Family Car Monday: With the war coming, Aunt Nan buys a new car

Going through my late aunt's pictures, we found this one with the note on the back: "With the war coming, I thought we'd better buy a new car before they stopped making them."

If you have really studied American history from the late 1930's through the 1940's, you know that the nation slowly ramped up it's production of war goods even before December, 1941.  The U.S. may not have been in the war, but it was involved in the war effort.  American industry, after the Nazi's stormed into Western Europe in the fall of 1939,  helped to support the United Kingdom in it's efforts to stave off Germany.

My Aunt Nan, on the right with the white bow in her hair, was on high alert.  She had reflexes like a cat when it came to getting news on the European front.

In the 1940's she working as a durable goods bookkeeper for her employer.  She saw that raw goods were getting harder and harder to get as world markets were cut off, and she also knew that what the employer was turning out was very different from what they were making when she went to work for them.

Nan did her homework, and the car that you see pictured here is the car that she choose, a 1941 Studebaker Champion.

First, how do we know it is a 1941 Studebaker Champion?   This one is easy - Studebaker is written in script in the color band that extends from the  prow back over the doors.  There is also a "slim" "S" in the front of the prow, both hall marks of the Raymond Lowey designed Champion.

How do we know the model year?  We can tell that by the "electric shaver" style of front grill-work.  If it had been a 1940 model, the shape of the grill would have been different, slimmer.  And the same for the 1942 model, where the grill extended under the headlights.

We know its Champion because of it's short length hood.  The Commander and President models for 1941 were longer cars - much longer to accommodate Studebaker's "Straight 8" engine.

So, why this car?  Why a Studebaker Champion?

"Well," said my aunt, "I was a smart cookie.  I listened to the news.   I knew that gasoline was either going to become very expensive, or their would be shortages.  And the Champion had the best gas mileage.  And it was rugged, so I knew it was durable.  And I could get it in a pretty color, because if there was a war, I knew I'd have to look at it for a long, long while."

And Nan was right.  Studebaker, which was the fifth largest builder of cars in the United States at the time spent a great deal of money on the Champion.  Introduced in 1939, the car was an immediate hit because it was priced to match the lowest priced Chevrolet and Ford.  The chassis was so well designed that served Studebaker until they built their last car in 1966.  The Champion delivered mileage in the 20's to 30's at a time when most cars scored under 15 miles to the gallon.

During the War, my grandfather put his Chevrolet up on blocks, and the family pooled its gas coupons for the Studebaker.  "A full tank would last weeks."

And what did Nan do with this new car - she and my aunt Lynn, standing on the bumper out back, took a trip to Toronto, Canada.  "Susie needed a nice break in trip to loosen up the engine," said Nan.

Aunt Nan named the car "Susie", as in Studebaker Susie, and it served Nan until 1948 when she bought a canary yellow Studebaker Champion Convertible and moved to Los Angeles.  That car, too, was named Susie.

"I sold the second Susie in 1957.  Things for Studebaker looked bad and Marvin (my father) was afraid I'd get stuck with an orphan.  That's when I bought Susie the Chevrolet!"  This Susie, was, unlike the Studebaker's, a GM product, a 1958 Chevrolet Impala convertible in yellow and white.

Aunt Nan was nothing if not consistent, and she cute quite a sight, flaming red hair wrapped in a scarf, sunglasses and a Lucky Strike on her lips, tooling around Shaker in the Chevrolet.

I asked before she died why the Impala - which had she hung onto it would have been worth a mint -  wasn't named "Ina, or Ida, or some such?"

"Stuart, honey.  Don't be silly.  Whoever heard of a car named Ida?"