Reader’s Rides Studebakers Remain Family Tradition Editor’s Note: “Reader’s Rides” features classic cars that remind us of the good old days. If you have a car you’ve loved back to life, or photos of the treasure you should have never sold, send us your story and we’d love to share it. Mike Hill, Precision Rebuilders, St. Clair, Mo. “The Fleet” ERE: So tell us about “The Fleet” — your wife’s pet name for your car collection. Hill: The first car I remember my parents having was a 1953 Studebaker Commander. Somehow, that must have had a profound effect on me, as I now own three different Studebakers of similar vintage: a 1955 Commander with a 392 Chrysler Hemi, a °54 Conestoga Tudor wagon with a Cadillac Northstar engine, and a 1953 Champion Tudor coupe. ERE: So can you name a favorite, or is that akin to comparing your children? Hill: While they are all near and dear to my heart, the 1953 Champion Tudor coupe makes it skip a beat. I have owned this car for over 35 years, and it belonged to my father, Jack, prior to that. My father began building it as a drag racer to compete in the old AHRA (American Hot Rod Association) in the Modified Production class in 1963. I still have the 1964 rulebook that we got when we went to a meeting in some guy’s barn in the winter of ’63. The car was given to him by his brother, who had stripped it for parts that he needed for his daily driver. My dad built and installed a °57 392 hemi with an automatic transmission and an Old’s rear end. The car then sat as he raised his family and grew the business he started in ’61, Precision Rebuilders, for which I am responsible today. Both of these obligations con- sumed all his time and money, so the race car sat. ERE: So how did you end up with it? Hill: During those idle years, my friends and I drove thousands of miles in that car without ever leaving the garage. My dad realized that this was a project that he would never get back to and decided to get rid of the car. I was dev- astated and begged him to reconsider. In 1971, on my 15th birthday, my dream came true…the car was mine. Over the next several years, with the help of my father, I learned how to weld, shape metal, build engines, and whatever else I could soak in. I drove it on the street for several years until it had progressed to a point that it was no longer streetable, and the neighbors started complaining about what time I came home, since it was by then per-