You know the saying about how a wounded animal is still dangerous? I’m sure you do, especially those of you with wounded hyenas in your kitchens that you’ve been avoiding for days. I was thinking about this in the context of dying carmakers, specifically Packard. In its death throes, during its final year of existence, Packard’s last punch thrown was kind of a fascinating car, and the fastest Packard ever built.
Of course, it was also a badge-engineered Studebaker, but you can’t really blame Packard for that. They were dying!
The car is the Packard Hawk, and it’s not a car I’ve thought about very often. Only 588 of these were made, so it’s unlikely to be something you’d encounter by chance, which is a shame, because these are really striking machines with so much presence and gravity they feel like a neutron star, just with more chrome.
“The Most Original Car On The American Road” is a little ironic considering this was a badge-engineered car, and, inherently not-so-original.
Let’s just take a moment to recap Packard’s situation as of 1958. Boned, I think was what the Pope (at that time, Pope John XXIII) had to say about it. The once-great company (remember, Packard was the top-selling luxury carmaker between 1924 and 1930) bought out Studebaker in 1954, creating the Studebaker-Packard Corporation, which proved to be something of a disaster, because Studebaker was in about as good financial shape as a chronic gambler with two suspended credit cards, and had massive overhead and needed to sell an absurd number of cars – often said to be 250,000 – just to break even.
That said, Studebaker did have some interesting and reasonably up-to-date platforms to work with, including their sporty car – maybe “personal luxury car” – the Hawk.
The Hawk evolved from the Raymond Lowey Studios-designed Starliner/Starlight coupés and hardtop coupés, a design led by Bob Bourke. These were some of the sleekest, most elegant cars of the 1950s, at least according to sources like, um, myself. As the 50s went on, the prevailing jet-age-baroque styling of the era soon dripped onto these cars, and they sprouted upright grilles and tailfins and became the Studebaker Hawk, which led to Silver Hawks and Golden Hawks, fancier, more ongepotchket versions.
Okay, but let’s get back to Packard. In 1958, they really didn’t have any platforms of their own anymore, and everything they made was an up-market, re-badged Studebaker. They decided they wanted something sporty to compete with the Ford Thunderbird, and they had that, in the form of the Studebaker Hawk.
They took the Golden Hawk and added all of the luxury stuff that had been previously dropped, including lots and lots of leather, including special leather-upholstered armrests on the outside of the windows, making a comfortable place to rest your arm on the upper part of the door.
I mean, if you have to get a trucker’s tan, that’s the way to do it.
The bigger news was under the hood, as the Packard Hawk had Sudebaker’s 289 cubic-inch V8 with a McCulluch (later Paxton) supercharger, making a very impressive 275 horsepower. This made the Packard Hawk the fastest four-seat car you could buy in America at that time, keeping up with Thunderbirds and even Corvettes of the era.
Speaking of Corvettes, the Packard Hawk also featured some fiberglass bodywork like the ‘Vette, specifically the low, tapered nose with its wide, full-width grille:
This was the focus of a lot of derision back in the day, with people comparing it, unfavorably, to a fish. I actually think its fishmouth feels like Ferraris and other Italian sports cars of the era. I like it.
Overall, the look of the Packard Hawk is all late-’50s excess, but in a way that I actually like. The textured gold inlay panel on the rear fin, the hood scoop, the front indicators in their own silly little pods, the pointed chrome warhead/Dagmar bumper guards, the exterior upholstery, it’s all so good. Plus, it has what looks like crotch-cooler vents on the front quarter panel there.
There are a lot worse ways Packard could have gone out, and, sure, this one is definitely a product of badge engineering, but when it comes to reworking another car, you can’t get much better than this.
Top graphic image: Studebaker-Packard
This appears to have been designed by three people who never met and communicated exclusively by mail.
…in a language that none of them was fluent in.
In response to the earlier post, named after a bird, looks like a catfish.
Thanks for the vocabulary lesson. “Ongepotchket” is just the word I was searching for to describe the White House remodel. Or maybe in that case it’s “orangepotchket”
Sorry, that wasn’t Kosher, this piggy can show themselves out….
No other car of such fundamentally magnificent design has had to endure as many different “improvements” as the Studebaker Starliner.
Sure, nothing says “original” like “we slapped our name on an existing car.”
Also what the hell is this supposed to mean (in the green brochure page):
“From the Home of the Golden Hawks…Studebaker Golden Hawk”
Like…duh?
Sterling Cooper wasn’t their marketing firm of choice.
Nothing could ever make me dislike a Studebaker Hawk, but this waa a pretty sad end for the Packard name. Sure, they were doing their best with what they had, but it would be like BMW announcing tomorrow that all future Rolls-Royces would be MINI Countrymen with big grilles and hood ornaments
It’s been done:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/410023420120695/posts/1350613249395036/
https://mikeshouts.com/one-of-a-kind-mini-rolls-royce-in-hong-kong/#google_vignette
When I was a kid in the late 70’s there was an exhibit of vintage Studebaker Hawks of all variants at our local mall – including the Packardbakers.
Being that my Mom’s first job was as in the Studebaker secretarial pool in South Bend , we attended.
Oh my the glitz and ersatz glamour – all tacked on with evident glee and a complete lack of restraint or taste – and still showing the add-on extension panel lines.
And yeah – it looks like a fish.