In the Background

Hot rod and custom car photos tend to include a whole lot more than you would think. More detail, more customizations, and perhaps most importantly, they provide a more complete look at another place and time. Whenever I go through historic photos, I find myself scanning the backgrounds to see what else was going on in the world the moment the shutter clicked. Undeniably candid scenes are unintentionally documented—and sometimes pretty interesting cars make their way into the frame.

That was the case with today’s subject. The photo itself is low quality (really, really low). I believe it’s the upper-right corner of another picture—once printed in an old magazine—that I found online more than four years ago. It’s been collecting digital dust ever since.

The reason I’ve held onto it is obviously not because of the clarity or composition, but rather the car in the background. Far right, middle of the page, parked in front of the tent. As far as I can tell, it looks like a 1949 Studebaker Champion four-door sedan with a seriously altered wheelbase. From this angle, it seems that the car has been outfitted with a removable one-piece front end as well as steelies and slicks in the rear. What’s it powered by? Who’s to say. I’d like to think it’s an early Hemi with a chain-driven 6-71 and a two-port Hilborn injector, but maybe that’s just the Revell “Miss Deal” Studebaker slipping into my subconscious like it tends to do from time to time.

Judging by the lettering, it’s fair to assume the car was dubbed “Strip Teaser” or a variation thereof. Who owned it? Where did it come from? Was it classified as an altered or was it strictly for match racing? This is the only picture of it that I’ve ever seen—and it’s lead to far more questions than answers.

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While putting together this article, I discovered that the car in the foreground is a 1965 Holden. All of a sudden, I’m second-guessing my conjectures. Was the Strip Teaser really a Studebaker? Was it campaigned stateside or in Australia? Well, I guess those are all just more variables to add to the equation of this mysterious photo.

Regardless of its pedigree, I’ve always liked the idea of a late-’40s/early-’50s Stude drag car. Ted Harbit was a fierce competitor in his “Chicken Hawk” ’51 Commander Starlight coupe for decades, and I’m sure this one would have been quite the crowd pleaser out on the strip. Wheelstands anyone?

—Joey Ukrop