Postwar, Studebaker had a habit of being a year ahead of the Big Three; despite the company’s small-fry independent status, it was consistently able to create cars that beat the Detroit makes to the punch. Consider: Studebaker was the first to offer an all-new postwar car, starting in 1947. Its ’59 Lark beat Corvair, Valiant, Falcon, et al. to the compact-car onslaught by an entire model year, and Studebaker offered V-8 power in compacts years before the other guys.
And so, while the ’58 Ford Thunderbird and its four-seat format are generally credited with starting the personal luxury car movement, we suggest that Studebaker got there first, with the Golden Hawk. After the success of the 1955 Speedster (a high-zoot coupe featuring ample standard equipment, specific trim, multi-color paint schemes, and more), the South Bend builder needed a range-topper for its facelifted, newly named ’56 Hawk line. Golden Hawk was the result. For Studebaker, builder of automobiles that could be considered solid and stolid in equal measure, breaking out with a flashy GT was an eye-opening move. Pulling it off on Studebaker’s skinflint budget was perhaps the biggest surprise of all.
Golden Hawk used the same hardtop shell and window frame less doors as the previous Starliner. The styling shifted dramatically from 1956 to 1957; only minor evolutionary
