19th Nov 2004, 12:09

As a teenage kid, I owned a 1955 Studebaker, President 2 door hardtop coupe back in the mid 60's. (it was a used car) Although it had the 259 cu. in. V-8, with 4 bbl. carb., auto trans, it would rip up the road like crazy. I took on many '55-'57 Chevy's with 283 V-8's, and spanked them good.

This car was a beast disguised with massive amounts of chrome and stainless steel trim, on a two toned blue exterior with an all white vinyl interior. It had stainless steel wire wheel covers as well. An expensive option at that time! After I made the final payment on it, a month later I was drag racing a 67 Ford Fairlane 500 GT, and lost control of it on a slippery road. I clipped a telephone pole at over a 100 mph, cracking it in half. The car kept on going, screaming in agony as it went down a ravine and finally stopped after taking down a big pine tree. I went through the windshield, landing on the hood. I spent weeks in the hospital. That Studebaker was dead...

My Dad at the same time, had a '59 Hawk with a gigantic Packard V-8 loaded into the engine bay (he bought it new). This thing had a Paxton supercharger on it too. It all fed though a manual transmission and a posi-rear end. That Hawk breathed free through a set of JC WHITNEY headers bolted to a pair of great rumbling dual exhausts. The space under the hood was so tight, that there was literally no room to squeeze your hands or fingers into it. And so, my dad had a shop make special cut-outs in the inner fender panels to access the spark plugs. This car could literally twist its speedo cable right in half.

It would also burn rubber in 4th gear.

This car was a 2 door hardtop coupe in all black, with black and white interior. It was a legend in its own day. I begged my father to please let me drive it.. The answer was always the same; NO!

My mother hated that Studebaker because it was way too radical for her. So my Dad bought her a 1960 Opel Rekord sedan. She was happy, I was not. WHY? Because I was allowed to drive that thing, but not the Hawk.

Finally in the late 60's, the Hawk blew its head gaskets. Dad sold it to a mechanic at a local garage. That guy repaired it, and promptly within days of the repair, totaled it out, killing himself along with the Hawk.

A family friend of my parents had a 57 Silver Hawk, 2 door coupe. He was a car nut and hot rodder. My dad said that he beefed up the V-8 engine in it so that he could race it at the drag-strip. One early morning hour on the way to work, he drove it straight as an arrow, without hitting his brakes, at full bore into a concrete abutment. The car exploded into flames and he was incinerated to unidentifiable remains. The cops think the car had a leaky exhaust system and that he basically passed out at the wheel. He left behind a wife and three kids.

Some final notes: My dads Studebaker Hawk came equipped from the factory with all the aforementioned options. The only thing my father did was to put on the headers. He also had it pinstriped. He bought mag wheels for it during the last years he had it. It seems odd that the only cars that received any press or made great exaggerated claims was the other big 3 automakers. Too many people scoffed and blew off Studebaker as an over priced and behind the times car. Yet the Golden Hawks, Hawk GT's and in the end, the Avanti, are some of the most prized collector cars on the market. Consider this too; Mercedes Benz shared dealer space with Studebaker by a mutual contract agreement. It was really something to go into a Studebaker showroom and see a M-B Gull-Wing coupe sitting next to a new Hawk.I don't believe M-B would have done this if they thought that Studebakers were crap. I'll never forget the day we all went to see the new Avanti. Dad loaded us into a White R-2 along with the salesman. I will never forget the sound that it made. Mom and Dad seriously talked about buying one for weeks. Finally they decided Dad should buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle to satisfy his need for speed. I was very disappointed with their decision.

We were a Studebaker family from 1951 to 1968.

From that time on, our family never had another Studebaker in the garage. Boy, do I miss those great cars.