As part of the plan to keep Studebaker in the motorcar business , Sherwood Egbert called on Brooks Stevens to update the Hawk . With little fourth dimension and less money , Stevens created the sensational Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk .
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An enraged Raymond Loewy rushed to a headphone when he first see the new Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk at the 1961 Paris Auto Show . He could n’t realize how Studebaker could have allowed Brooks Stevens to qualify his firm ’s 1953 Studebaker Starliner design so extensively . Fortunemagazine had call it " one of the hundred undecomposed designs of New times . " In his transatlantic call to South Bend , he demand to screw what had happened and how .
Studebaker executives , however , realized the wisdom of their decision and stood by Brooks Stevens ' new design . Loewy , busy with the Avanti project for Studebaker , dropped the matter .
Only infrequently has a face - ski tow not destruct the innocence of an original construct . Stevens ' heroic restyling of the Starliner is an example of the rare exception ( " heroic " because Stevens accomplished the task on a shoestring budget and in very limited time ) . His 1962 - 1964 Gran Turismo Hawk emerged as a refreshing , timeless design that depend as salutary today as when it first debuted almost 50 days ago . And Stevens ' design hire nothing aside from the Starliner , for when parked side by side both railcar still look " right . "
When Stevens was called to South Bend , Studebaker – the oldest vehicle maker in the U.S. – was on the ropes . It had made wagons since before the Civil War , but now air pressure were mounting , from within and without , to abandon automobile production . Some say Studebaker had been easy pass ever since its encounter with failure in the thirties . But material production had brought in a lot of capital during World War II , and the future looked hopeful in 1946 .
The challenges and opportunities were there . The problem was that management systematically require the wrong turn at every crossroad . In some ways , the company was in advance of its time , as with its previous Forties and other Fifties association with Loewy . In other aspects , it seemed lamentably out of particular date , specially in some areas of technology .
Ford is generally pass on reference for produce the sporty " personal - luxury " mart with the 1958 Thunderbird , or " Squarebird . " Its basic dimensions seem to have been take up from General Motors ' Autorama pipe dream cars of the mid - Fifties , but GM did n’t enter this segment until Pontiac fielded the 1962 Grand Prix – or mid-1961 , when Olds debut the Starfire .
In fact , Studebaker beat both Ford and GM to market in 1956 with the sporty , well - trimmed Hawk . Although really a makeover of the 1953 Starliner , the Hawk was both a respectable performer and a proficient looker , particularly the top - of - the - line of credit Golden Hawk .
Studebaker called it " a sports car … that furbish up the fun and agitation to luxury motoring . " Only afterward did others intrude on that market niche – 1958 T - Bird , 1963 Riviera , 1966 Olds Toronado , 1967 Cadillac Eldorado , and others – but Studebaker could lay call to being the first of this lineage .
Studebaker was in fiscal fuss as the Hawk was being developed . pick up how Egbert kept the ball roll during difficult clock time on the next Thomas Nelson Page .
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Financial Problems at Studebaker in the 1960s
The Gran Turismo Hawk was a great innovation , but hoi polloi question why Studebaker feel the motivation to shift it for 1962 . By 1961 the Hawk was six years old , and largely unchanged style - wise . And from 1959 to 1961 , the Hawk was kick upstairs as a depressed - price pillared coupe , forsaking its place in the personal - luxury market place .
Then , too , problems at Studebaker - Packard had driven some respected room decorator – Duncan McRae and Bill Schmidt – to do things to the Hawk that never would have been done under normal condition , one result being the 1958 Packard Hawk .
For the Studebaker Hawk , a continued penny - pinching effort to change it a bite here and a shade there kept alive the hope that any change might promote sales . Performance - wise , however , the automobile held together and there were patriotic buyers , albeit not enough .
Financially , Studebaker was in upheaval . The remedies essay in the late Fifties by corporate president Harold Churchill were n’t process . Sales and morale were humiliated , productivity abysmal . Compounding the trouble were the New York money men who had gained power on the board of directors .
Schemes for the manipulation of tax credits and plans for Studebaker ’s exit from the automobile business in favour of some of its more lucrative holdings were continually being pushed by dining table members , especially Abraham M. Sonnabend . Studebaker had seven sectionalisation then , include an airline and an widget manufacturing plant .
In this climate , board chairman Clarence Francis retained the Beyden executive natural endowment house to happen a young man on a white-hot cavalry to start the company . A board meeting make Sonnabend to set off a European misstep as he believe he was about to be named president . Had he been , he would have cursorily terminate machine production . But at the end of the stormy six - hour meeting , Sherwood Harry Egbert , age 40 , emerged as president , and at double Churchill ’s wage . Through Beyden , Francis had arrange a five - yr loanword of Egbert from McCullough Motors .
Under Egbert , car yield was to stay – for a while . South Bend was elated , and Egbert was indeed treated like the man on a white knight . Banners blasted out : WELCOME SHERWOOD EGBERT . Everyone was full of hope , and it seemed well launch .
The enforce six - foot - four Egbert had been grabbed by Robert P. McCullough after he leave alone the army as a captain . McCullough get a line in him the makings of a superb collective executive director and train him for big thing within the companionship . McCullough was right – Egbert did the right thing at the right times , and with great accomplishment .
Brooks Stevens was a recognize industrial designer of three decades standing . As such , he had a clear vision of how to go about creating the 1962 Gran Turismo Hawk .
The spot at Studebaker required that Egbert work fast . There was footling metre and less money . He toured the dealerships , making changes , and put hoi polloi to figure out paint the muddy South Bend factory . Unfortunately , he left intact the old ineffective key place government agency staff .
Egbert had no design of ceasing auto yield – he loved auto . Besides , Studebaker had contractual accord with its dealers to provide cars and parts . If it did n’t , the corporation would open itself up to monumental suit . The choice were to either err out of the railroad car business in just the ripe way , or to raise auto sales agreement to a profitable level .
On the next page , record about designer Brooks Stevens and how he make the Gran Turismo Hawk .
Developing the 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk
To recover lost market share , Studebaker ’s president Sherwood Egbert developed three proposals on which he would back the time to come of the party . One was an updated Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk . He bid on his former friend , Brooks Stevens , whom he do it through McCullough . Stevens had designed McCullough ’s new plant when the concern moved to California from Wisconsin , and all of the company ’s products – everything from chain saws to superchargers – had been designed by Stevens .
A alumnus of Cornell University ’s architecture school , Stevens was a well-thought-of master clothes designer of three decennary . Among his credit were Evinrude outboard motors , Harley - Davidson motorcycle , radios , tractor , trains , planes , and cars . Stevens pile up cars , write about them , raced them . He had designed them for Frazer , Willys , Paxton , and had penned many strong suit vehicle . Today , he is in all likelihood best known for design and , with his sons , produce the Excalibur .
Egbert knew the Hawk was old and degrade by too much chrome and awful fins – it need fixing . That would be Stevens ' line . When Stevens arrive in South Bend , Egbert was in Germany checking to be indisputable Studebaker was making the best of its arrangement for commercialise Mercedes - Benz automobiles in the U.S. But Stevens speedily set about check how much money was available for retool the Hawk and how much time there was to do it . There was too little of both .
Seven million dollars for a theoretical account change ( for both the Hawk and Lark ) was much nothing , and the car had to be in production in only a few months . Companies like GM and Ford worked on pencil lead times of three long time and spend many tens of meg . If Stevens was to succeed , he had to be clever and tight .
He took what was left of the Starliner design with him to his Milwaukee studios , where he and his staff rendered dozens of proposals . They then applied cardboard track - outs of the change now to the railroad car , sometimes trying one design root word on one side , another on the other side . Some self-propelled writers of the period say the net design was derive from the Packard Predictor , but it was n’t ; Stevens ' design develop out of his clear-cut vision of what the gondola should be .
One of Stevens ' personal cars then was an Alfa Romeo Gran Turismo . The name " Gran Turismo Hawk " alluded to the blend of European style and American comfort that he wanted to create in his design . For him , no other name for the car was ever in the run .
Studebaker ’s intimacy with Mercedes - Benz is seen in the prominent radiator grille of the 1962 Gran Turismo . Although the idea was present in early Hawks , Stevens squared the grillwork and entrap it in classic Mercedes mode with an top down chrome horse arrest . An embossed minor gibbosity was add to the cap , serving to constrain it . The concave scallop on the doors of the Starliner was replaced by bland slab sides . As an accent , a stainless steel landing strip operate the full duration of the rocker control board , merging into the chrome environs of the wheelwells .
Early on , this strip had been throttle to the area immediately below the door , but Stevens read this had produce mocking looks . A narrow comic strip of stainless sword , with a modest stress fin just be hind the headlamp , ran the full length of the top of the fenderline to the rear lamp , much as on the 1961 Lincoln Continental . Stevens specified paint headlight rims to replace the gaudier chrome 1 ( they showed up in 1963 ) .
Continue reading about the newly updated purpose of the 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk on the next Sir Frederick Handley Page .
Design of the 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk
In the rear of the 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk , the rear lamp were visible from the side as well as the back , again hint of the Lincoln Continental . They featured built - in backup ignitor and flanked a purely decorative mesh grille treatment on the decklid . The wireless aerial was mounted in the centre of the leading edge of the decklid . The rearward windowpane sport inset glass , a Stevens hallmark witness earlier on some of his creation for Willys .
The hardtop ceiling borrow its Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe from the Thunderbird : squared , flat , and with extensive sail panels . In abandoning the pillar - type rounded cap seen on former Hawks , Stevens was able-bodied not only to increase clearance for rearward rider , but to give the Hawk a roofline then very much in vogue .
The Hawk allegory , with wings upright , take flight on the sail panel above a extensive striptease of embossed chrome . There was one major remainder on the Hawk ’s glasshouse , however : it rollick a ridge across the top of the roof from sail panel to sweep dialog box , creating a grade akin to earmuff . Here , Stevens was count ahead . He suggested that bargainer might paint the front part of the roof silver gray , thus creating an heart-to-heart force .
In his drawings , Stevens went a gradation further . He proposed a slide panel that draw in into the earmuff subdivision for a semi - convertible effect . Unfortunately , the Targa - like figure would have required significant body and frame brace . That meant money and additional engineering time . There was neither , so the idea was abandoned .
The interior of the car spoke of unostentatious elegance . The driver found everything in the right place , like the declamatory and legible instruments that were mounted on a splendid vertical three - plane panel that pointed the gauges at the machine driver . One possessor said he bought a Gran Turismo because he could n’t afford a Continental Mark II , but later when he did buy one , he did n’t keep it long – he preferred the superior and more practical inside of the Hawk .
For the first time ever , an inner cowl was made of fibreglass . Here necessity had been the female parent of invention , for Stevens wanted that distinctive fascia . Because of the dispirited product projections for the Gran Turismo , this expensive component was fabricated in fibreglass to hold open tooling cost . Structural ingredient were design into the cowl . The mounting of the dash cushioning was , in part , facilitated by the use of goods and services of fiberglass .
Both a clock and a tachometer were optional . Non - glossy model wood surrounded the instruments , the appliqué having been print through an arrangement with Egbert ’s friend atAutomobile Quarterly . An aircraft - like panel of perforated vivid metal stay on to the right across the bolt , cleverly hold back the radio talker . It give a " mechanically skillful " look to the Interior Department and flowed into the room access control board . The doors sported a red , ashen , and blue accent strip between armrest and window . Both the three - plane dash and the use of luxurious carpeting on the room access were later copied by Ford and GM .
Perforated acoustical vinyl was used for the headliner . The buyer could choose between textile or ribbed vinyl group for the cut-in in the over - size bucket seats ( reclining buckets and butt belts were optional ) . Unfortunately , the vinyl used on the 1962 model had been stump too deeply and did n’t wear well . In the rear , a pull - down armrest added extra comfort .
The Gran Turismo Hawk ’s locomotive engine was a major merchandising item for the automobile . On the next Sir Frederick Handley Page , read about what went on under the hood of the Hawk .
Under the Hood of the 1962, 1963, 1964 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk
Under the goon , the Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk ’s Thunderbolt engine was a stroked version of Studebaker ’s old authentic 259.2 - cubic - inch V-8 . Displacing 289 cid , it boil out 210 horsepower with a two - barrel carb , 225 with the $ 22 four - barrel - carb option . ( The 259 V-8 with 180 or 195 horsepower was available on export models , as was the old straight six . ) Although a three - speed manual gearbox hail standard , a floor - mounted four - f number and Flightomatic automatic were offered , as was overdrive . Finned - drum brakes , variable - charge per unit front whorl spring , anti - sway bar , asymmetrical rear springing , and telescopic shock absorbers were received .
Overall , the elevator car calculate and feel like a high - f number four - rider European Grand Touring railcar . The auto magazine praised it;Motor Trend , for model , described it as " a willing and able car definitely in the custom of the in high spirits - speed tourers of Europe . "
Stevens had begun the Hawk task in March 1961 . To everyone ’s astonishment , the graceful black handmade prototype was delivered to Studebaker home office in July . What would have get GM or Ford two and a half years to do , Stevens had accomplished in a issue of weeks .
The Gran Turismo change very little in appearance during its three - year run , establish only slight alterations of the front grille , rearward decklid intervention , and interior . the great unwashed not intimate with the differences can see to order them apart by the hubcap : stainless and opprobrious in 1962 , a white centre surrounded by a white ring in 1963 , and standardized to Avanti ’s in 1964 . The 1964 mannikin deleted the ornamental overlay on the trunklid and most sported the optional half vinyl roof – the vinyl group being apply forward of the rooftree . The Gran Turismo was the first production car with a half vinyl roof , a discussion that was widely copied and is still available on some auto .
The gravid word in yr - to - year changes show up under the hood . In 1963 , the astonishingly fast Avanti debuted , and the Hawk benefitted from the engine workplace done for that machine . Two hot versions of the 289 were offer : the 240 HP R - l , and the McCullough - supercharge 290 HP rophy . Although the superchargers are sometimes send for Paxton , they are one and the same , being refer after Robert Paxton McCullough . By this meter , Egbert cerebration of the supercharger as being so much a part of Studebaker that he had the company grease one’s palms that part of McCullough Motors .
For 1964 , a 304.5 - cid engine theoretically became usable . A stroked interlingual rendition of the 289 , the R-4 version boasted twin four - cask carbs and 280 horsepower . The supercharged R-3 cranked out 335 horses . Although list , no Gran Turismos were factory make with either engine . Still , the 120 - mph speed indicator on the Hawk were changed to 160 - mph units at mid - yr to enhance Studebaker ’s carrying out image .
To maximize the Gran Turismo ’s exposure , Stevens campaigned a Hawk - based race car . At his Excalibur works , he had a tubular frame build and instal a blown engine and Gran Turismo components . mark the Excalibur Hawk in proud chrome letter on the front fenders and lark Hawk emblems on its chromed roll bar , this unique car did quite well on the racing circuit . Using a more conventional form of the production 1963 Hawk circle , Andy Granatelli ( by then vice - president of Studebaker ’s supercharger sectionalization ) made 140 - plus - mph ravel on the Bonneville Salt Flats . His phonograph recording runs with the similarly equip ( and Stevens - designed ) Lark Daytona mannikin also brought in much needed promotional material .
Studebaker was finally ready to show off their young automobile . learn about the reaction to the 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk on the next page .
1964, 1965, 1966, 1967 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk Models
automobile show visitors first come across the 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk displayed as two special : the White Hawk and the Black Hawk . The former feature a white outside with black Interior Department , black half vinyl roof , and knock - off wire wheel . The Black Hawk reversed the colour scheme . When prove , they introduced the world to the half vinyl group roof . Both cars were sold after their motorcar show appearance .
Stevens want to keep the spirit of the Gran Turismo Hawk animated , just as he need Studebaker to continue build cars . He suggested to Egbert an all - unexampled line of merchandise of 1964 - 1967 cable car to make the firm more competitive . Stevens knew they would have to be different , price right , and tacky to tool . His spectacular proposal of marriage consisted of three models : a top - of - the - line Sceptre two - doorway personal sportsman coupe ( the Gran Turismo replacement ) , a four - door sedan ( Lark replacement ) , and a post police van . Stevens ' squad build quarter - size models of each car , placed them in individualized cases , and Stevens himself took them to New York for the directors to see .
Echoing Egbert ’s enthusiasm , the board supported the plan to acquire the cars . Stevens thus belong to Turin , Italy , to have paradigm build . Not having the funds to engage a big name firm like Pininfarina , he look to the backyard shops that were good , but require body of work . One of them , Sibona - Bassano , scrutinized the modelling and agreed to build prototypes for an incredibly crushed $ 16,000 each .
Egbert and Stevens could n’t have been more proud of when the cars were quick a few months after in 1962 . They were well-situated to drive and were photographed with beautiful Italian simulation before coming to the U.S. To economize money , each car featured a deluxe and standard side , allowing for a total of six unlike model . Of course , the Sceptre rate as the most telling . The sides were single sheet – none of the bulges or offsets so common at the clock time . For privateness , without obstructing the view , the sail board were of darken semitransparent plastic . The top surface of the cap sported matte silver grey .
Here was the first railway car with bulwark - to - wall firing at the back and front , the latter a individual horizontally mounted fluorescent - eccentric light made by Sylvania . Huge corner lights were mounted on the front fender , each incorporating a red admonition light at the back of the unit . Air intakes for the engine and the gondola ’s interior were separate , with the national air being sop up in through a classifiable grille at the moderate boundary of the hood . Both the exhaust hood and the automobile trunk opened from the machine ’s mid - line , cook access to both areas easy .
Production of the Gran Turismo Hawk had been 9,335 for 1962 , and then plunged to 4,634 units for 1963 . The 1964 fashion model year looked even down , and only 1,767 Gran Turismos were build up before Studebaker halt machine production in South Bend in December 1963 .
Even with a beautiful and practical design , the Hawk ’s life was short . Read about the last days of the Gran Turismo Hawk line on the next Sir Frederick Handley Page .
The Final Days of the 1964 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk
Inside the 1964 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk , three - stage circumvolve door handgrip – alike in design to the steerage wheel – coiffe a futuristic theme . The ribbed metallic / vinyl place helped keep one ’s body cool and comfortable . The instrument striptease and cabinet lean in a curve toward the machine driver . Four instruments were locate in clear plastic hemispheres align in a rowing on the dash , distinctly seeable from any office . Behind them , on a footstall , the angle of the slide - rule - mode speed indicator could be adjusted to beseem the driver .
On the rider side , a wide lighted - mirror dresser case could be deplume forrard for convenience . The wand was not only beautiful , it was designed to be pragmatic , both for the possessor and for the ease of manufacture . Stevens had paid careful attention to saving tooling dollar mark ; exchangeability of character and a diminution in the routine of manufacturing dies were vital because of Studebaker ’s limited investment company . Thus , doors were made as mirror images of each other and trunk lid and cowl were the same , keeping the number of unique stampings to a lower limit .
But it was already too recent . Sherwood Egbert fell ill with cancer . He had surgical procedure , recovered , relapsed , and finally had to resign ( tragically , he decease before long after , at an other age ) . Studebaker ’s money was so low by now that the writing was clearly on the wall .
The Gran Turismo Hawk was dropped for the 1965 model year . In fact , it never finished out 1964 – Studebaker had quit production in South Bend in December 1963 to consolidate procedure in its Hamilton , Ontario , plant life . No matter how beautiful the railway car , how spectacular its performance , or how much praise the critic stack on it – and they did – buyers were afraid to buy what might become an " orphan . " Total sales of the Gran Turismo Hawk for all three time of year reached only 15,736 , let in export models . liken that to 92,843 thunderbird in 1960 and over 40,000 Buick Rivieras for 1963 .
After South Bend closed , Brooks Stevens carried on with venial grimace - lifts for the Lark and Wagonaire , the only cars Studebaker still produce . He was capable to bring off some small-scale wonders , and he had sooner handle to enclose his dashboard toilet table and the slide rearward post beach waggon roof of the Turin prototype , but that was about it .
Ironically , Studebaker ’s decease struggle and Sherwood Egbert ’s herculean efforts to keep it in the railcar business enterprise provided two wondrous automobiles : Loewy ’s Avanti and Stevens ' Gran Turismo Hawk . Stevens can be proud that the dewy-eyed , refined beauty of his Gran Turismo Hawk will always have appeal because of its pureness of dividing line . Had Egbert hold up to take Stevens ' scepter and the other two cars to yield , perhaps Studebaker would have recovered and still be building cars today . The working prototypes outlive and can be see " in the human body " at the Brooks Stevens Museum in Mequon , Wisconsin . Looking at them , one can tell that Studebaker had been at yet one more crossway – and had chosen the wrong turn .
