How many sports movies have we seen? In about every one of them, there is a place where things look really bleak. This is where the hero of the story is pummeled and battered, and all looks lost. This is what I think of when I see a 1960 Studebaker Hawk.
The story of Raymond Loewy’s beautiful 1953 Studebaker Starliner has been told often, including here at CC. The Studebaker with the European personality proved to be a hard act to follow after its original 1953-54 run.
Studebaker leadership first reached back to the glory days of the 1930s for inspiration and came up with the 1955 President Speedster (here). The Speedster was an interesting concept – a hybrid luxury/sporting car – that wasn’t all that successful. However, it seems to have paved the way for the next phase of the car’s life – the iconic Studebaker Hawk.
Tom Klockau recently covered the inaugural 1956 Studebaker Hawk here. There were four Hawks, actually. From the basic six cylinder low-buck Flight Hawk , all the way to the firebreathing, Packard-powered Golden Hawk, these cars finally hit a niche that was Studebaker’s alone. For the first three years of Hawks (through 1958), the flagship Golden Hawk was always the beautiful hardtop coupe. And whether it was the Packard-powered ’56 or the supercharged Stude mill for ’57-58, the Golden Hawk had power to match its looks.
There was even a Packard version made for 1958. Whatever can be said of the 1956-58 Hawks, there was no denying that at least the top models were interesting cars that had their own unique kind of appeal, and were unlike anything being built in Detroit.
But the Hawks had another, less desirable side. Can someone tell us why Studebaker chose to offer its supposed image leader as a stripped pillared coupe? The 1957-58 Silver Hawk was just that – a really, really big step down from the glamourous Golden Hawk. Clearly, back in 1953, not every Studebaker Champion coupe could be a hardtop, so there was a reason to offer a pillared version. Being 1953, it is understandable that the car would suffer from very thick and unsightly door-uppers. But when your competition is a ’53 Pontiac or Nash or Hudson, the pillared Champion coupe was still a looker. However, by 1957, just how many pillared two-door models were offered in anything even remotely upscale? Any that were out there were price leaders for the terminally cheap.
The 1958 model year had been a disaster at Studebaker-Packard. But 1959 would be a lot better because of Harold Churchill’s “Hail Mary” pass that was the 1959 Lark. The compact Lark was to be Studebaker’s savior – and for a couple of years, it was. The Lark attained an almost religious significance within Studebaker at that time, because this was it – the company’s last, best chance for a (sort of) new car. Management was betting everything on the Lark, and made plans to sweep everything else into the trash can, including the Hawk. This should have been no surprise, as the entire 1958 Hawk line had sold all of 8,230 units. But then came the calls from the dealers.
“How can we look like a going concern with only Larks in the showrooms?” Whether the Hawk was a big seller or not, it would at least provide some sportiness in a showroom otherwise devoted to economy and practicality. And so, the Silver Hawk remained the last Hawk standing as the line entered the 1959 year. Oddly, the engine offerings were down to the ancient flathead 6 and the small 259 cid V8, making these cars drive more like Lead chickens than Silver Hawks. The larger 289 V8 seemed headed for the historical files, along with the hardtops. Those dealers may have been disappointed, as they managed to move 5,371 V8 Hawks and 2,417 6s in 1959.
1960? Rock and roll was here to stay, but the fate of the Hawk was in doubt. The no-longer-Silver Hawk was now just the Studebaker Hawk, and was back for another drubbing in the market. The good news was that both the 6 and the overmatched 259 were shown the door, and the 289 was back under the hood where it belonged, putting out either 210 or 225 horsepower, depending on whether a 2 bbl or 4 bbl carb was chosen. However, sales were down to an abysmal 4,280 units (with an additional handful of six cylinder cars for export). This shouldn’t be a surprise. While the Lark got a variety of full color ads in popular magazines, the Hawk got a black and white piece telling America about what a sports car it was. A cheap sports car, even. Yes, an American sports car, complete with the same bench seat and column gearshift from the days when the car was still a Studebaker Champion. America knew what a sports car looked like in 1960, and this was not it.
Wait, you may say – what about the 1961 Hawk? Wasn’t it just like this one, but sold an even more pathetic 3,663 cars? Well, you would be correct, but for one thing. Sherwood Egbert was the new sheriff in town at Studebaker, and he had plans for the Hawk (here and here). The 1961 may be the most fascinating of the Hawk pillared coupes because of the bucket seats and the four speed stick shift that was offered, finally putting a little “sports car” into the old bird (and beating about everyone in Detroit into this hot new market, in the process.) But the ’61 is a story for another day, and was the year that the Hawk started to show some stirrings of new life.
Here we have one of those 4,280 1960 Hawks. I stumbled across this one at the annual Father’s Day car show in Noblesville, Indiana earlier this year. I have always had a thing for an underdog, and this very, very nice 1960 Hawk spoke to me that day. Just how out of style and out of date was this car in 1960? In a world full of Oldsmobile Super 88s, Chrysler 300Fs and Ford Thunderbirds, the 1960 Hawk was hopelessly outgunned. But there is a simple charm that this car exudes, not unlike the smallest, most sickly puppy of the litter. I really wanted to drive this Hawk home. Actually, there may been some more evidence of the Hawk’s rebirth than met the eye in 1960. In addition to the new powerplant was a heavier duty transmission and differential, and finned brake drums. Also, a tachometer was made optional.
Which brings us back to our title – was the 1960 the rock-bottom Hawk? In sales, it would be the ’61. In its mechanical attributes, probably the underpowered ’59. I guess it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that the occasional Hawk still shows up to show us its stuff. Even at rock bottom, the Hawk had some stuff worth showing.
I have something of an affinity for Studes, as my father’s Uncle always had them. When my “Uncle Joe” passed away, he willed his 1962 Lark VIII sedan to my one older brother, but in 1970, Studebakers were so un-cool in our area, my brother turned it down. My father sold the car as he felt we didn’t need a second one…
As I grew older and saw less and less of them, I grew to appreciate these cars. I find the Hawks the most fascinating story and the ones from the very late 50’s particularly interesting. With regard to the pillared coupe, I would have to imagine that the rationale was to keep the production lines moving. As I understand it, Studebaker had the highest cost of production of the domestic carmakers at the time. Anything to keep the sales going and keep the overhead from increasing even more…
I view the 50’s President Speedster as a proto-Grand Touring car for the times. I don’t know if anyone at Studebaker was aware of the European Grand Touring tradition, but this car seems to be cast in that mode, at least to my eye. The later Golden Hawks and of course the early 60’s Gran Turismo really seem to nail the concept. But, due to a lack of courage on the part of the Corporation to keep Studebaker going…
There’s an Irish curse: “May you live in interesting times”. It must have been very interesting in South Bend during the early to mid-sixties…
Elegant,I always check out Hawks at a car show but they’re thin on the ground in the UK
Great write up. Always enjoy learning a little more about Studebakers. When I was a small youngster I remember several of our neighbors in Savannah, GA having them. In 65 we moved to Nashville, TN and can not remember seeing any up there. Our next door neighbors in Savannah had 58 or so Hawk 2 door Sedan. I remember it being kind of a neat looking car in a kind of odd sort of way. A lot sportier than a 2 door Chevy, Plymouth or Ford. Wonder if things would have gone differently if Studebaker would have come out with the GT 4 years earlier?
Probably not. Studebaker was seriously hurting back in 1952, before the Loewy Coupe’s introduction due to insane labor costs due to the competition. This was showing up big time by 1954 when GM and Ford squared off for market share. And some bad engineering decisions (an engine built for compression increases rather than boring out, a frame that was all too flexible) locked them in for the remainder of their existence.
The sporting models were nice, different and interesting but the bread-and-butter sedans were dull as dishwater and showed no sense of style during an era (55-58) when style, style, style was everything.
If anything could have possibly saved (or at least given a longer, more drawn-out death) to Studebaker, it would have been bringing out the Lark about two years earlier. ’57 might have not been a bigger deal than it actually was, but ’58 would have gone gangbusters (like the Rambler American) and given Studebaker two really profitable years (’58-59) and a mildly profitable (’60) year before the losses started piling up again. And with three years in the market before the Big 3 compacts came out, the Lark might have had more of a customer base to compete with.
Remember that the Rambler (later Rambler American) had been around on and off for quite a few years before the 1960 model year – and was able to update the restyle for 1961 after the initial Big 3 onslaught. Which probably had a good bit to do with how it survived against the Falcon, etc.
The Lark had one good year. Period. Then a fair year. Then it was overwhelmed.
GT Hawk’s and Avanti’s were eye candy to get people into the showroom. They never really had a chance to compete against the big boys, and the frame and engine shortcomings doomed them to being also-rans.
Really, I thought that the 56-58 Hawk (at least as a Golden Hawk) was perfect for its era, with a unique style and some quite respectable performance. The GT Hawk would have been too soon had it come in the 50s. But the 59-61 car could have been so much more than it was. They tried to mop up the cheap car dollars.
One of the Studebaker histories states that the Hawk was almost discontinued for 1959 to make room for the Lark hardtop . . . but dealers rebelled. Only offering a coupe was the “compromise” solution. Lame.
Studebaker first introduced a two-door hardtop on the sedan body shell in 1958. The assumption seemed to be that Studebaker was at a competitive disadvantage by solely relying upon the Hawk. The resulting “Starlight” hardtop was more contemporarily styled than the Hawks, e.g., it had a thin, almost Chrysler-like appearance.
Interestingly, a prototype Hawk had been made with the new hardtop grafted on along with a new front end similar to the 1958 Packard Hawk but less excessively fish mouthed. It looked pretty good — and perhaps could have given the Hawk a new lease on life.
Studebaker executives appeared to decide that there were greater economies of scale in using only one body rather than splitting their resources between two. That’s a reasonable consideration given the company’s size and weak finances but it also short-changed the Hawk.
The irony is that Studebaker pulled back from the “personal coupe” market just as Ford began to make good money with the four-seater T-Bird. The Hawk cost quite a bit less, so with updated styling it could have carved out a decent market.
Excellent write up. Your puppy analogy is spot on. The monotone pale yellow suits this “Homely Hawk.” It may be the best looking one I’ve seen.
What a waste. This should have been a hardtop only halo car by 1955, and the 1962 rework would have been news if it had come out in 1960.
“Please buy our cars. They’re so forlorn and pathetic” doesn’t really sound like a viable marketing strategy. It’s also indicative of how the powerful dealer network, more often than not, can screw things up, badly.
But I suppose it worked in one place, and that’s in South Bend. I knew people who actually worked at Studebaker (a next door neighbor and my grandfather), all the way up to the South Bend assembly plant closing. When my father bought a new ’64 Valiant instead of a Studebaker, man, did he catch hell.
Isn’t this the sales pitch for Mitsubishi nowadays?
Certainly seems to be for Mitsubishi in NZ…
I attended the Phoenix Car Show this last Friday (29 November). Shunted aside in the Phoenix Convention Center hall was (what few) Mitsubishi Models remain for sale in America including the sad-looking, little “new” Mirage. From it’s Tupperware cover low-rent “wheelcovers” to it’s Big Lots style (and constructed) seats, this car screams “CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP.” The parallel between the “low buck please-buy-our-car-chasing Studebaker-in-desperation attitude” and Mitsubishi (at least in America) cannot be ignored.
These new Mirages are made in Thailand and it’s obvious these are designed and built to cost. They look like a car that would’ve been new and neat if it was, say, 1990. Much like the pillared Hawks if they got fins glued on them (a-la Eldorado) for ’55 . . .
Does make you wonder what South Bend was thinking in those days except that, perhaps a two-door pillared coupe was easier (faster, cheaper) to engineer and build that a pillarless coupe. I would’ve loved to have seen a snapshot of the Starlight roofline on the Golden Hawk . . . . in hindsight, that would’ve been perfect to give the car a modern look from ’58-’62 before the Gran Turismo.
As Stude History points out, the Lark was not even on the scopes during the ’57 and ’58 (planned for) MY’s. In fact, before Packard Detroit went mammaries-up, the Stude/Clipper body was in the works. In ’55 and ’56, nobody in Detroit or South Bend even thought of chopping the ends off a ’53 Stude body as a semi-standalone model . . .
I do like the underdog Hawks of ’59-’61 quite a bit. ’61 being the most desirable, of course!
Ironically, I find that 1960 B&W ad surprisingly “modern, especially from Studebaker. Most of their ads were pretty lame.
When I arrived in the US in 1960, I really struggled to grasp what the hell the Hawk was, and why it was still in production. I would have to say it was the single most out-of date looking car produced in the US then, except perhaps the Rambler American. Or did I miss someone?
Nope; even the senior Ramblers were restyled more frequently.
This was the peak of the annual model change era, so Studebaker started off with a huge disadvantage by not doing more to update the Hawk 1958-61. However, the car might have appealed to a growing legion of import fans if it had a clear and compellingly different reason for being.
For example, beginning in 1958 Studebaker could have doubled down on Europeanesque features such as bucket seats, a four speed, and improved handling.
The Hawk also might have gotten away with few styling changes if it still looked like a timeless classic. Instead the Hawk looked tacky, particularly compared to the Loewy original, e.g., the tailfins were too tall and the radiator grille too reminiscent of Jimmy Durante. It wouldn’t have taken that much money to clean up the styling a wee bit.
And, hey, if you’ve got to have a coupe why not take the hardtop’s frameless doors, add a B-pillar and insert flip-out style rear windows?
Studebaker was like the monkey who is handed a football for the first time; it didn’t know what to do with the Loewy coupes.
When you look at the rest of the domestic’s 1960 cars (with the exception of the brand-new compacts), the Hawk actually doesn’t seem any worse.
The problem with the Hawk, with the exception of the glued-on tail-fins, was that it was virtually unchanged from the 1956 model. During that time frame, no one wanted to buy a new car that looked the same as what was sold five years ago. Chrysler, too, was feeling the same pain since they had stuck with Exner’s Forward Look 1957 styling way too long. This was back in the day when Ford and GM went no longer than two years before big styling changes (sometimes, only one year).
It’s quite ironic in today’s world with cars now routinely going five (or more) years before a major styling change.
Since writing this, I have wondered about one thing: Because the Hawk fins were simply tacked on to the old body (and were even fiberglass, I believe), there would have been no cheaper or easier de-finning job in all of automotive history, then on this car. A quick change to the fin pieces that would have modernized the rear flanks would have gone a long way to giving the car a fresh look, especially with the tremendous mechanical improvements in 1960-61.
Maybe they were afraid that people would think the new car was an even older 1953-55?
Oh, and I am pretty sure they were fiberglass only in ’56 on the GH, and were steel starting in ’57. I have no idea if they were welded or bolted on.
Spot on, Paul when you consider for MY 1958, Studebaker could only afford line-art, ink illustrations and then in Black and White . . . .
who dosent love studebaker at least they tried
People have asked why the coupe (with a B post) continued but the hardtop was dropped. One possibility: the hardtop lacked rigidity, which led to more squeaks, rattles and window gaps. Strengthening the frame would add cost and weight–both of which Studebaker had plenty of already.
The beautiful 53 car is kind of like a Frank Lloyd Wright building: striking, but problematic in structure and function.
That’s what I assume as well. I can say from a personal encounter that the Hawk hardtops showed daylight between windows when up, particularly towards the roof. There’s no accounting for restoration quality of course but I certainly found that a disappointing detail when I saw it. Perhaps dropping the hardtop was just the cheapest way to make the quality seem like it was improved.
Although, didn’t they still make a Lark hardtop? I would think all the same issues with the Hawk would apply. Or was it’s frame stronger?
Having recently spent a day reading all about the Fallingwater restoration, your 53 Hawk / FLW comparison is spot on Jerry.
Correct assumptions vs. fact, folks. Studebaker could ill afford warranty claims and had to trim down its costs to the bone. From forcing office personnel to use pencils down to the nub to eliminating hardtops (sans Lark), that meant the reprieve for the Hawks saw only sedan configurations after MY ’58 to ’61 . . . .
I can see now a Golden Hawk with it’s windows rattling going down a bumpy road and for those that used those as daily drivers, lots of old towels to soak up rainwater leaks (and stained, rotted, ruined carpet, upholstery and headliners). All the above bloggers have a very good point. . . .
CC effect in action – just saw the auction of one of these shown on a local tv show. Amazing car, one owner from new (passed away) and in great condition, it sold for $36,000.
Me too. On my local Craigslist yesterday, a weathered but decent 59 Silver Hawk with the 259/3 speed for $1500. It needs a lot of love, but would make someone a nice “Hawk kit.” Value on these seems to run all over the map.
I remember as a kid in the late 1950s that Studebaker sold Mercedes cars at the same dealerships and where on display together in the showroom.
That’s how M-B got its start in the USA.
Look at how Studebaker copied their front grille……….
So evident on several models like the Lark and others.
Enjoyed all the Studebaker hawk-series info. Would like to purchase a nice Silver Hawk. JS
This is NOT the same car above but very similar and I was impressed by the elegant simplicity. I own a 1955 Studebaker Commander and am constantly maintaining the power brakes, power steering electric windows and seat. I have to take out the battery to change the spark plugs too. Life could be so much simpler with a Silver Hawk six. (My website is http://www.stude.net but your website does not recognize that URL)
There was a time when I yawned at Hawk pillared coupes, but I have come to really appreciate them for the reasons you mention.
The hardtop models are not very tight, they have been called “rubber frame,” but they look so cool that is has to be pretty cold outside before I roll up the windows. Then too, there is the sound of a Studebaker V-8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRXOCPrvrq0