1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk Hardtop

The Studebaker Gold Hawk was a performance-themed version of their standard Hawk Coupe, a personal luxury high-performance GT car. The styling was essentially an evolution of the earlier Raymond Loewy-designed cars from 1953, the Studebaker Starlight and Starliner. The Golden Hawk was introduced in 1956 and powered by Packards 352 cubic-inch V8 engine offering 275 horsepower. Zero-to-sixty took just 7.8 seconds with a top speed of 125 mph.

After Packard's Michigan-based engine plant was leased as part of the winding down of that company's operations, power switched to Studebaker's 289 cubic-inch V8 for the 1957 model year. With the help of a McCulloch supercharger, power rose to 275 horsepower.

This particular Studebaker's Golden Hawk was completed on March 5th, 1957. It was sent to Berkeley, California, and was one of only 4,356 Golden Hawks produced that year. Power was from a 289 cubic-inch high-performance Studebaker V8 with the VS 57 Variable Speed McCulloch supercharger. The car was also factory equipped with the rare factory three-speed manual transmission with overdrive, as well as a Twin-Traction posi-traction rear end. The car is finished in P 5710 Midnight Black, which is original to the car.

Currently, the car has approximately 59,000 miles on the odometer. Recently, the car was given a high-quality rotisserie restoration executed over a two-year period. The car has two-tone paint, gold tailfins, and full-wheel covers riding on whitewall tires.

By Daniel Vaughan | Jan 2014