172 Studebaker Land Cruiser (1954-59)

Jan Many thanks for the excellent posts on the Studebaker Land Cruiser. It makes it more complete by including the articles in Meccano Magazine. Full marks to you with the snow scene, and of course a big tick to Dave Busfield for having taken the photograph! Nice to see it in colour! I would like to make an addition to the story with several images of two boxed blue examples in my collection. The image of the blue model with tan hubs confirms what Jan wrote when 'The blue one is more familiar with tan hubs, which were later replaced by cream ones' as this model was packaged in the first box type without the red oval with white number 172 on the picture side of the box. And here are a couple more photographs of the real car in colours that almost match the colours selected by Meccano: Bruce (150) #625 11 June 2015

Bruce-- Nice to see some more photos of the Studebaker model...to me, a very popular Dinky for a long time. And those photos of the real car are a good match. By the way, my dad owned a similar Studebaker in the early 1950's here in Southern California. I only have photos of the car from the rear, so cannot tell if it is the same model. My aunt also had a similar Studebaker for several years. I thought they made some interesting cars to compete with the Detroit Big 3.Regards, Terry

Thanks Terry. I think Meccano may have based the selected colours using the sales brochure at the time. Although the blue colour is a little too dark but the last brochure has a colour blue more in keeping with what Meccano selected. I am sure the Land Cruiser would have had similar colour availability as with the Commander V8, Commander V8 State 4-door and the Champion. I only saw one or two Studebakers in the early 1950s and I so not know what model it was, but I was very taken with the design of the rear window. I think from memory the Studebaker was a two door hard-top coupe. The main American cars Australia received in those early days after the war were from the GM, Chrysler and Ford stables. Kind regards Bruce (150) #633 12 June 2015

Hi all, A question relating to the last issue of #172 Studebaker Land Cruiser. In the February/March issue of Model Collector, in Mike and Sue Richardson's DTCA article 'American Cars of the early 50s' it was stated (page 37 1st column, 1st new paragraph) that 'It was an early recipient of treaded tyres, in August 1957. The base became glossy black in 1958, with shiny hub available from April 1959 for a very short time thereafter that is was in production.'. Has anyone got one of these with spun hubs - or even seen one?Ron F

Hello Ron In 23 years of serious collecting south of the equator, reviewing countless auction catalogues in that time and innumerable swap meets, I have never seen a 172 Studebaker with spun hubs. Having said that, it is always possible, especially if The Richardsons have stated that such exists. It is always possible that someone north of the equator can verify the existence of such. Kind regards Bruce(150) #638 15 June 2015

The 'Previous Auctions' listing on Vectis goes back 16 years and lists 350 172 Studebakers offered for auction, or sold. None of them with spun hubs Dave

Nor for that matter any Vectis auction catalogue dating back to June 1994, as my database has used these exclusively in determining boxes, colours, etc. Fortunately I still have all those old Vectis catalogues and I will however, go back through each to ensure that I have not missed a 172 Studebaker with spun hubs although such a miss is highly unlikely. Bruce (150) #643 16 June 2015

Greetings everyone! You will note that the above Post #1 was 'written' by me, Dinkinius. This is not exactly correct! I just cannot recall who raised this topic, although a check through all the following Posts may reveal who it was. My point is, how did this Post become so muddled during the transfer process that resulted in an erroneous author being attributed to this topic and how many other Posts/Threads have also been muddled up in a similar fashion? Oh by the way, this Post was in reply to #1 way up the top, although it now appears at the bottom, so I hope you can all work it out! The subject is about a little disc that is fitted to one of the rear tyres of the Land Cruiser. Al - another one to be added to you long list to fix one of these days! Regards and Best wishes to you all for a safe and happy Christmas. Bruce (150) 18 December 2015

Jan--Very nice writeup on the Studebaker Landcruiser, and, as usual superb models and photography. I have also really liked this model, and in fact, I have been somewhat of a Studebaker fan since a young boy. Dinky certainly made quite a few Studebaker models over the years, so Meccano obviously liked them as well. I only have two examples; a low-line two-tone that I bought H. Hudson Dobson around 1959, and a nice solid blue example that I acquired several years ago. I believe my two-tone is the different color version from what Richard showed earlier. Regards, Terry

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A very rare Land Cruiser.I firts thought that a collector had changed the wheels making this model a code 3 but I checked the dates . The Land Cruiser was available until 1958 and the concave hubs have been issued first on the ref. 172 Studebaker President. This means that the two dates overlap and that it is possible that the very last Land Cruisers were fitted with concave hubs when the factory ran out of ridged hubs.Then the President may not have been the first Dinky with concave hubs.I cheked both Vectis and QDT, none of them ever sold a Land Cruiser with concave hubs. Jacques