The first Labor Day was celebrated on a grey Tuesday in 1882. It was the work
of a New York City Labor Union flexing its muscles and sticking it to the man.
Similar celebrations occur all over the world but in the form of
pre-summer May Day celebrations, but here in the US of A, the Man was anxious to not
allow this sort of nonsense to blossom into full scale riots, so he
usurped the holiday and created a national Labor Day holiday. You can
read a dry rendition written by the Man himself on the Department of Labor (thanks to Hank for the new link!!) website, but what you should really check out is this next Loony Labor Day feature, a 1949 Studebaker built on S10 chassis
currently bidding for $8,078 reserve-not-met on eBay, located in Upton, MA with a few hours to go.
A quick glance at this thing identifies it as a Studebaker from the front, but what in the Serena Williams is going on out back? Upon further investigation it is revealed that this was a 1988 Chevy S-10 pickup that has been modified to look like a Studebaker. It looks like there is at least one individual who can answer the question; Just how many cases of Sam Adams Oktoberfest beer do you have to consume before you decide your pickup would make a good Studebaker?
This is nothing inherently wrong with a Chevy S-10 pickup, in fact, it is great at pickup tasks -- such as launching loose detritus from the bed onto the freeway during rush hour, fishtailing in the snow or getting Herculiner on your hootus. Unfortunately, once you cover the pickup truck bed in fauxebaker sheet metal, you suddenly have a car that drives like a pickup, but cannot haul 85 cans of empty propane. What is the point? Is it smog exempt like a classic or will you need to convince your local smog technician that it is an S-10 every time you need to renew the plates?
See another car that sticks it to the man? tips@dailyturismo.com
I kinda like this thing, but if it drives like an S-10, maybe the effort was not well placed.
ReplyDeleteOh, and thanks to DT for the pointer to the "Herculiner on your Hootus" link. I thought I was going to a site about tribal disputes in Africa. Instead, I had the laugh of the day.....
Driving an S-10 could arguably be considered preferable to driving a 1949 anything.
ReplyDeleteDual circuit power disc brakes for example are quite the nicety.
A 1949 Studebaker is a very stylish looking car, but I don't remember any particularly fantastic engineering points with the Studebakers of that era that would make me think this was foolish. What was cool about the Studebakers other than the looks?
Auction has ended,,, Looked like a good build, whatever your thoughts about the S-10. Glad to see the builder didn't open the back end up and install a bed to keep the truck part of the S-10 in place.
ReplyDeleteThanks to an email into our tips inbox, we've fixed a broken link above.
ReplyDelete-Vince