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Ahead of the Studebaker “Made In Canada” Celebration this weekend in Belleville, Ont., take a tour of one fan's Stude.

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The 1966 Studebaker Commander owned by Mary and Leonard Lucas of Belleville, Ont.

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The vehicle is an evolution of the original Lark, a compact four-door sedan (with a surprisingly limo-like rear-seat area) powered by a General Motors 230-cubic-inch overhead valve inline-six.

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It is very basic, with bench seats, a three-speed overdrive manual transmission, no power steering or brakes and an AM-only “audio system.”

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The first Studebakers Leonard Lucas, now 75 and retired, likely had anything to do with were crumpled wrecks or derelicts dragged into his father’s Hillcrest wrecking yard in Belleville, where he went to work as a 16-year-old.

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The Commander looks good, cruises comfortably at 100 km/h and has proven reliable. Which it has to be as the Lucas’s enthusiasm for the old-car scene involves an almost every day of the week schedule of car shows.

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