The Studebaker, £100-130,000
This yankee V8 beast, the only Lark Daytona 500 competing in European historic racing, is another popular Goodwood regular: you may remember it most recently from the 2018 St Mary’s Trophy where in the celebrity race it qualified third and, after an epic battle, finished second. In fact over the past decade the 1965 Lark Daytona 500 has competed five times at both the Members’ Meeting and the Goodwood Revival. The small-block (4.5-litre) Chev V8, pumping out 430bhp at 7,000rpm, is reckoned to be able to propel the surprisingly compact and good looking saloon around the Sussex circuit in 1 min 30.3 seconds.
In period the Studebaker Lark Daytona had a successful if short-lived career in saloon racing, scoring its most notable result with a podium finish at Bathurst in Australia. The Lark Daytona 500 was a limited-edition model produced as a pace car for the Daytona 500.
The car in the auction was built by Fortec Motorsport and has been cared for recently by Richard Moore Racing, and overall is said to be highly developed and extremely competitive. Although never homologated in Europe in period, today it runs to Australian CAMS spec and would be eligible for the 2019 Masters series, as well as the 2019 HRDC Historic Touring Cars and HSCC Touring Cars. Silverstone Auctions says the car’s rarity will ensure invitations to all the world’s greatest saloon car races. We certainly look forward to seeing it take on the Mustangs, Falcons and Galaxies again.
See GRR’s story and pictures of the Lark Daytona in the Pierpoint Cup at the 75th Members’ Meeting here.
Silverstone Auctions’ Autosport International Show Sale takes place on Saturday 12 January 2019 at the NEC, Birmingham.