Studebaker Scores

U.S. car buyers who still shop with an eye on fuel economy last week got an idea which cars can stretch a gallon the farthest. In the Fifth Annual Mobilgas Economy Run, experts drove 20 competing stock models from every major U.S. automaker over 1,335 miles of some of the ruggedest roads in the U.S., and made every drop of gas count.

At an average speed of 41.1 m.p.h., the cars rolled from Los Angeles to Fresno, through the Sierras to Yosemite National Park and San Francisco, up across snowbound mountains to Elko, Nev., and three days later into Sun Valley, Idaho. Most drivers had the road plotted with military precision, knew just how fast to take each hill, just how to time themselves to miss gas-gobbling traffic lights. (One driver hit only five red lights on the entire run.) Every car finished, and the only unplanned halt was in a howling blizzard at California's 7,135-ft. Donner Pass.

The big winner: Studebaker, which drove off with three of the eight firsts. In the low-priced field ($1,500 to $2,050 f.o.b. factory), a six-cylinder Studebaker Champion beat out two Fords (the low-price winner for four years), a Plymouth and a Chevrolet, clicked off the run at an average 29.58 miles per gallon. Studebaker's bigger V-8 Land Cruiser won the upper-medium-price ($2,401 to $3,000) field for automatic transmission cars with 24.57 m.p.g., and the same car with standard transmission and overdrive won the sweepstakes grand prize by lightfooting it over the course at 28.1 m.p.g. for the best ton-mile record of all.

Other winners: Hudson Jet (21.63 m.p.g.) in the low-priced field with automatic drive; Dodge Royal V-8 (25.39 m.p.g.) in the low-medium field with standard transmission; Oldsmobile 88 (19.75 m.p.g.) in the low-medium field with automatic drive; Lincoln Capri (19.75 m.p.g.) in the high-priced field.

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