"My Car Story" 1963 Motor Trend cover car @ 2017 MCACN

[BobPalma]

The producer of "My Car Story," Lou Costabile, caught up with Steve Doerschlag during set-up for the 2017 Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals November 18 & 19 in Rosemont IL. Lou was fascinated with the story of Steve's 1963 Gran Turismo Hawk, the 1963 Chicago Auto Show Hawk and June 1963 Motor Trend cover car.

Steve's car was to be exhibited in the large entry hall foyer as a teaser for the show, among several other muscle cars...but no other Studebakers.

Lou shot this video and interview during show set-up, so there's a little too much background noise in places, making it difficult to hear their conversation, but he was certainly respectful of the car and Steve. Remember, Steve's car is an early-production car, so it doesn't necessarily have all the R-engine details that would be on a later car. But it does retain its original, production-line R2 engine and 4-speed.

Further, the car was indeed built without a Climatizer, but someone had installed one before Steve got the car about 15 years ago. He could not locate the correct blank-off plates for a "heater delete" car, so he elected to go ahead and restore it as found.

Steve fires it up for Lou late in the video and the sound is really great. The video will likely be seen wherever "My Car Story" is aired, but here it is for "us" ahead of time. Enjoy!

(And thanks, Steve, for your dedication to this important piece of late Studebaker history.) BP

https://youtu.be/2_CIg6RthvY

[DEEPNHOCK]

Fantastic !
Thanks for sharing this 'behind the scenes' teaser to a future show.
Studebakers finally getting some respect!

[Devan]

Great car, great story; Thanks for sharing.

[63 R2 Hawk]

Thanks for sharing the link! Beautiful car, I've always been a fan of the '63 GT. I'm curious about a couple of things. It was mentioned that the fender spear light was for turn signals! Mine has always been wired to come on with the headlights and appears to be originally that way, which is correct? I also noticed Steve's car does not have the red line tach, I thought all R cars had that due to the dual points distributor requiring the "Avanti" style tach/sender? I understand it's an early R2, hence the 120 speedo, '62 dash and no badges, but I thought all R cars had dual points.

[BobPalma]

Thanks for sharing the link! Beautiful car, I've always been a fan of the '63 GT. I'm curious about a couple of things. It was mentioned that the fender spear light was for turn signals! Mine has always been wired to come on with the headlights and appears to be originally that way, which is correct? I also noticed Steve's car does not have the red line tach, I thought all R cars had that due to the dual points distributor requiring the "Avanti" style tach/sender? I understand it's an early R2, hence the 120 speedo, '62 dash and no badges, but I thought all R cars had dual points.

Hi, Ed; 'glad you enjoyed the video. Yes, as with all such things, there are a few detail discrepancies.

You're right; the fender spear lights are not for turn signals but, rather, parking lights. Steve Doerschlag has a number of non-Studebaker collector cars, so he must have confused those lights with similar lights on a MoPar. (My 1971 Barracuda convertible has those fender-mounted turn signal indicators, as Steve suggests. Steve has also had some e-body MoPars...and maybe still does...so that's where he probably got that idea.)

Yes, all R-engine cars had dual point distributors, but I had not heard of the necessity of the Avanti-style sender and red line tach to accommodate them. AFAIK, that tach is the car's original equipment; 'never heard it mentioned any other way. Note the car's low serial number which, as you know, would have pre-dated a lot of later equipment. BP

[rkapteyn]

Does this car have the 1962 firewall that Studebaker used in the early 1963 Hawks?
I guess they wanted to use up the left over stampings.
The defroster hole was blanked off on those.
I have one of those bodies and a complete R2 engine with original R2 carb and N.O.S. air cleaner and a full dash with 160 speedo and red line tac plus automatic from a 1963 Hawk for sale if some wants to build a clone of this car.
Robert Kapteyn
studebaker@mac.com

[BobPalma]

Does this car have the 1962 firewall that Studebaker used in the early 1963 Hawks?
I guess they wanted to use up the left over stampings.
The defroster hole was blanked off on those. Robert Kapteyn

I dunno, Bob. There are some close-ups of the firewall in Lou's video, so take a look and tell us what you think. BP

[R3 challenger]

Great job of restoration, Steve. Beautiful car, and being the Chicago Auto Show Hawk makes it pretty special. I was the friend Steve referred to who helped him determine that this was the Motor Trend cover car and Chicago Auto Show Hawk. It was a fun, rewarding research project; 'glad I was able to help.

George

[BobPalma]

Great job of restoration, Steve. Beautiful car, and being the Chicago Auto Show Hawk makes it pretty special. I was the friend Steve referred to who helped him determine that this was the Motor Trend cover car and Chicago Auto Show Hawk. It was a fun, rewarding research project; 'glad I was able to help. George

George: If you listen very closely at 2:26 in the video, Steve acknowledges you as having determined it was "that" car.

There's a lot of noise in the background at that point and the microphone is pointed the wrong direction to hear Steve with clarity, but he does reference "a friend of mine; George Krem." BP

[Commander Eddie]

Awsome! A great story and great coverage. Lou seemed genuinely impressed by the car, as was I.

[Buzzard]

Thanks for the wonderful post, Bob. Now I'm all enthused about getting my '63 back on the road, perhaps this next year, with Jack & Jeff's magic on a 308 CID. Seeing as my car is all original black, I guess I won't have to paint the roof panel!

Also my spear lights were never turn, but rather park only.
Great exposure, thanks again.
Cheers, Bill

[R3 challenger]

George: If you listen very closely at 2:26 in the video, Steve acknowledges you as having determined it was "that" car.

There's a lot of noise in the background at that point and the microphone is pointed the wrong direction to hear Steve with clarity, but he does reference "a friend of mine; George Krem." BP

You're right, Bob; thanks.

A mutual friend of ours painted this car. if you study the paint job closely, you'll find it's one of the finest in the country. Howard Steinfath's paint jobs have won top awards many times; this R2 Hawk certainly shows it. (He also did a beautiful job on my Golden Hawk.) Howard is a real artist when it comes to body work and painting.

George

[PeterHawk]

I had the pleasure of judging this GT Hawk in South Bend. When doing so I noted the tail light housings were painted like the '64 GT Hawk and the chevrons on the doors were more like the '64 GT Hawks. When I questioned Steve about this he referred me to the Chicago picture. I wish he would have the production order to authenticate the car as the "Chicago" GT Hawk with those deviations from the stock '63 GT Hawks. That should be part of the display documentation.

[BobPalma]

I had the pleasure of judging this GT Hawk in South Bend. When doing so I noted the tail light housings were painted like the '64 GT Hawk and the chevrons on the doors were more like the '64 GT Hawks. When I questioned Steve about this he referred me to the Chicago picture. I wish he would have the production order to authenticate the car as the "Chicago" GT Hawk with those deviations from the stock '63 GT Hawks. That should be part of the display documentation.

That would have been easy, too, Peter.

I'm assuming you judged the car at the 2017 SDC International Meet this past May, 2017? If so, Steve could have had a copy of the April 2014 Turning Wheels. That car was the cover car and had my feature article about the car being found and its restoration. Included in that article is the detailed Shippers Copy of the Production Order.

However, even the Shippers Copy of the Production Order could not authenticate the custom touches applied to the car after it was shipped, like the wire wheels and the painted half roof. That is where the period photos would have to be accepted as proof of the car being restored to "As displayed by Studebaker at The Chicago Auto Show" status. BP

[StudeRich]

Does this car have the 1962 firewall that Studebaker used in the early 1963 Hawks?
I guess they wanted to use up the left over stampings.
The defroster hole was blanked off on those.
I have one of those bodies and a complete R2 engine with original R2 carb and N.O.S. air cleaner and a full dash with 160 speedo and red line tac plus automatic from a 1963 Hawk for sale if some wants to build a clone of this car.
Robert Kapteyn
studebaker@mac.com

No Robert, this Car is Late enough to have a real '63 Firewall, even though it IS Early enough to have a Silver Dash and Flush Turn Signal, Housings, Lenses, Side Grilles and Side Grill Housings, a WHOLE Lot of '63 GT's were what call "Early" because of that, not just a few VERY early ones like your's.

I have seen a few VERY early '63 GT's like your's with leftover '62, blanked out Defroster Holes, we had one here.