Joe Locasta

[RichFox]

I ran into Joe at Peninsula Hospital just now. He look great. He and i were just there for tests. Joe is still showing 200mph club colors. Younger people here don't remember the SanChez-Cagel-Kamboor Studebaker. Really fast car in it's day. Joe said I should be happy to be old. He is 85. He just don't know he is really old.

[jdincau]

I guess I am old too, I remember it well. Glad to hear Joe is still going strong.

[Bob Drury]

  Beachball Sanchez was if not the first, near the first to recognize the 53 Studebaker as the most astounding auto design in production domestic car in American Auto History.
 What he and his partners did with that car became a ongoing metamorphis in streamlining body modifications and powerplants that most of todays Comp Coupe Studebakers still draw from.
 Sadly, Beachball is up with Ray the Rat and many other LSR hero's, so hats off to Joe.
 I sure hope someone can sit down with a tape recorder and prod all of those stories of the 50's, 60's, and later before we lose the history for good.
                                                                                       Many more years to you JOE!
                                                   
                                                                           "One Run" Bob

[fredvance]

How fast did their Studebaker go?

[Freud]

How fast did their Studebaker go?

Fast but not as fast as Neil Thompson.

FREUD

[RichFox]

I am not going to look it up, but i think it went 231 or so.

[Bob Drury]

   That would be with a Blown Chizler in it, chopped top and I am going to guess in the Early 60's.  I may be wrong on two out of three.            One Run

[4-barrel Mike]

Great chop!  From Rod & Custom: "1960 National Speed Trials • Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah" "December 2012 Jewels from the Archive: The super-sleek, louvered Studebaker of Sanchez, Krasne, and Locasta turned out a 220.995-mph run.  Photo by Neal East/Peterson Archive." 

Mike

[Glen]

As I recall Joe and Gary Cagle were the only drivers of Beach Ball's Study.
Also getting a little older Glen @79, and I am glad to have spent so many years on the salt, ain't done yet.

[jdincau]

Locasto guys Locasto

[4-barrel Mike]

Rod & Custom (above) had it as Locasta, but searching for Locasto gets more results:

http://www.rodandcustommagazine.com/featuredvehicles/1953_studebaker_coupe/ and many more!   

Mike

[Stan Back]

Thought so.

On another note -- notice the ventilation in the rear.  Figured that out early.  I guess what looks so swoopy might not be so much.

(The hardtop is the car I've always wanted to build.  With a removable.  Don't think I've got the time or the energy to do it.  But I've got the hemi!)

[Bob Drury]

  If you look hard at the rear quarter panels you will notice the wheelwell openings were a removable square to get the monsterous Firestones on and off the car.   
  That was the first modification to the car.  I don't have a picture handy but I seem to remember it was a post.
  An interesting note on the 53 Hardtops, the frames were too thin and they would sag at the B pillar (where the door meets the quarter panel) making the doors jam and/or pop open at will. By mid-year Studebaker sent the dealers a shim kit to install and for 54 they went a gauge heavier on the frame.
                                                                                                                                                                         Bob

[Bob Drury]

  OOP's, I hadn't opened Mikes post but it looks like I lucked out and it was a post.  Whew!   One Run......................

[Stan Back]

They prototyped all the 53's with the 6-cylinder.  Got into production with the V-8 and couldn't put a hood on them.  They'd already stamped 1000s of the lighter lighter gauge frames and then had to shim the shitt out of them to get them to the dealers.

I've considered that while "planning" my '53 (never to happen) and figured the hemi probably weighs as much as a 239 -- but I bet it's close.  I understand the Studey is about the same as an early Olds.