Studebaker GT Hawk 1963 images

This 1963 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk carries a four-barrel 289 V8 and a 3-speed Flight-O-Matic automatic, but Studebaker actually offered the engine in four different states of tune that year, including a supercharged version most fans have never heard of. Built during the company’s final years of U.S. passenger car production, every surviving GT Hawk is a piece of automotive history. Here’s what made this compact grand tourer more interesting than it looks.

This is a 1963 Studebaker Hawk GT is the Sport Coupe and will seat four. The engine is a 289 CID mounted with a 4 barrel carburetor and the unit imaged here has a 3-speed Flight-O-Matic automatic transmission. There were only 625 of these roll off the assembly line in 1963.

Our thanks to Gateway Classic Cars for the images displayed here.

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Only a few Studebaker dealers in 1963 could say they had sold a factory hot rod that could out-punch cars twice its price, and most buyers who saw the fine print walked right past it. Underneath the crisp Raymond Loewy-inspired lines of this Gran Turismo Hawk sits a 289 cubic-inch small-block that Studebaker offered in no fewer than four distinct states of tune that year, from a mild two-barrel commuter setup all the way up to a supercharged monster nobody expected from South Bend. The car pictured here wears the four-barrel version, a genuine sleeper in a lineup most people associate with practical family sedans. What did Studebaker’s engineers actually squeeze out of that little V8 when they really let it loose?

Four Different Personalities Under One Hood

Studebaker offered the 289 in four distinct states of tune for 1963: a standard two-barrel version producing 210 horsepower, an optional four-barrel setup making 225 horsepower (the configuration on the car pictured here), the R1 package rated at 240 horsepower, and the wildest option of all, the McCulloch-supercharged R2, good for 289 horsepower and 370 lb-ft of torque. That spread meant a single buyer could walk into a Studebaker showroom and order anything from a comfortable long-distance cruiser to a genuine street brawler off the same basic order sheet, a level of flexibility that was nearly unheard of for a mid-size independent automaker fighting to stay relevant against Detroit’s Big Three. The four-barrel setup paired here with the 3-speed Flight-O-Matic automatic split the difference nicely, giving buyers a noticeable step up in performance without sacrificing the smoothness of an automatic transmission.

A Rare Survivor From a Shrinking Company

Studebaker built roughly 4,634 Gran Turismo Hawks across all engine variants for the 1963 model year, and the supercharged R2 cars were genuine unicorns, with only about 276 leaving the factory with that engine installed. By this point Studebaker was already in its final years of U.S. passenger car production, having decided to close its historic South Bend, Indiana plant at the end of 1963, which means every surviving GT Hawk from that model year, four-barrel or otherwise, represents a rolling piece of the company’s last real stand against Ford, GM, and Chrysler. Studebaker’s engineers clearly had not lost their ambition on the way out the door, packing four separate performance tiers into a compact grand tourer that most casual observers still associate with practical family sedans rather than genuine performance machinery.

A Facelift Born From a Tight Budget

The Gran Turismo Hawk’s crisper roofline and thinner pillars did not come from an all-new body. Designer Brooks Stevens reworked the aging Loewy-styled coupe shell for 1962 on a shoestring budget, giving Studebaker a genuinely modern-looking flagship coupe without the cost of tooling up a new platform, a trick that let a struggling independent automaker compete visually against far better-funded rivals.

Studebaker-Packard’s Long Goodbye

Studebaker merged with Packard in 1954 to survive the wave of consolidation squeezing independent automakers, but the marriage did not save either brand in the long run. Packard production ended in 1958, leaving Studebaker to soldier on alone into the 1960s as one of the last true independents still building cars against Ford, GM, and Chrysler.

Competing With Thunderbird and Riviera on a Fraction of the Budget

Studebaker positioned the GT Hawk against Ford’s Thunderbird and, starting in 1963, Buick’s brand-new Riviera, two personal luxury coupes backed by corporate budgets Studebaker could not begin to match. That the GT Hawk could even be cross-shopped against them says something about how much visual and mechanical polish Stevens squeezed out of a decade-old body shell.

From South Bend to Hamilton, Ontario

Studebaker closed its historic South Bend, Indiana plant at the end of 1963, shifting its remaining car production to a smaller factory in Hamilton, Ontario. The company kept building cars in Canada for a few more years before ending passenger car production entirely in 1966, making every 1963 GT Hawk one of the last built on American soil.

Why Collectors Still Seek Out Four-Barrel Cars Today

Among the four states of tune Studebaker offered that year, the four-barrel car pictured here represents a sensible middle ground for collectors: more performance than the base two-barrel commuter setup, without the rarity-driven premium and mechanical fuss that comes with hunting down a supercharged R2.

Keeping One of These Running Today

Because Studebaker built far fewer cars than the Big Three and left the passenger-car business decades ago, parts sourcing for a GT Hawk takes more legwork than for a comparable Ford or Chevrolet. An active enthusiast network, including the Studebaker Drivers Club, has kept reproduction parts and specialized knowledge available for owners willing to look for it.

One Nameplate, Many Personalities Before This

Studebaker’s Hawk lineup had splintered into several separate names by the mid-1950s, including Golden Hawk, Sky Hawk, Power Hawk, and Flight Hawk, each aimed at a different price point and buyer. By the time the Gran Turismo Hawk arrived for 1962, Studebaker had simplified that confusing spread down to essentially one well-equipped model, a sign of just how much the company had to consolidate simply to survive.

A Company Older Than the Automobile Itself

Studebaker’s roots stretch back to 1852 as a wagon and carriage manufacturer, decades before the first gasoline automobile existed, making it one of the oldest vehicle manufacturers in American history by the time this GT Hawk rolled off the line in South Bend.

The Avanti Was Fighting the Same Battle

Around the same time the GT Hawk was getting its budget-conscious facelift, Studebaker was also launching the fiberglass-bodied Avanti as a halo car built to prove the company still had genuine design and performance ambition, even as its overall financial position kept deteriorating year after year.

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