original photos shot and posted at the CC Cohort by Christian Els
You’re looking at the only two American cars ever built in the 20th century with standard factory-equipped supercharged V8 engines since the legendary Cord 812. On the left is a 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk, and on the right is a 1958 Packard Hawk, largely the same car but with a questionable nose job, a higher-trim interior and a few other minor differences. Only 588 Packard Hawks were ever built, and given that we’ve seen three here before at CC, their survival rate is obviously quite high, although this one could use some TLC.
The Studebaker Golden Hawks were more common, but still pretty rare birds. What they both share is the same McCulloch belt-driven supercharger which upped the power of the 289 cubic inch Studebaker from 225 to 275 hp.
The hood scoop on the Golden Hawk has been removed, curiously. So what’s there to be seen in the opening?
The top of the McCulloch supercharger. And it appears that this opening in this otherwise non-functional hood scoop was needed to clear the top of that unit.
Here’s how it looks on a restored Golden Hawk. The belt-driven centrifugal supercharger fed a Stromberg WW6-121 two barrel carb that was enclosed in a pressure chamber. Compression ratio was lowered to 7.8:1 to reduce pre-detonation. Boost came on at about 2500 rpm, meaning that below that, it was a bit more sluggish than a non-supercharged 289. The McCulloch was later bought by the Granatelli brothers, and renamed the Paxton supercharger, and was then used in the early sixties on the R2 and R3 version of this engine, in the Avanti and the Lark.
The unit was the work of Robert Paxton McCulloch’s company, which also was well known for two-stroke engines and chainsaws. His first version of the supercharger was first built in 1937, intended as a way to boost the Ford flathead V8 engine with one single bolt-on unit. The second generation, considerably revised, came out in 1952 and was also offered as a bolt on unit and was used by Kaiser to boost the performance of the Manhattan’s aging flathead six between 1954-1955.
These McCulloch/Paxton superchargers did what was asked of them, in terms of boosting performance of these rather staid Studebaker (and Kaiser) engines, but they did develop a distinct rep for reliability issues in their complex bearings and multi-speed gearing unit. Many existing ones are now disabled.
The Golden Hawk appeared in 1956 (above) packing the big 352 CID Packard V8 rated at 275 hp under its long hood and new upright grille. Studebaker was making a clear move into the booming sports car market, with family-friendly seating for five. But its dynamics were compromised by its front-heavy bias and it just didn’t quite impress serious drivers unless they were straight line oriented. The Packard V8 didn’t weigh much more than the Studebaker V8, but because of its physical size it had to be mounted further forward in the chassis than the Studebaker 289.
For 1957, Studebaker ditched the now-discontinued Packard V8 and went the tried-and-proven method for making a smaller engine perform like a bigger one: forced induction. Supercharging is the easy way to “add displacement” when the block won’t accept any more, or to compensate for intrinsic breathing limitations in the head, and the Studebaker V8’s head was quite compromised that way.
As to the “Packardbaker” Hawk, it was of course largely a Studebaker with a new fiberglass front end that reminded more than a few of a catfish.
At least they showed a bit of restraint and didn’t try to add the quad-headlight nacelles that were crudely grafted unto the other ’58 Packard models. Calling it “The Most Original Car On The American Road” is a bot of a stretch, but then no other car sported such an “original” front end, thankfully.
The Packard Hawk’s rarity is not exactly surprising, as the whole line of 1958 “Packardbakers” was the last gasp of the once-proud company, and most Americans could see that they were at the end of their once-glorious road.
The interior was trimmed very nicely, befitting its lofty $3995 price. Not quite bucket seats yet, but it’s not like anyone was ever going to want to sit in the middle of these fairly narrow Studebaker Hawk bodies.
That goes even more so for the rear seats. Elegant and chummy. These shots are from another Packard Hawk we featured here before.
Both of these Hawks have tail feathers, which were rather crudely grafted on the rear fenders of the 1953 Studebaker coupe. The line where they meet is all-too visible. The Packard was also crowned with a fake spare tire cover, a popular affectation of Chrysler Design VP Virgil Exner, but it’s gone missing here too.
As to how these two performed back in the day, they were some of the faster cars of their times (0-60 in the 9-10 second range), although by this time the new Chevy V8 was already the fastest accelerating American stock sedan. There’s a detailed vintage road test in the links below.
Related CC reading:
Vintage SCI Review: 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk – As Fast As The Chrysler 300C, And A Lot Cheaper
Vintage HRM Performance Test: 1958 Packard Hawk – “Truly A Tough Competitor”
Curbside Classic: 1958 Packard Hawk – “The Most Original Car on the American Road” by S. Pellegrino
Automotive History: The Studebaker V8 Engine – Punching Below Its Weight by PN
CC Capsule: 1958 Packard Hawk – Last Flight of a Once-Proud Bird by J. Lingo
CC For Sale: 1958 Packard Hawk – “Parts car here will cut up Soon” by S. Pellegrino
Curbside Classic: 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk–Twilight Pink by S. Pellegrino
Curbside Classic: 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk – It’s a Sign by T. Klockau
The Studebaker is a 1957, with a grille badge in the upper corner. The badge on the 58 grille mounts bottom center, and always reminded me of the cover for a crank hole in 1930s cars.
I always found the claim of being a 5-passenger car kind of odd – 3 in front, 2 in back.
I think the 1957 Packards also boasted of a standard supercharger, but that was no longer the case in 1958 for non-Hawks. I have read that the early 60s version had been improved quite a bit, but yes, the 1957-58 version did not get many accolades for durability.
Thanks. I’ll update the text.
Nice article, but I do have one correction. The 1954 Kaiser Manhattan was powered by a base 226 cid Continental designed L head six putting out 118 HP. That was inadequate for a top of the line Manhattan in 1954. After being turned down in their quest to purchase and install Oldsmobile V8s, Kaiser added a McCulloch VS57 supercharger to the existing 226 engine, increasing the output to 140 HP.
All of my data, including Richard Langworth’s history of K-F and other materials like the attached sales piece below say that all 1954 MY Manhattans came with the supercharged 140 hp engine.
The 1954 Kaiser Special, which were leftover ’53s redressed as ’54s, did have the non-supercharged six.
The Packard Hawk had to revert to the ’53-55 coupe trunk lid because the squared-off trunk lids on ’56-later Hawks wouldn’t accommodate the toilet seat.
The upright grilles on the Stude Hawks look like they’d hamper forward visibility for the driver compared to a ’53-55 coupe or Packard Hawk which look to have lower hoodlines.
I’m also curious about that rear seat view. The ’53-later Studebaker body-on-frame non-step-down chassis is notorious for lacking foot space, but they seemed to have carved some below-the-rails footroom in the Hawk (albeit irregularly spaced) in the shot shown here.
I’d long assumed the “Packard Hawk” I occasionally read about referred to the ’56 Golden Hawks with the Packard V8, before learning of the real ’58s. They do have an elegent interior; these are less proto-muscle-cars than proto-PLCs, predating the four-seat Thunderbird by two years. Maybe the way to market these was to ax the low-end and 6-cylinder models and only sell a well-equipped 8 with luxury options (including power seats, windows, and door looks that wouldn’t return to mainstream Studes after ’58).
And yeah, the 3+2 seating arrangement was strange. Later Hawks would have more conventional 3+2 or 3+3 seating.
The ’57 Packard line all got the supercharger so they could claim the new ones still had 275hp just like the ’56 Clippers. The hp figure came at higher, noisier revs though, and the blown engines proved unreliable when fequently pushed hard, at least given the maintenence they got. S-P couldn’t afford the warranty work (or bad press), and Packard buyers didn’t care about high-rpm power, so the supercharger disappeared for ’57 Packards except the one “new” sporty model, the Hawk.