The Encore

Paul Gilliam’s ’53 Studebaker wins TCR Best Street Cruiser

- Rob Fortier

How does one follow up a 900hp, salt-searing land rocket such as “Stupidbaker”—Paul Gilliam’s 200-plus mph ’53 Stude? Well, in Paul and builder Alan Johnson’s case, you simply finish the project the two originally started on in the first place—a ’53 Studebaker Commander coupe … a hot rod street version. “Paul was one of my first car friends as a teenager,” Johnson remembers. “He was one of the only ones around with ’32 Fords. At that time he built his own cars at home and would rather build a part than buy it. Of course when he started building street and race cars that was the only choice. He helped me as a kid, teaching me some things that he knew about machine work and fabrication. Years later I would be building cars for him. We actually finished a ’33 five-window for him in 2007.”

In 2013, Johnson’s Hot Rod Shop introduced Paul’s Bonneville racer to its destined performance grounds in Utah, followed by a public unveiling at the SEMA Show a few months later. But it was an entirely different Studebaker—with an entirely different destined proving ground. After Stupidbaker had been completed and subsequently put to the test on the salt flats, the “other” coupe made its way back to the front burner and before long, hitting the streets of Alabama (after a 2015 SEMA debut) for Paul and his wife, Betty, to enjoy when they’re not in Bonneville cheering on its driver. kit, as it ended up requiring plenty of reconfiguring and re-engineering on behalf of Johnson’s first-string team. All combined, however, the end result far exceeds the original Raymond Loewy–designed interpretation that Johnson’s Hot Rod Shop started with—clear from the car’s foundation to its inner/ outer styling.