Museum Quality
Readers of this magazine don’t need to be told that all classic American cars are quite spectacular in their own way. There are certain individual cars, though, which stand out from the crowd, even on a show field. Brian Wrigley’s 1960 Studebaker Hawk is one such car. The colour, of course, is conspicuous – the autumn gold suggests prosperity, and is a perfect complement for any vista illuminated softly by a low evening sun. However, the same colour on a Cadillac or Buick could be considered vulgar. The Studebaker, which exhibits Raymond Loewy’s European-influenced design ethos, is minimalist and dainty by American standards of the Fifties, and it translates into something resembling genuine good taste. Here is a car that would look equally at home cruising along the Italian Riviera as undertaking a shopping trip in American suburbia.
The Hawk line was introduced in 1956 and was
