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Even as late as 1964, Studebaker was a full-line manufacture: compacts, sedans, station wagons, personal luxury cars, and even pickup trucks like this 1964 Studebaker Champ. Always the innovator, Studebaker brought the same unique blend of style and practicality to the Champ as any of their other vehicles, and you'll probably discover that standing out can be a good thing in the pickup truck world. Studebaker got very good at doing more with less, and if you see the familial resemblance between this Champ and, say, the Lark, you've got a good eye. The cab was based on Lark tooling, which was perhaps one of the first times a manufacturer tried to make a full-sized truck a bit more car-like in use. The bed is also a clever recycle, as Studebaker bought the tooling for Dodge's 1958-60 D/W series pickup truck beds. Together they give the Champ its own identity and the way it flows together looks neat today. The bed has swept-back styling that works quite well (check out the way the door blends into the cab) and the big bed gives you a lot of hauling capacity for a relatively compact pickup. The no-nonsense paint job has an industrial look to it that works rather well, and it shines up nicely with no signs of issues underneath. It's not too perfect (you don't want that in a pickup truck anyway) but it shows that someone took their time when they were doing the work. Even the bed remains in excellent shape with very few signs of use. The interior has a much more car-like feeling than you'd expect, and the comfortable cloth bench seat is part of it. There's also a wrap-around windshield that gives it great visibility and the Champ sits high enough to see over traffic. Sensible rubber flooring makes it low maintenance and the seat cover has a period look and is made of durable materials suitable for a pickup. The gauges are original and include the basics and the giant steering wheel makes it easy to manage around town. Three-on-the-tree shifting is easy to master and we do like the contrast of the turquoise paint and light door panels which really soften the interior nicely. No radio, but it does have a heater, which was still optional in 1964, believe it or not. The engine is a torquey 170 cubic inch inline-six that pulls the Champ around without working very hard. It's quite stock under the hood and we like the detailing of the bright yellow valve cover on the black engine, which is how Studebaker might have done it back in the day. Plenty of recent service items mean that it's ready to enjoy and you can imagine that an engine like this is bulletproof reliable. There's also a massive radiator up front that should pretty much eliminate overheating and the original heavy-duty air cleaner still protects the single barrel carb. The transmission shifts cleanly with decent clutch action and there are reasonable gears out back, so it feels quick enough to be used in today's traffic. The single exhaust system has a nice 6-cylinder grumble and it rides pretty well for having live axles on leaf springs at both ends. It's original but quite clean underneath and the color-matched steel wheels carry fat 235/75/15 whitewall radials that still look fresh. A neat truck that's still practical and stands out in a crowd. At this price, that's a great combination, just as it was back in 1964. Call today!
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