fast in it. This is a car for long road trips off the beaten track; not to make great time, but to have a great time (thank you again, Cars).

The restoration undertaken when it was imported in 2007 looks fresh, and it remained with the same owner to 2020 – and even comes with its original title certificate and data sheet in the glovebox. Its chromework gleams, but the greypainted steering wheel is a little flaky. That bench seat – a nice combination of brown with cream piping – looks barely used and the headlining is plush.

So uncommon are these that it’s hard to know whether the £26k asked is a lot or not, but one was listed in RM Sotheby’s Auburn sale last year for more. Add import costs and the like, and this UK car is a very appealing opportunity.