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Topic starter
19/06/2021 10:28 am
Futuristic in 1953, this Virgil Exner of Raymond Loewy Associates designed Studebaker Starliner was the mainstay of the Hawk and up to the GT Hawk of the '60s with the use of different body panels that were interchangeable allowing you to customize your car with a few trips to the junkyard. My neighbor took a late '50s Golden Hawk and replaced the rear with a '53 deck lid to really make the tail fins pop. Innumerable coats of Candy Apple Red with a white top and I was in love!
19/06/2021 10:35 am
One of the best car designs ever IMO. Excellent pictures Rich.
Tony Perrone and Tony Perrone reacted
19/06/2021 11:34 am
One of the best car designs ever IMO. Excellent pictures Rich.
right on the money on both counts. 
Topic starter
19/06/2021 11:41 am
@bob-jackman I only wished DM would have completed the lineup with the '64 GT Hawk designed by Brook Stevens. I loved the elegant European styling of that car that was continually refined from '62 to '64.
19/06/2021 11:50 am
I love a car that was born the same year I was and looks a thousand times better than me !! 
Rich Sufficool and Rich Sufficool reacted
19/06/2021 1:39 pm
Rich, I agree about the Hawk GT. The only Hawk I have in my collection is in 1/43 scale. A friend had a Hawk years ago and I loved the toggle switches on the dash board and the Mercedes influenced grill shell. I restored a 63 Avanti which had the identical drive line. My Avanti was the R1 with factory A/C and a Borg warner automatic. Always been a Studebaker fan as my first car was 1937 Dictator sedan that I paid $25 for when I was 13 years old.
19/06/2021 2:35 pm
Hi Rich,
I hope that we all feel good !
We're all here sharing our 'rabid' love of collecting our beloved model cars and love of 1:1's too !
And I gotta add, that '53 is awesome. Always has been for me and always will.
Thanks for those pics.
19/06/2021 3:07 pm
love your photographic talent and how you presented this model...
19/06/2021 5:42 pm
Rich the detail is so good, I was counting the flecks in the carpet in pic 6! Sure agree with all above its a great design.
19/06/2021 6:01 pm
Mr. Exner separated from the temperamental Lowey in 1945.
Today, Bob Bourke (a Lowey employee) is generally accepted as having been responsible for the exterior design of the 1953 Studebaker.
As Bourke’s employer, I guess Lowey can claim credit for his work. History now paints Lowey as claiming credit to the extreme.