On Race Your Ride’s channel over on YouTube, there’s a race between two classic cars, with a common theme – Chevrolet power under the hood.
The first car is a muscle car and the second is a gasser from more than 70 years ago and steals the show with its distinctive design and presence.
We see if it has what it takes to take on its muscle car opponent and what kind of time this old-school racer can provide on the drag strip.
The Studebaker Champion Is A Loud, Proud, And Old-School Design
This particular gasser is a 1951 Studebaker Champion with a military-inspired bullet nose and super-curvy rear end. It is riding high with a straight beam front-axle and sports small, thin tires up front and drag wheels up back.
With a 468 Chevy big-block engine rumbling away, this car’s horsepower is a mystery, but it’s rocking a Turbo 400 transmission and sounds great at idle.
The Champion is a public road driver too and according to the YouTube channel, it is regularly driving around its hometown of Wisconsin. Today, it is lining up at Byron Dragway in Illinois for a quarter-mile test.
Original horsepower from the factory might be around 120 hp from a 3.8-liter V8, but here it will be making considerably north of that figure, from its Chevrolet big block under the closed hood.
It’s A Victory For The Champion – The Studebaker Beats The Chevelle
In the other lane, it’s a gray Chevrolet Chevelle from 1969 – a full-size muscle car from almost two decades after the Champion, showing how car design changes in a relatively short amount of time.
This Chevelle is a second-generation car that could come with a 7-liter V8 from the factory with 400 hp, but here there are no clues of what it has under the closed hood.
At the green light, both cars pull away cleanly but the Studebaker marginally has the fastest reaction, both cars are very evenly matched this time and head to the trap together, with a set of close times.
The Studebaker Champion gasser makes an 11:16 time against the 11:61 of the Chevelle, with the Champion's speed at 121 mph vs 116 mph for the Chevrolet.
There’s another run just after, focusing on the Champion, and it makes an even faster time of 10:79 at 123 mph.