What if Studebaker had survived?

Old car marques don’t die and fade away, it seems.  Instead they just keep showing up at vintage car shows.  Be it Packard or Hudson, Oldsmobile or DeSoto, enthusiasts who own examples of discontinued nameplates receive great delight in keeping them looking new and sharing them with an appreciative audience.  I’m a member of that audience.

For some reason, I’m keen on many of the vehicles built by the South Bend-based Studebaker Corporation.  I’ve often wondered, if the 112 - year old firm had stayed in the car business what some of their models would look like today.

Their models in the 50s and 60s certainly garnered my attention as a teenager.  I recall in high school being enthusiastic about the company’s exciting line up of Hawks when they were introduced for 1956 and the new compact, the Lark, when it was introduced in the fall of 1959.

If you scanned the list of vehicles that I‘ve owned over my lifetime, it becomes apparent that I’ve always had a place in my heart for cars from American independent automakers like Studebaker and American Motors (AMC).

I’ve always have rooted for the underdogs; it’s why I bought a 1960 Rambler, a 1966 Corvair (when the Nader “Unsafe” book came out) and a 1973 AMC Sportabout in my early car buying days and I more recently opted for the nifty 1995 and 2001 Neons from Dodge and even the 2013 Buick Verano that now resides in my garage.

When I was really young, in the late 40s and early 50s, Studebaker products didn’t register with me.  Too bad, because the company introduced some amazing vehicles and were doing quite well with good sales. 

Studebaker was one of the first out of the gate after WWII with an all-new car.  Their famous “Which way is it going?” coupes were a sensation and the whole car line sold very well.  Do readers recall the bright green 1950 Studebaker owned by Sam Monte that has appeared several times in the Lake Bluff Concours? 

Then the Indiana automaker amazed car buyers again when they introduced the stunning 1953 Coupe with its dramatic Euro-influenced long hood/short deck styling.  Clean of geegaw trim and low to the ground, many place the ’53 Studebaker on their all-time great car list. 

I don’t recall the commotion of the introduction of the ’53 Studebaker but the car did impress me three years later when I had become a young auto industry follower.  Studebaker designers took the then-four-year old coupe design and with a new hood here and some performance parts there created four exciting sports cars called the Hawk.

Can older readers recall their names?  They had such a great impression on me I can still recite Power Hawk, Flight Hawk, Sky Hawk and Golden Hawk.

In some ways, the 1956 Studebaker Hawks were a predictor of what became known as the Pony Car auto segment later.  The Hawks were smaller sized coupes with long hood/short deck styling like the initial pony car, the Mustang.

Because they had the body styles and engines to do so, the planners could create a Hawk with optimal equipment and style like the Golden Hawk with hardtop coupe styling and Packard’s potent 352 cu. in., 275 h.p. V-8 and an economy, sporty model like the cheapest offering, the 6-cylinder-powered Power Hawk post coupe.   The Sky and Flight Hawk gave buyers the option of a post coupe with a 289 cu. in . Studebaker V-8 on the former and a hardtop coupe with a six on the latter.

If Studebaker built cars today, I bet the Hawk would still appeal to the sporty car buyers and be in a race for sales with GM’s Camaro, Ford’s Mustang and FCA’s Challenger plus all the imported sporty cars. 

Designer/Frenchman Raymond Loewy, given credit for the 1953 Coupe in which the original Hawk was based, isn’t with us today but something tells me that a 2017 Hawk would show retro touches reflecting Loewy’s distinct clean style just like today’s Mustang/Camaro/Challenger offerings have strong family resemblances to these car’s first generation model.

One other Studebaker car holds a special place in my heart.  I was in college when the fiberglass Avanti sports car was rushed to market in 1962.  Again, Studebaker turned to Loewy for his design skills in creating a competitor for Chevy’s Corvette.  The Avanti experienced unfortunate production setbacks that delayed deliveries.  It didn’t sell well but remains today one of Studebaker’s most desirable collectibles from the 50s and 60s era.

I would love to see what a 21st century Avanti would look like.  It surely would have the sexy stance with the dipped front end and raised rear end – an Avanti trademark.  The Avanti was an innovator with unexpected features when introduced in 1962 like a built-in roll bar, disc brakes and aircraft-style dash controls. I’d guess a new Avanti would be equally advanced, after all Avanti means “move forward” in Italian.  Wouldn’t it be great if Corvette had a worthy competitor today!

Studebaker beat the Big Three to market with a compact car by one year.  Its 1959 Lark was unique in that it was introduced with options not expected in the entry-level field.  The perky Larks, still based on the 1953 Studebaker coupe and sedan platform, were a little long in the tooth but were contemporary looking and came in two levels of trim.  The compact car could be had in several models including a 2-door hardtop and owners had the option of ordering either a six or a V-8 engine.

Briefly the Lark was a sales success, but the combination of intense competition and the inability to replace it with something new a few years later doomed it.  The demise of Studebaker as an automaker followed in 1966. 

Perhaps if designer Brooks Stevens’ Sceptre concept models (we had the 2-door Sceptre styling study at this year’s Lake Bluff Concours) Studebaker could have slowed its rapid sales decline in the mid-60s and would have survived to thrill us today with interesting offerings.

Studebaker got its start by being a “truck” producer, sort of.  Its Conestoga wagons, introduced in 1852, enabled westward-bound pioneers to safely traverse the challenging Great Plains and settle at points west of the Mississippi in the 19th century. 

With a history like that, it stands to reason that Studebaker Corporation strength today would be trucks.  I always admired how Studebaker, with very little development funds, created interesting models.  

A good example being the compact Lark-based Champ pick-up – a model that still appeals to me today.  A Champ-sized pickup would a perfect offering in a truck-crazed market and would probably find buyers wanting the utility of a pick up but don’t want to drive a rig that is aircraft carrier size and gets lousy gas mileage. 

Another model that showed creative thinking was the station wagon-based Wagonaire. The utility of its sliding roof at the rear should have made the clever vehicle a big success.  In some ways, it was America’s first sport utility vehicle or SUV.

Having Studebaker with us is wishful thinking.  A great automaker lost its way and I still grieve a little over the loss.

Would this beautiful Studebaker concept car from the sixties, if put into production, have saved the Indiana automaker and we'd have Hawks, Avantis, Wagonaires and Champs in our driveways today?  Perhaps not, but designer Brooks Stevens Sceptre hardtop sure is a beautiful automobile and it is a shame it never reached production for the 1966 or 1967 model year.  The Sceptre is now part of the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend.  (Red car in background is the ahead-of-its-time 1950 Studebaker "which way is it going" Starlight coupe)

 

 

Independent automaker Studebaker was struggling in the early 60s with little funds for research and development, but the company's clever engineers and designers managed to create a number of remarkable and inventive vehicles. An excellent example being the versatile Wagonaire utility wagon, based on the Lark/Daytona station wagon.  The rear of the roof slides forward to enable the owner to transport a potted tree or a photographer to set up his tripod on an elevated platform.  It was ingenious, but never a big seller.  The company stopped auto production in 1966.