CarBrandLogos archive · Studebaker · 1956

StudebakerGolden Hawk

A Packard V8 in a Loewy coupe body, and later a supercharger instead.

Photo: Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA · CC BY 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in Studebaker history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Studebaker Golden Hawk, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The Hawk range of 1956 was Studebaker's attempt to get more years out of the low, elegant coupe body Raymond Loewy's team had drawn for 1953, by adding fins, an upright grille and a range of engines. The Golden Hawk was the top of it: a two-door hardtop with the largest engine the company could reach.

1958 Studebaker Golden Hawk coupe · sv1ambo · CC BY 2.0

Design and engineering

That engine came from Packard, which Studebaker had merged with in 1954, a 352 cubic inch V8 that made the car genuinely fast in a straight line and gave it a nose-heavy balance that road testers noticed immediately. For 1957 the Packard engine went away with the rest of Packard, and Studebaker fitted its own 289 V8 with a McCulloch supercharger, which produced comparable power with considerably less weight over the front axle and made it the better car.

1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk · Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA · CC BY 2.0

In production

Production of the Golden Hawk ended after 1958. The body soldiered on into the Gran Turismo Hawk of 1962, restyled by Brooks Stevens on almost no budget, which is one of the more impressive pieces of automotive economising on record.

1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk · Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA · CC BY 2.0

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Body

2-door hardtop

Technical specification

The Golden Hawk, in detail.

Body style: 2-door hardtop
Layout: FR layout
Assembly: Studebaker Automotive Plant, South Bend, Indiana, United States; Studebaker Canada, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Manufacturer: Studebaker

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