Studebaker Hawk: First Series

Aside from its low-volume, fiberglass-bodied Avanti built in 1962-63, Studebaker could not afford to develop completely new designs.  Instead, it had to rely on its 1953 sedan and coupe designs for the rest of its existence as an automobile manufacturer.  This post deals with the first version of the Hawk line, introduced for the 1956 model year as a successor to its classical Starliner coupe.

Wikipedia deals with the top-of-the-line Golden Hawk model here.  And I posted about Studebaker's hellish 1955 facelift of the Starliner coupe here.  That, in turn, led to the 1956 facelift that became the Hawk.

Hawks were given a small facelift for 1957 and until the 1962 model year changes were trivial.   What I'm calling the Second Series Hawk appeared as a major facelift for 1962.  I will deal with that in a later post.

Gallery

This is a 1955 Studebaker Speedster, a Starliner with a restyled grille and hood, plus lesser trim changes.  Photo from Branson Auction.

And here is a 1956 Golden Hawk.  Again, there is a new hood and grille.  The vertical grille was a bold step at the time, because styling fashion called for wide grilles.  This photo and the one below are from Mecum Auctions.

The Golden Hawk was given tail fins -- this for the same model year that Chrysler Corporation was introducing them as facelift items on its 1955 redesign.  The Hawk trunk styling was also new.

This is a 1956 Power Hawk, a coupe with a B-pillar and a V-8 motor.

A '56 Sky Hawk pillarless coupe with a six cylinder motor.  Rounding out the line was the Flight Hawk, a six with a B-pillar.

Tail fins became better integrated for 1957.  The side sculpting from 1953 has been eliminated.  I consider this the most attractive First Series Hawk.

Auctions America photo of a 1958 Golden Hawk.  Grids have been added to the side grille openings and a different medallion is on the main grille.

This 1958 Golden Hawk has a horizontal bar in each of the side grilles.  Mecum photo.

Golden Hawks were gone by 1959.  What remained was the Silver Hawk with its fixed B-pillar. Parking lights have moved from atop the fenders to the side grilles.  Mecum photo.

This "for sale" photo shows a 1960 Silver Hawk.  The grille medallion has been moved and a few chrome bits added to the fore end of the tail fin ensemble.

Another "for sale" photo, this for a 1961 Silver Hawk.  The medallion has moved again, but that's the only change I notice.  Big things were coming for 1962, however.

Studebaker Hawk: Second Series

As I mentioned in the previous (16 October 2017) post about the First Series Studebaker Hawks, the company was unable to afford to redesign its sedan and coupe bodies following their 1953 introduction.  So it became a matter of facelift after facelift until Studebaker left the automobile business in the mid-1960s.

This post deals with the final iteration of the classic Raymond Loewy designed Starliner coupe.  A major 1956 facelift introduced the Hawk name to the lineup: Golden Hawk, Silver Hawk, Power Hawk and Flight Hawk.  By the 1960 and 1961 model years the line had been reduced to the Silver Hawk, a coupe with a solid B-pillar.

Studebaker rolled the dice one last time in 1962 for its coupe body in the form of the Gran Turismo Hawk, a major facelift styled by industrial designer Brooks Stevens.

Gallery

This is a 1956 Sky Hawk to provide a sense of what Stevens had to work with.  The high hood and grille were retained through 1961.  Tail fins were added to Golden Hawks in 1956 and the lesser Hawks in 1957.  The 1953-vintage side sculpting was dropped in 1957.

This and the following two images are from Mecum Auctions.  Stevens retained the frontal styling aside from a few details that did modify its feeling.  The grille got more massive framing while side-grille openings lost their chromed frames.  Chrome strips were added to the tops of the fenders.

Tail fins were eliminated, so rear fenders are back about to where they are seen in the top photo above.  Stevens' major restyling was the rear part of the roof.  Aft side windows were reshaped and the wraparound backlights were replaced by flatter units.  The C-pillars were styled in Ford Thunderbird fashion to give the car a more formal appearance.

GT Hawk grilles received a nested-grid pattern for 1963.

Finally, three Mecum photos of the 1964 GT Hawk.  Grille mesh was changed and a few medallions were added.

Side view.  After all those post-1953 changes, it's still a nice looking car.

The main 1964 change was a smoothed-off trunk lid.

American Business Coupes

Wikipedia deals at some length here with the coupé (in America: coupe) body type.  A few lines of the link deal with the business coupe: "A coupé with no rear seat or a removable rear seat intended for traveling salespeople and other vendors who would be carrying their wares with them."

The American business coupe was part of the product mix for many brands from the late 1920s into the early 1950s.  Most were advertised as business coupes, but some coupes had more general names, yet could be used for business purposes.

The logic of using a coupe for traveling salesmen, consulting engineers and many other business activities requiring road travel was that coupes were: (1) usually inexpensive to buy; (2) had a usefully minimal seating capacity; and (3) had small cabins but also the long wheelbases of large-cabin cars so that there was room for a larger than normal trunk for carrying stuff.

Below are examples of this long-departed type of automobile body in chronological order.

Gallery

1929 Buick Master-Six Business Coupe
An early example.  The trunk is fairly small, so this body might also have had a rumble seat version.

1934 Hupmobile Aerodynamic Coupe
This is probably a rumble seat coupe.  I show it because of its very small cabin that seats two (or perhaps three in a pinch) and its long trunk area.  The rear-mounted spare tire would have made this an inconvenient business coupe because it would have interfered with loading.  A business coupe version would have been possible if the spare tire was repositioned.

1936 Oldsmobile Eight Business Coupe

1936 Buick Special Business Coupe
Two General Motors business coupes from mid-range marques.  I suppose these were offered for salesmen or business representatives requiring a more substantial image than that offered by entry-level brands.  The cars shown here used the same basic body.

1936 Packard One-Twenty Business Coupe
Another example of a mid-range business coupe.  Surprising, given that it was from the maker of luxury cars, but Packard had to enter a lesser market range in order to survive the Great Depression.

1937 Graham Cavalier Series 95 Business Coupe
A business coupe from a minor brand.  Note the illustration showing how the spare tire was stored, providing more convenient trunk space.

1939 Plymouth Business Coupe
A business coupe from Chrysler Corporation.  Like the Graham, it is a four-window coupe, something becoming common for business coupes by the late 1930s.

1939 Chevrolet Master Deluxe Business Coupe
This publicity photo shows a business coupe being loaded.

1939 Graham Combination Coupe
The text (click on the image to enlarge) mentions that a business version of this coupe was available.

1940 Chevrolet Master 85 Business Coupe
I include this brochure page image because it shows storage variations.

1941 Dodge Luxury Liner Deluxe Business Coupe
A nice example of a small cabin on a long-wheelbase car with the resulting large trunk.

1941 Oldsmobile Special Business Coupe
Yet another view of business coupe storage.

1949 Dodge Wayfarer Business Coupe
Business coupe production continued post- World War 2.  This one has Chrysler Corporation's redesigned postwar body style.

1951 Studebaker Champion Business Coupe - Mecum Auctions photo
Perhaps the flashiest business coupe of the lot, though that 1939 Graham comes close.  These small-cabin Studebakers have always fascinated me.

1950 Chevrolet Styline Business Coupe
Even General Motors continued business coupes into the early 1950s.

UPDATE: Further research shows that Chrysler Corporation's Plymouth brand offered business coupes as late as 1957.