R3 or R4 Engine!

[mfg]

The R3 engine which is/was under the hood of Avanti R5482 was previously under the hood of the ‘Studependous’ drag race Lark….. That R3 engine (B300) started life as an R4 Avanti engine…… True?

[mfg]

Thoughts?… Guesses??

[DWR46]

My records show B300 was produced by Paxton as an R3 "engine only". It was a 299 cu. in. engine with High Output Pulleys. It was installed and raced in a 1960 Lark by Jim Bergner. Installed in Avanti R5482 in about 1986 by Ventris. As of 2002, owned by Null in CA. Any corrections or additions are welcome.

[mfg]

1 hour ago, DWR46 said:

My records show B300 was produced by Paxton as an R3 "engine only". It was a 299 cu. in. engine with High Output Pulleys. It was installed and raced in a 1960 Lark by Jim Bergner. Installed in Avanti R5482 in about 1986 by Ventris. As of 2002, owned by Null in CA. Any corrections or additions are welcome.

Very interesting!!

What I have is the ‘for sale’ ad which Mr. Bergener ran in 1982,  in  which he stated that B300 started life as a 12.5 compression R4… and he was offering it, (with it having three cracked pistons) and throwing in a complete Avanti R2 engine for $4,000… The twin four manifold and an R3 type carb air box, and a few other parts came with the deal.

Once again….INTERESTING INDEED!!

[mfg]

As an aside…. The Studependous Lark (with this R4? engine) ran like a rocket on rails! The car was written up in a period HOT ROD magazine, with photos.

One of the photos was an overhead shot of this engine with the R4 dual quad manifold installed on it AND a Paxton supercharger. The supercharger boost was split to the carburetors with a custom made ‘Y’ adapter.

Now, Mr. Bergener was selling this engine with three cracked pistons… and I’m wondering (and it’s only a guess) if he was running the 12.5 compression pistons and that Paxton blower… which would account for the Lark’s fast times?

[DWR46]

MFG: Thank you for the additional information. I will add this to the R3/R4 Engine Roster. As the years pass, all this "history" becomes more murky and confusing. That is why I began to accumulate and sort out all the earlier R3 Registers/Rosters, in order to try to make some sense of all this before more time goes by.

[regnalbob]

2 hours ago, mfg said:

As an aside…. The Studependous Lark (with this R4? engine) ran like a rocket on rails! The car was written up in a period HOT ROD magazine, with photos.

Now, Mr. Bergener was selling this engine with three cracked pistons… and I’m wondering (and it’s only a guess) if he was running the 12.5 compression pistons and that Paxton blower… which would account for the Lark’s fast times?

The article on R 5482 doesn't mention damaged pistons. According to the article Jim Bergener's car was called the Lethal Lark.

Mike Salamunovich raced the Studependous.

Is it the same car with different names and owners?

 

[regnalbob]

DRW46,

Here is the ad from the Fall 0f 1982 if it will help.

 

[mfg]

Jim Bergener’s ‘60 Lark drag race machine was definitely called ‘Studependous’!

That name was written on the sides of the car, and featured in Hot Rod Magazine.

Who is Mike Salamunovich?

I believe you are thinking of a completely different car that used that same name.

[Nelson]

Mike Salamanivich owned and drove Studependous,a straight axle 60 Lark sedan running an R3 with R4 intake. The R3 came from his mother’s Avanti. I still have correspondence letters from Mike from back in my college days. I even got the cam specs from him and had a duplicate cam made from the same company in California. If I remember correctly he was in the 10’s with the car.

Bergner also ran a Lark with a modified Stude engine. I don’t have any real good info on that car. A B300 engine number would hint that it was built by someone later than the Granatellis.

I think Studependous was featured in Popular Hot Rodding back in the early to mid 70’s?

Edited 13 hours ago by Nelson

[mfg]

4 hours ago, DWR46 said:

MFG: Thank you for the additional information. I will add this to the R3/R4 Engine Roster. As the years pass, all this "history" becomes more murky and confusing. That is why I began to accumulate and sort out all the earlier R3 Registers/Rosters, in order to try to make some sense of all this before more time goes by.

Hopefully this 1982 info fills in some gaps concerning B300… Rosters can be considerable work… For a time I was roster keeper for the President Speedster model…

Starting with a prior roster that had about 185 cars in it, the Speedster roster had about 350 examples before I moved on!

[mfg]

2 minutes ago, Nelson said:

Mike Salamanivich owned and drove Studependous,a straight axle 60 Lark sedan running an R3 with R4 intake. The R3 came from his mother’s Avanti. I still have correspondence letters from Mike from back in my college days. I even got the cam specs from him and had a duplicate cam made from the same company in California. If I remember correctly he was in the 10’s with the car.

Bergner also ran a Lark with a modified Stude engine. I don’t have any real good info on that car. A B300 engine number would hint that it was built by someone later than the Granatellis.

Thanks Nelson… I was pretty sure we were speaking of two different Larks!

Did you ever see the HRM article on Bergener’s car?

[Nelson]

I can’t say that I saw an article on Berner’s car. It would have to have been late 60’s to early 70’s. I was at his place around that time frame looking at a white 63 R2 GT that he said was the test car for the first full pkg GT. I think tha car is up in Washington now and owned by the Bells. I think he was dismantling his race car at that time

[mfg]

49 minutes ago, Nelson said:

I can’t say that I saw an article on Berner’s car. It would have to have been late 60’s to early 70’s. I was at his place around that time frame looking at a white 63 R2 GT that he said was the test car for the first full pkg GT. I think tha car is up in Washington now and owned by the Bells. I think he was dismantling his race car at that time

Yes.. that must have been an interesting visit!

Once again, the HRM article was very detailed, with various photos of Bergener’s  Lark, including an overhead shot of the R4 engine which had the standard Stude Avanti side mounted Paxton supercharger, and a  custom ‘Y’ that split the boost into the two AFB  carburetors…I was thinking that’s how those three pistons got cracked!

[regnalbob]

Here is the link to the Hot Rod Magazine article about Mike Salamunovich and the Studependous.

You can post the article or provide a link to the HRM article about Jim Bergener and the Studependous.

 

https://www.hotrod.com/features/there-is-nothing-like-a-studebaker-december-1973-982-608-110-1 

 

 

 

[DWR46]

This is great information. Thank you to all who contributed. It does now appear that B300 was most probably originally an R4 engine.

[mfg]

1 hour ago, DWR46 said:

This is great information. Thank you to all who contributed. It does now appear that B300 was most probably originally an R4 engine.

Two different race Larks…. Two different owners…..Two similar engines…..

I’m confused… however that is nothing new!

I guess the answer to this trivia question is ‘Open To Interpretation’ !!