Here’s an automotive yarn that gets better as the years go by.
It’s about the styling of the 1959 Studebaker Lark and why it looks so much like the 1960 Valiant.
But wait, there’s more.
The Lark also has a direct connection to Australian Fords of the mid-1970s.
Here’s what happened.
Back in the late 1950s, when Studebaker realised that GM, Ford and Chrysler would be entering the compact economy car market, they did what any loss-making car company would do.
They panicked.
They knew they had to compete, but how?
That’s when someone had the great idea to use the passenger section and chassis of the larger Studebaker sedan, then shorten the wheelbase and fenders ahead of the firewall and behind the back door.
Not such a bad idea as it turned out.
It was cheap and allowed Studebaker to get its Lark onto the market almost 10 months ahead of rivals.
Initial sales of the Lark were strong, however its success was short lived.
The competition arrived — Falcon, Valiant and Corvair — and Studebaker’s sales slide and financial woes continued.
The automotive legend about why the Lark and Valiant appear similar is just that, a legend.
No one has ever actually proven it.
Even so, it’s a great story.
1959 Studebaker Lark
Back in 1958, Studebaker’s chief designer, Duncan McRea, and his team, had developed a couple of alternatives design proposals of the Lark for management evaluation.
Trouble was, because of the need to use the bones of the larger car (which had been designed in 1950) none of the proposals looked satisfactory — and McRea knew it.
The legend has it that late one evening in mid-1958 McRea and some of his team interviewed a designer from Chrysler, who was applying for a job.
Or, they interviewed a designer who had knowledge of Chrysler’s design ideas, who was applying for a job.
This part of the story has never been clear.
Anyway, this designer is alleged to have brought drawings of the proposed Valiant, which McRea and his team were allowed to look at for just a few minutes.
They later reconstructed what they had seen ever so briefly and applied it to one of the Lark proposals.
That proposal was approved and it went into production.
When you compare the front ends of the Valiant and Lark, the similarities are very noticeable, especially the shape and position of the grilles, the “eyebrows” and wide flat sheet metal over the headlights.
The rear ends are quite different, though.
So, maybe there is something to the legend?
We will probably never know for sure.
McRae never said anything.
Soon after the Lark was released McRae left Studebaker and established a design consultancy.
He was hired by Ford in 1964 where he worked on many US designs, as well as the British Cortina, Escort and Capri.
In 1970, McRea was sent Australia as Ford’s design director.
It was during his Australian sojourn that the XB/XC Falcons, ZG/ZH Fairlane, P5/P6 LTDs and P5 Landau designs were finalised.
He retired from Ford in 1975 and died in 1984.
David Burrell is the editor of retroautos
1960 Valiant
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