GT Hawk Development

[Studedude]

I have never heard of this before, or seen these pictures. Interesting, but why would Studebaker have to buy a used '61 from a used car lot to use in development?

From a Studebaker Addicts (International) Facebook post:

"From the Brooks Stevens Archives at the Milwaukee Art Museum - To speed up development, GT Hawk styling ideas were mocked up on a used 1961 Hawk bought from a local used car lot. Using cardboard and tin foil the styling changes for the 1962 models begin to come to life."

[PackardV8]

Interesting.

We'd have to have the s/n to confirm, but the car pictured it appears the Hawk already has some owner modifications of beltline trim, rear fins removed, a custom rear fender top trim, '55 tailights and window area two twotone.

jack vines

[Bills R2]

What I would give to hit that used car lot! This week's paycheck would go a loong way.

[r1lark]

The GT Hawk restyle was designed by Brooks Stevens in Milwaukee. It was probably quicker to pick up a used car locally than to talk Studebaker into shipping them one.

EDIT: and, as brngarage points out below, the first pic is a pillared coupe, and the rest of the pics show a hardtop. Studebaker could not have provided a new K-body for Brooks to use to mock up the GT Hawk, since the K-body was not in production at that time. So getting a used one locally was probably the only option.

Richard Langworth's book 'Studebaker The Postwar Years' contained some of these photos, so it's not like these are a "new find".

[brngarage]

The car show at the beginning (supposedly a '61) looks more like a '56 Flight or Power Hawk to me. Also, it is a coupe and the car subsequently shown is a hardtop.

[8E45E]

More here: http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...Hawk-Prototype

Craig