The Lady of the Lake Helps Excalibur Owners
By noderel:
Alice Preston's No. 1 Monaco Edition Excalibur
Industrial designer Brooks Stevens grew up customizing many cars that he owned. His personalized “hot rods” included a famous Cord L-29 speedster that he modified to suit his taste when he was in college.
During and after World War II, Stevens worked up some iconic car designs for Willys and Studebaker and then developed the Excalibur automobile as a Studebaker sports car. When the Excalibur was not put into production, Stevens decided to manufacture and sell the luxury sports car himself.
Excaliburs were built for 24 years and five different series were produced. The company made 359 Series I cars, 342 Series II cars, 1,141 Series III cars, 995 Series IV cars and 389 Series V cars. Most of the 3,268 Excaliburs made are still on the road and many are being kept in top shape by Alice Preston, a woman known to many car owners as the “Lady of the Lake.”
Lady of the Lake is the name of the ruler of Avalon in the Arthurian legend. She plays a pivotal role in many stories, including giving King Arthur his sword Excalibur. The Excalibur cars were built in Milwaukee, Wis., which sits on Lake Michigan. So, Excalibur owners from around the world came to know Alice Preston by that nickname.
Preston was working at the Brooks Stevens Auto Museum while the Studebaker SS-badged Excalibur prototype was being built in the early 1960s. She remembers being hired in 1963, when she was 17 years old.
“In those days, many women wanted guys’ jobs, but didn’t have a clue how to do them,” Preston once wrote. “I lived on a farm as a kid and I learned that you fixed the tractor or walked back. I had to take everything apart to see how it worked. I’ve always liked cars.”
According to Preston, the first Series I Excaliburs were built in the David Stevens Research and Development Building at the Brooks Stevens Auto Museum. Through the 1960s and early 1970s, Preston helped maintain the museum’s expanding collection and watched the Excalibur operation grow from six employees to 82. She and her husband also owned a machine shop that fabricated parts for the early Excaliburs.
“I went to work at the factory in 1973,” Preston recalled. “They had some paint problems and I was hired by the plant manager to solve those issues.“ Being so mechanically minded, Preston was soon assisting David Stevens in Excalibur’s Research and Development office.
The increasing popularity of the Excalibur through the 1970s brought a sharp rise in production. Everything including the frames, bodies and upholstery was done in-house. Excalibur used a lot of Chevrolet Corvette running gear parts and most were modified with GM’s permission, but still had a GM warranty.
By the early 1980s, the Excalibur Automobile Corp. was officially owned by David and Steve Stevens and had more than 20 dealers selling cars around the country. However, the company began struggling to make money during an economic recession.
“They had to hire five people to do what I was doing before, because each department got a supervisor,” Preston explained. As times got tougher, Preston was let go. In 1986, the Stevens brothers sold the Excalibur business to the Henry Warner Group that was based in Illinois.
A year later, David Stevens called Preston and told her that Brooks Stevens Design had an assignment to design and build new Oscar-Meyer Weinermobiles. Brooks Stevens had designed the 1958 Weinermobile. According to Preston, Stevens told her, “We can’t do this unless you come aboard.” Around the same time. Brooks Stevens told Alice that he needed a curator for his museum and would have to close it unless she worked there.
After assuming her new duties in the place where she began her career 25 years earlier, Preston expanded the museum’s operations to include a service garage that could do repairs for customers, particularly Excalibur owners. After Brooks Stevens died in 1995, Alice maintained the museum until 1999, when it was closed and the collection was sold off.
Preston decided that if she was able to make money to keep the museum open, she could survive doing Excalibur work on her own. She formed Camelot Motors (www.excaliburclassics.com) to sell, store, restore and service Excaliburs. Preston says the company is a homage to Brooks Stevens who was a father figure and friend to her. She wants to “Carry on what the boss started.”