We welcome first-time contributor Jake Kaywell. Not yet having reached the age of twenty, he now counts among our youngest contributors. We oldsters lament that teenagers have no interest in the older cars but Jake is here to prove us wrong in telling us about his plunge into the world of Studebaker.
Another balmy summer’s day unfolds in Florida. The coconut palm trees are in full bloom, the monarch butterflies are migrating further north from Mexico, and the herd of snowbirds have made a mess of the local roads. I’ve seen one too many CadiLincolMerBuick land-ships with crushed velour upholstery and terminally worn ToyoNissHondas being driven 20 miles under the speed limit. However, the snowbirds are really far from my mind, for I have my own bird, the GT Hawk.
Yes, this wonderful creature was designed by one Brooks Stevens on a shoestring budget. All that was required was a changing of the chrome trim pieces and a newly designed GT roofline in order to give the car a more formal air. He did a fantastic job on it, as the only clue that this car has to being a decades old design was in the floorboard mounted pedals. This really is a 1950’s car dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 1960’s!
The actual car you see here is number 3,295 out of a total of 9,335 produced in 1962. Its designation of 62V-K6 indicates that it was an American market car with the aging but still respected 289 cu. V8 mill pushing out about 210 Civil War era horses.
It was sold new in Sacramento, CA to a Ms. Helen Potter who ordered factory air, a BorgWarner 4 speed manual transmission, and the Twin Traction limited-slip differential but not POWER STEERING OR POWER BRAKES. Good God in heaven, Helen, what were you thinking?!
The Hawk series was interesting in that it was (and still is) a perennial in-betweener. Not quite a GT car, not quite a sports car, certainly not quite a muscle car, it was something of an enigma to the American car scene in its day. Indeed, since the model’s original launch in 1956 when it had no less than FOUR trim levels, most consumers had been passing this car up for the more commonplace and familiar Thunderbird and Corvette. Even automobiles from the British Invasion such as the E-Type were more prevalent. They were great cars to be sure, but they can’t claim to be unique. Not when compared to this fine automobile here!
Yes, I must admit that it’s my first car. I saved 7 years in order to get this one. I didn’t know it then, but it was to be a long road to get there. My first experience with classic cars was with a rather plumby 1966 Austin-Healey 3000 Mk. III and a 1979 MG Midget that liked to set herself on fire when she was feeling just the right flavor of pissy. From there, I migrated to Big Three stuff, but I soon realized that those cars did not suit me at all. No…what I needed was an Independent.
I’m certainly glad I did. I may well end up with two animal companions that I’ll remember for the rest of my life – my dog and my Hawk.
The car was originally done in P6213 Iridescent Green [Metallic Green according to some sources and may have originally looked more like this – Ed]. It was resprayed at some point in the 1980s by the second owner AT THE REQUEST of the first owner, Ms. Helen Potter. I am now the third owner.
There are so many people out there that never get to have the opportunity to own a classic like this. I am very thankful. As long as I’m in my Hawk I don’t even mind those snowbirds clogging the roads!
This poem (Automotive Retrograde) is something I wrote some time ago about my Hawk, and it should give you an idea of how I feel about her. Enjoy!
With hands shaky, a young lad swoons with joy.
His pride, his achievement, has now arrived.
More than a heap of glass and steel alloy,
His guardian angel, now come alive.
Her name be Daisy-Mae, a gal of old.
From the time of Beatles and the space race.
Her parent, Studebaker, deathly cold,
Having been half a century displaced.
On a shoestring budget she was conceived.
Under the svelte dress, old bones did creak.
Over her compromised frame, people grieved
But no one complained about her physique.
Hearty V8 engine became her heart.
Displacing 289 cu., she went off apace.
Strutted her stuff down the roads of Stuttgart.
The world then stared at her 120 inch wheelbase.
As the world forgot, she got despondent.
Went on a two decade long hiatus.
Then she was rescued, I her respondent.
No longer an item of shamed status.
All systems go, including radio.
Listening to tunes of old emotion.
Daisy has been kept in the bungalow.
Now a fair healer, the finest potion.
I am youthful, but I appreciate.
My brain and heart can get to sobering.
However, here’s something I do dictate;
Here’s to many more years of motoring!
Further Reading:
1962 Studebaker Gran Tursimo Hawk – A Beautiful Death (Paul Niedermeyer)
1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk – Irrational Exuberance (J P Cavanaugh)
Thank you so much for doing this wonderful article, Jake. I really enjoyed it!
Welcome to the club! We may be old guys but we are a lot of fun. Anyone is welcome, as long as they are nice and love cars.
A nice essay, JK, and a very special car for you to look after and enjoy. Good to have you bringing the average age down here at CC while adding to the collective wisdom and good sprit that keeps me coming back daily. If only there’d been such a forum for the like-minded when I was 19 (1972). Bravo for your story well told!
Great post! Your dog and car make great teammates.
This is an interesting read Jake. I have always had a soft spot for the Hawk family from the time I rode (in the back seat) in a friend of my parents new 1957 Golden Hawk (white with gold fins).
Your photo of the dashboard was new to me as I was not aware the 1962 Hawk made the far left and right large round instruments optional. So I also can ask the question: “Helen, what were you thinking?”.
Beautiful dog too.
What a wonderful color! Thanks for sharing this and welcome to the club.
That is the nicest-looking Hawk I’ve ever seen, in a photo or otherwise.
Thanks Jake for the opportunity to give you a little assistance in bringing this great car to share on CC.
The color continues to intrigue me. Did someone have a bad day when trying to match the old color or was the owner ready to redecorate? As for the original color, it must have been on a really low percentage of production. I am not sure I have seen another.
Welcome Jake! Just so you know, I had a 19 year old roommate several years back and he dreamed of owning a ’60s classic too – and he also liked Studebakers. A few houses down the street was a 20 year old with a Chevelle 396. You’re far from alone, there are still plenty of teens into cars, new and old. Also, there are people of all ages who read and contribute to this site.
The ’62 GT Hawk is one of my favorite cars. Such a perfectly proportioned shape, all the more amazing given it was a 1953 design with facelifts in 1956 and 1962. I saw my first one in the late ’90s – dark red, front view with a bit of the side showing, and was confounded as to what it was. My first thought was “one of those new Bentleys”. I was way off. It wasn’t a Bentley, and it wasn’t new. I got closer and learned what it was when I went around back. It just looked so…. elegant, and timeless. Plus, a former girlfriend once owned one which she and her brother fixed up – also red (a lighter shade), also a 1962, though sadly she sold it before we met. I only knew it from some pictures she had.
Some Hawks were indeed muscle cars – perhaps the ’56 Golden Hawk with the Packard V8 and the ’57-’58 iterations with the supercharged V8, and certainly the ’63-’64 with the supercharged R2 engine (the even more powerful R3 engine was available in the Hawk, but apparently all of these went into Avantis or Larks).
Welcome Jake! I’m glad it finally worked our to get your terrific post published here. I got your submission in my email and I responded twice, but maybe they got hung up in your spam filter.
Congratulations on buying one of my favorite cars from that era. Enjoy! And thanks for sharing it with us all.
Enjoy your new ride Jake! I’ve always liked the 62-64 Hawks, I am always amazed about what Brooks Stevens was able to do with it on a shoestring budget. They’re beautiful cars to look at and it almost makes me wish Egbert would have put his efforts onto modernizing the Hawk instead of building the Avanti.
Jake, welcome aboard!
While I am not in the club of thinking those under, say, 30 are ambivalent about old cars, it is great to see someone fitting that description espousing their love for them – particularly when they have one as their first car!
May you and your Hawk have many years and miles of happiness.
What a beautiful car, Jake, adeptly and lovingly described. Welcome here. That’s an interesting colour, and I think it suits the car well. If the paint chip chart is visually reliable (which maybe not—they often don’t age well), the original colour would’ve been quite a bit bluer, and that stands to reason given the charming turquoise-y tints on the interior. Drive it in good health, and keep on writing! One of these days I’ve just got to get around to writing up my own metallic green ’62 Mumblemumble.
She’s a beauty, Jake!
Great car, fine dog, top – class post, and I also love the Stude factory A/C – thanks so much for brightening a lovely autumn Sunday morning…!!!
Looking forward to your future posts…
I know exactly squat about cars other than Toyotas but that is a beautiful rig. Look forward to more!
Jake, great choice for your car! I always thought this era of Hawk (when they got rid of the bolt-on tail fins) has a timeless design. Do the “ancient” underpinnings really affect the ride comfort?
Love the lines on this car! Brooks Stevens did a wonderful job updating it for the ’60s on a shoestring budget, it just looks right from every angle and those awful tacked-on fins were mercifully eliminated. The squared-up Thunderbird style roof line suits this car perfectly.
But I do wonder if Stude finally solved all the earlier problems with this 1953 chassis re: body flex etc.
I always thought the Hawks look weird without the fins. The front end is very heavy looking and the fins balance it out. They also give the car a bat-mobile look that I dig. The gt hawks are ok, but not at beautiful as the round roof fin hawks.
A lovely car and a lovely story!
I am such a lover of the color green that I just can’t decide which one is better – the original color or the respray. But no, I like the original color more, and IMO it also fits the interior better. Anyway – a car like this, in this kind of condition, will look great in any shade of any color ! My congratulations to Jake the owner.
It is encouraging to have a teenager interested in unique cars – not just common or typical cars but unique cars.
Jake, I am one of those snowbirds getting in the way; I do my messing up the roads in Arizona, not Florida. However I do try to proceed expeditiously and use the right foot generously.
Jake,
Welcome aboard, great first post, looking forward to many more.
Jake, WELCOME! Great to see you here.
Absolutely beautiful. And great to see such a young guy who likes a Studebaker. That one’s really special.
As for not having been ordered with power steering or power brakes, you could add them but that would ‘destroy the originality’ some would say. I’d say it’s your call whether you add a driveability aid the first owner didn’t choose. But how wonderful to have a car that age so original.
And a poet, too. Though I’m a writer, none of my cars have moved me to poetry!
I never liked Studebaker using the Mercedes-style grille and always thought it was a mistake to get rid of the original 1953 Starliner nose so soon.
With that said, all things considered, the GT Hawk was okay. While I much prefer the Sceptre concept car, Studebaker’s finances just wouldn’t allow it. What money they ‘did’ have was enough to get the GT Hawk and Avanti. Given Studebaker’s ‘dead-company-walking’ situation at the time, it was as good as it was going to get.
FWIW, you can see the Sceptre at the Studebaker museum, but you have to go down to the basement, where it’s tucked inside a corner. While there are plenty of Avanti’s (including some prototype fiberglass shells), I don’t recall if there are any GT Hawks on display.
Maybe they should have built the Sceptre instead of the Avanti. Clearly it would have been a more mainstream car. But they really needed an updated platform too – wider, allowing a step-down floor, etc., not just a new body. They could have had a few more $millions to work with if they hadn’t spent them on the abandoned smaller-than-Lark car they were preparing.
A brand-new, from-the-ground-up Sceptre would have been a massive, expensive undertaking. By that point, Studebaker’s board had lost their taste for the automotive business and were just treading water to keep from being sued by their dealer network.
The GT Hawk and Avanti were all they could (or would) let Egbert do. Even if he’d have gotten the money, built the Sceptre instead of the GT Hawk and Avanti, and the Sceptre had been a hit (a distinct possibility, considering how the similar market demographic Riviera did), it would have just forestalled the inevitable.
The Studebaker faithful bemoan the decision, but, from a purely economic standpoint, it was the right one. The higher labor costs of the much smaller Studebaker, compared to the Big 3, doomed them, no matter what they did. AMC would last longer, but they would eventually follow for the same reason.
Nice ride. In the early 2000’s, a used car lot near us in Toronto had a GT Hawk of similar vintage to yours in maroon. Always a favourite of mine – their styling put them into a different league from most other American cars of the time, and that might be the reason why they didn’t sell in the numbers that Studebaker needed. I think the styling has aged quite well, and the small 8 with a 4-speed is always a great drivetrain. May you have many happy miles with your classic Studebaker.
Jake, thanks for a great story. I’ve always liked these GTs. Even more so in green. I look forward to reading more of your contributions. Thanks.
What a wonderful car! One of my dream cars, in fact. ESPECIALLY since it has a four-speed!
Welcome, nice car too, I like the deep green.
I can’t decide if I would want to meet Ms Helen Potter or not. She sounds like a formidable woman to order a car that way!
I’m digging the green paint. That’s a great color on a great looking car. That’s a great looking dog too. Never forget that a dog is man’s best friend, and sometimes a dog is man’s only freind. Be good to that dog.
Well done Jake, hope to see more of you here. I really like the GT Hawks. I occasionally work on a beautiful 64 in Rose Mist Metallic. This one is a 4 speed also along with ps,tt, disc brakes, and traction bars. It is a great driving car. You did well with yours.
Welcome! Great write-up Jake! Thanks for sharing the story of your car and the great photos. You sure have a beauty and it seems like the car also found a great care taker. While I am far from a Studebaker fan, I have always really like the Hawks.
Welcome to CC Jake! I look forward to reading your future articles.
The original color looks to be the same color as my 1962 Lark V-8. Brings back memories. About the flex issue on the 120″ WB cars, I heard doors would often suddenly fly open on the 1953 cars, ’54’s got new latches. Later cars got heavier gauge frames, I think in several steps. Coupes and “blind-quarter” models had less flex.
Jake, that’s a great GT Hawk. I think I like the green on it more than the original, which looks more teal. Have fun with it!
Nice ride, Jake. Like the colour too; it really sets off the elgant lines.
The title reminded me of ‘A Kestrel for a Knave’.
Great post, Jake. Everyone should be so lucky to find a car like that at your age!
Gorgeous car! But what an odd combination of options, no PS but AC and a 4 sp.
Great car, story and poem, Jake! You clearly have the car bug, along with a large dose of good taste. I rarely saw GT Hawks when they were new. Avantis, rare as they always were, seemed to be in greater supply somehow. The artistry and practicality of Brooks Stevens are amply demonstrated by the classic shape that he managed to pull out of the 1956 Hawk, which to my mind was an unforgivable bastardization of the glorious 1953 Raymond Loewy Starlight Coupe. Your car looks to be in impeccable condition, and I am certain that it will remain so with such a passionate and committed owner. Many years of happy motoring in it to you!
That is a fantastic car especially with the 4spd and unique colour.
Beautiful car. Wonder if one of the new electric power steering units woul be an easy add on.
If I had my fantasy garage of 10 cars, a Hawk of this vintage would be one of them. And I say that as a guy who’s normally more into European cars.
Have you seen the Ate Up With Motor history of the Hawk?
https://ateupwithmotor.com/model-histories/studebaker-hawk-history/
Great work Jake. A warm welcome to you, the Stude and your doggo! A little secret- this car is a time machine. As you age, anytime you drive or work on it will bring you back to the day it entered you life or even the year it was built. My 67 LeSabre has the same effect, as soon as I walk near it or pickup a wrench, it’s 1981.
Cool write-up, Jake! Welcome to the world of CC contributors!
Jake, I look forward to reading more from you and hearing about your Hawk. I was the guy who wrote you on YouTube regarding your horn button, tracking down the correct one could be your next post!
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that’s the horn button that it came with from the factory. Honestly, it looks okay, and if that was the case, I’d probably just leave it like it is. It actually fits in with the unique color and odd array of selected options.
I would be surprised. The horn button is one of the few ways to brand a car and the factory wouldn’t screw that up.
That’s the horn button from a 1961 Lark, the Hawk had a different element inside, a winged Hawk. The button colors of a black ring surrounding a gold base were unique to 1961.
These things are notorious for falling out. They were kept in place by a single rubber o-ring and once it deteriorated, they would just pop out. Lark buttons are much easier to find than Hawk ones, so it’s not surprising to see one on a Hawk.
Good news! After more than a year, I finally managed to track down a correct horn button. I am very happy needless to say.
Great post, great looking car and a great looking dog! Jake, you’ll fit right in here!
Looking forward to hearing more about the Hawk, the dog and how CC and being curbivore works for the next generation.
I for one can see the Loewy styled Sunbeam Rapier in that front end, if not in the roof line, which is new to me.
I’m jealous, as despite being over a decade your senior, I’ve not owned a car nearly as cool as your Hawk! This was a great read. Thanks and welcome, Jake!
Also, I was wondering how hard it is to get adjusted to a floor-mounted clutch. I’ve never driven a setup like that.
It’s very strange to see the instrument cluster on this car without the tachometer and clock. Regardless, it’s a nice looking car and I approve of your choice.
Sorry, late to the party — excellent post about a really cool car. It’s truly rare for guys your age to care about 50-year-old cars in general (I should know, I was like that too). Not only that, but you picked the best-looking ’60s Studebaker I’ve ever seen. A man of taste, our Jake.
Welcome to CC!