Studebaker's 1956 Four Hawk Varieties

Studebaker's 1953 Starliner hardtop coupe is regarded by me and many others as a classic car design.  It was facelifted slightly for 1954, and then more drastically (and unfortunately) for 1955.  I wrote about that here.

During that period, the design was in the form of a coupe with a fixed B-pillar as well as the pillarless hardtop.  For 1953-1954 the basic coupe was named "Starlight" (a carryover name from 1947-52), and as mentioned, the hardtop was "Starliner" (carryover from the 1952 hardtop).  The 1955 facelift led to the respective renaming of "Regal" for those coupe types, along with some sedans.

Model year 1956 saw an even more drastic facelift and re-naming.  Here, consideration was given to Studebaker's primary models -- the six-cylinder engine Champion and eight-cylinder Commander.  Champion coupes became Flight Hawks, Commander V-8 coupes were Power Hawks.  Hardtops were the Sky Hawk (in Studebaker's top-level President line) with a Studebaker V-8 motor, and the Golden Hawk with a larger, more powerful Packard V-8 engine.  These four are this post's featured cars.

For more background, I wrote about early Studebaker Hawk verions here, and some Wikipedia information is here.

Gallery

1956 Studebaker Flight Hawk - car-for-sale photo
The newly named Hawk line differed from 1955 coupes, having a new grille-hood combination and a revised trunk lid.  Not all Flight Hawks had one-tone paint jobs like this one.

1956 Studebaker Power Hawk - BaT Auctions photo
Power Hawk coupes had the same exterior appearance as Flight Hawks.  The important difference was its V-8 motor of 170-185 horsepower compared to the Flight Hawk's 101-horsepower inline six.

1956 Studebaker Sky Hawk - Studebaker photo
A Sky Hawk hardtop coupe seen at Studebaker's proving ground a short way west of South Bend, Indiana.

1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk - car-for sale photo
The line-topping Golden Hawk.  Its Packard engine had 275 horsepower compared to the 210-225 HP motors in Sky Hawks.  Goldens listed at $3,061 versus Sky Hawk's $2,477.

1956 Studebaker Flight Hawk - Mecum Auctions photo
Side views.  Besides the presence or absence of B-pillars, the main differences are in the side chrome trim and paint patterns.

1956 Studebaker Power Hawk - BaT
Again, no bodywork differences from Flight Hawks.

1956 Studebaker Sky Hawk - Mecum
The forward chrome trim is the same as seen in the previous two images.  Then there is that curious checkmark.  Its longer stem aligns with the after edge of the C-pillar, which is a professional touch.  My problem here is the checkmark itself.  A simple upkick linking the two horizontal strips / paint dividers would have been a cleaner, more sensible solution.

1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk - car-for sale photo
Here the primary chrome strip continues after its checkmark interruption.  And there's another strip aligned with the lower cutline of the door.

1956 Studebaker Flight Hawk - unknown photo source
As mentioned, trunk lids were restyled for 1956.

1956 Studebaker Power Hawk - BaT

1956 Studebaker Sky Hawk - BaT
Same rear styling as on Flight and Power Hawks.

1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk - car-for sale photo
Golden Hawks received small tail fins.  This is interesting, because Chrysler Corporation, famed for 1950s fins also modestly moved in that direction for model year 1956.  Note that two-toning extends to the aft panel the trunk lid.  The upper chrome frame of the backlight window is wider than found on the other Hawks.

1962 Plymouth Walkaround and Overheads

Chrysler Corporation's newly redesigned 1962 standard-size Plymouth was a sales disappointment, as were Dodges sharing the same body platform.

That said, the design is of interest from a styling standpoint because it was the final mass-production design created under the leadership of famed stylist Virgil Exner who was replaced as Chrysler's styling vice-president by Elwood Engel in 1961.  This Wikipedia link (as of January 2025) states:

"Unfortunately, a rumor that GM was reducing the size of their cars caused the president of Chrysler, Lester Lum ("Tex") Colbert, to order Exner to do the same to his 1962 design–a change Exner disagreed with, thinking it would make his cars 'ugly'.  Exner with his associates had completed work on the second full-sized finless Plymouth since 1955, this one for 1962, described as a strikingly attractive automobile.  While he was still recovering from the heart attack, the 1962 models Exner took credit for were downsized by associates.  This downsizing drastically changed the cars' appearance.  This reduced the cars' appeal and caused a significant drop in sales.  It turned out that the Chevrolet rumor was false and consumers disliked the smaller Plymouth and Dodge cars introduced for 1962, the styling of which was bizarre compared to more sedate Ford and GM products."

Those original designs are:

As was fairly standard styling procedure, design proposals featured different themes on each side.  For example, the belt line hump seen in the upper photo was carried over in altered detail on production Plymouths.  The raised sculpting theme on the front and rear fender areas was also found on production cars.  Ditto the grille mesh concept.  So the design theme that went into production was Exner's, and the execution and detailing were simply modifications of the theme shown here.

Another design theme precursor to the 1962 Plymouth was the 1960 Valiant (soon renamed Plymouth Valiant), one of America's first-generation "compact" cars.  Some of its features are seen in the images above.  Valiant photos lead the Gallery images.  All photos there are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

1960 Valiant
Those projecting sculpted elements on the fenders are part of the theme seen above and on the '62 Plymouth photos below.

1960 Valiant
Note the the horizontal creases of those element, front and rear, are aligned -- a professional styling touch to enhance visual integration.  They do not align in the styling models shown above.

1962 Plymouth Savoy
Savoy was the entry-level standard-size Plymouth model.  It's shown here because it has fewer chrome decorations than more upscale Plymouths.  The grille is interesting because it looks like a concave version of an electric shaver head.

That concavity is better seen here.

The creases on the front and rear sculpted elements align here, as on the '60 Valiant above.

The beltline hump by the after side window is a carryover from that in the design shown in the top image.  Here, it's not related to the after side sculpting.

Broad, flattened shapes are found front and rear.  What Exner came up with once tail fins had become unfashionable.

1962 Plymouth Belvedere
Now some views from overhead.  One marketing problem was that the body was too narrow for acceptance by early 1960s American car buyers.

Those sculpted extensions of the hood and trunk do provide some width ...

1962 Plymouth Belvedere
... but they also, by contrast, emphasize the narrowness of the body in the passenger comparment zone.  Presumably this is a different car from the previous example.  This photo depicts side sculpting and contrasting basic body width a bit better.

Sterling: a Car From Rover and Honda

In the early 1980s, Japan's Honda desired to enter the executive/luxury car market, following Toyota's Lexus and Nissan's Infiniti brands.   The brand name selected was Acura.  The car itself was a joint effort with England's Rover Group -- the latter marketing its versions as the 800-series Rover and the Stirling (in North America, but also as a Rover model in the UK at times).

Background on Rover 800s is here, on the Acura Legend model here, and the Sterling here.  All featured a 107.8 inch (2760 mm) wheelbase and basic body structure, though some other details varied.

The first generation, featured here, was produced 1985-1990 by Honda, and 1986-1991 by Rover.

The Americanized Sterling sold fairly well in 1986, but quality control and other defects caused sales to fall off drastically thereafter.  The third link above (as of January 2025) contains annual sales data.  Acura sales were okay, as were non-Americanized Rover/Stirling cars in Europe.

Styling detail variations of the Acura Legend, Rover 800 and Stirling are discussed below.

Gallery

1987 Acura Legend - BaT Auctions photo
The Japanese version.

1987 Sterling 825 - car-for-sale photo
The Sterling for North America.  Most body panels are the same, the greatest difference seen here being in the area of the C-pillar and backlight window.

1986 Rover SD1 Vitesse - Iconic Auctioneers photo
The four-door hatchback version.  It was marketed as the Stirling 827 in North America, where hatchbacks of any kind almost never had strong sales for some reason.

1987 Acura Legend - BaT Auctions
Front quarter view.

1987 Rover 820SE via Car and Classic
Hoods (including cutlines) differ, but only slightly.  Other front end detailing is also similar for both brands.  Little tooling variation seen here.  

1987 Acura Legend - BaT Auctions
Rear quarter.

1986c. Rover Sterling - factory image
As noted above, the main difference is in the C-pillar zone and use of different backlight windows.  Otherwise, tail light and reflector panels differ in details, as well as license plate locations.  The aft crease on the Stirling's trunk lid seems crisper due to what looks to be a sharp fold above the type of fold seen on the Acura.

The Astonishing Morgan AeroMax

Cars by Morgan are seldom seen here in the USA because production levels were low, and around 20 years ago Morgans were ruled not in compliance with airbag regulations, so exports to the United States effectively ended.  That is my feeble excuse for not featuring Morgans on this blog.

But thanks to the Internet, I recently became aware of a 2008-vintage Morgan model with really interesting styling -- the AeroMax (some background here).  The design isn't beautiful: it's astonishing.

Morgan photos below are of for-sale cars.

Gallery

1955 Morgan +Four Roadster
This is a classic "golden age of British sports cars" Morgan.  When I think of Morgan, this is what comes to mind.

1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray Sport Coupe - General Motors photo
But what if Morgan combined the general design of the car pictured above with the aft end theme of this classic Corvette?

2009 Morgan AeroMax

This is what Morgan Stylist Matt Humphries produced, first as a one-off for an important Morgan client, and later for a limited production run of around 100 cars.  Almost all post- World War 2 four-wheel Morgans retained the 1930-vintage front fender design and horseshoe shaped grille with vertical bars.  Other styling details evolved over time.  But the windshield remains 1930-flat.

That nice, long hood and front end take up about half the total length of the car.

Behold, the boat-tail, split backlight window Corvette-like touch.

Opened-up view.

Overhead view revealing how the old and new design themes were blended.

1979 Chrysler New Yorker and Newport

Chrysler's Corporation-rescuing K-platform cars appeared in model year 1981.  At that time, Chrysler was in bad financial shape, its pre-K model portfolio out of synch with buyers' needs at a time when gasoline shortages and emergency engineering fixes due to new government regulations were creating chaos and uncertainty for product planners.  Today's post deals with new, full-size Chrysler models caught in this maelstrom and found wanting.

Featured are the 1979-1981 Chrysler New Yorker and Newport, both sharing the same basic body.  These transitional models did not sell well.  New Yorker production was 74,701 -- 54,640 in 1979.  Newport's pattern was similar: 75,402 overall and 60,404 the first year.

(Wheelbases of the brand's line-topping New Yorker model decreased from 124 inches (3150 mm) in 1978 to 118.5 inches (3010 mm) in 1979, reaching the low point of 103.3 inches (2624 mm) on 1983 K-platform versions.)

Regarding styling, these Chrysler designs carried over 1970s styling features such as angularity and tall passenger compartment greenhouses onto a shorter, yet still substantial, wheelbase noted above.

Gallery

1979 Chrysler Newport - factory publicity image
1970s rectangularity can be found on the front of this Newport.  The quad headlights are rectangular.  So are the turn-signal lights below them.  The grille framing is nearly so, while all the grille bars form rectangles.

1979 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue - factory publicity image
The more upscale New Yorker's front also is rectangular, but less obviously so.  In part, that's due to the hooded headlights.  The grille is in the same place as the Newport's, but the effect is a carryover of Chrysler's Imperial brand's grilles from 1974-75.  (The Imperial brand was on hiatus 1976-1980, so New Yorkers took over some of the glory.)

1979 Chrysler Newport - BaT Auctions photos
Very 1970s.  A clean design lacking character.  Note the vinyl covering the non-glass areas of the passenger compartment greenhouse.

1979 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue - Carlisle Auctions photos
The fussy greenhouse detailing adds a touch of "character" to the basic design, while detracting aesthetically.

Of course, I like long hoods.  Note the two-part glass in the after side window -- the forward pane retracts.

Here the two-part glazing divider is covered by vinyl that's only found at the after part of the greenhouse.  This padding creates an opera window effect, something found on a number of 1970s American cars.

More rectangles at the rear.

The vinyl also encroaches on the backlight window.

GM's 1986 Short-Wheelbase Upscale Sporty Coupes and a Seville

The title of this post is somewhat misleading because it ignores a large chunk of content.  There's a larger picture here, namely that General Motors did some downsizing of the featured models for the previous (before 1986) 1979 redesign.

What are those "Upscale Sporty Coupes" noted in the headline?  I'm referring to the 1966-67 generation of the Oldsmobile Toronado, Buick Riviera, and Cadillac Eldorado that shared the same body platform.  (Though this was not the case for 1971-1978 redesigns that had platform and wheelbase differences.)  I wrote about 1966-67 here in a post titled "A High Point in Platform-Based Brand Styling Variation."  As for the 1986 model year redesigns, I touched on that in my post "Sorta Sporting Siblings for 1986 by Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Buick" here.

My motivation for writing the present post was the fact that the 1986-generation Cadillac Seville sedan shared those coupes' new 108-inch (2743 mm) wheelbase.  (Previous-generation  coupes and Sevilles had a 114-inch (2896 mm) wheelbase, part of a GM-wide downsizing.  One result was lower sales levels for Seville.  Another was the 1992 Seville redesign using a longer wheelbase of 111 inches (2819 mm) that saw increased sales levels.

As for the coupes' futures, the Toronado was discontinued after its 1986-1992 model year run.  The Riviera also was dropped, but reappeared 1995-1999 on a 113.8-inch (2891 mm) wheelbase.  Eldorados were continued for model years 1992-2002, but with the 108-inch wheelbase.

Images below are left-side views of those models over the two design generations discussed above.  Plus a 1992 short-wheelbase Eldorado.  Unless noted, images are of for-sale cars.

Gallery

1979 Oldsmobile Toronado Brougham - photo via Hemmings
Door cutlines and passenger compartment profiles (including the blanked C/corner panels) are the same for all the '79 models.  Here the wheel openings are rounded, and the door sculpting aligns with fore (almost) and aft side sculpting. 

1979 Buick Riviera S
Side trim is relegated to rocker panels.  The fenderline subtly curves in homage to previous post-1962 Rivieras.

1979 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz
Side sculpting is positioned about the same as on the Toronado.  Wheel openings are not round -- a carryover from earlier Eldorados.

1986 Oldsmobile Toronado Brougham
The reduced wheelbase yields a Toronado that does not seem like a Toronado.  Which is likely why sales were only around half those of the 1979 generation, resulting in the model being dropped from Oldsmobiles's portfolio.

1986 Buick Riviera - unidentified photo source
The fenderline barely hints at a flow.  Sales levels collapsed even more than Toronado's.

1986 Cadillac Eldorado - unidentified photo source
The long-established Eldorado image is contradicted by this small vehicle.  The styling of all three of these '86 generation coupes isn't bad, but not product market image-appropriate.  Here too, Eldorado sales were generally less than half of those of the 1979 generation.

1986 Cadillac Seville Elegant
Cadillac already had a seriously short 101.2-inch (3570 mm) wheelbase in its 1982+ entry-level Cimarron.  They did not sell well despite being priced about half that of Sevilles.  But the stubby 1986 generation Sevilles, like the Eldorados, sold about half as well as those of the previous (1980) generation.

1992 Cadillac Eldorado - BaT Auctions photo
Although General Motors and other American carmakers needed to downsize their products starting in the late 1970s, GM clearly overshot the reduction for its 1986 generation of upscale sporty cars, as production data reveal.  Yet for some reason the 1992 Cadillac Eldorado generation seems to be a heavily facelifted 1986-generation design.  Unsurprisingly, sales volumes remained in the same reduced range.