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I was walking in the one of San Francisco’s biggest tourist areas, Fisherman’s Wharf, and spotted this sleek 1957 Golden Hawk. To me, it still looks like more modern design than most of the other cars of its time. After all, this car is 53 years old. From what I have read, it was not very well engineered and had a very heavy front end that hindered its handling and kept sales figures down. Too bad for Studebaker that went out of business a few years after the Golden Hawk was discontinued.
Just look at the front of this car, very neatly done for a ’57.
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Here’s a little history on the Golden Hawk.
From 1956 to 1958, Studebaker’s top-model was the Golden Hawk, which was available only with the Paxton supercharged 289 cubic-inch overhead valve V8 that offered 275 horsepower at 4800 RPM. There was a Flight-O-Matic automatic transmission and four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes. The hardtop versions of the Golden Hawk, Sky Hawk, and Flight Hawk were based on the original 1953 Starliner body.
The five-passenger Gold Hawk was Studebaker’s sports car putting it in competition with Chevrolet’s Corvette and Ford’s Thunderbird.
© Fred Winograd copyright 2010
