1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk: A Supercharger Replaces the Packard V8

The 1957 Golden Hawk's engine was chosen by events outside the engineering department. Ate Up With Motor records that in January 1956 Studebaker-Packard's financiers refused president Jim Nance's request for a $50 million long-term loan, and that in early August the board reached a management agreement with Roy Hurley, president of Curtiss-Wright, giving him operational control. Nance resigned and Harold Churchill became president. Production at the company's Detroit facilities had already ended in late June 1956, and the board consolidated car building at South Bend. Studebaker-Packard also gave up its Utica plant in the deal. With it went the 352-cubic-inch Packard V8 and the Ultramatic transmission that had powered the 1956 Golden Hawk.^1,2

The replacement came from Studebaker's own engine and an outside supplier. The Golden Hawk now used the Studebaker 289 V8 with a McCulloch VS57 centrifugal supercharger, a unit that Mac's Motor City Garage describes as a popular aftermarket booster also used on Kaiser production cars from 1954. A variable-diameter driven pulley held boost to 5 psi, and compression was cut to 7.8:1. The rating was 275 bhp at 4,800 rpm and 333 lb-ft at 3,200 rpm, the same horsepower as the Packard engine it replaced.^2,3,1

The new engine changed the car's balance. Mac's Motor City Garage writes that the lighter Studebaker V8 gave the 1957 car better balance and handling, although road tests still noted excessive understeer. Ate Up With Motor credits slightly better weight distribution, rear suspension changes and an optional Twin Traction limited-slip differential with making the 1957 Golden Hawk somewhat more manageable than the 1956. It puts performance at about nine seconds to 60 mph and a top speed near 120 mph, a characterization that does not name a tested car.^2,1

The body grew fins. The Studebaker National Museum records that tail fins were added to both 1957 Hawks, along with a revised hood, deck lid and taillights. Ate Up With Motor and Mac's Motor City Garage both note that the 1956 car's small bolt-on fiberglass fins were replaced by taller fins stamped in steel. The Golden Hawk kept its 120.5-inch wheelbase and hardtop body, and the museum lists its base price at $3,182, up from $3,065 in 1956.^3,1,2

The supercharger cost money. Ate Up With Motor says the supercharged engine was more expensive than the Packard V8 and raised the Golden Hawk's price by $121. The museum's list prices show a $117 increase from 1956 to 1957. The two figures describe the same change on slightly different bases and are close enough to agree on the point: the 1957 car cost more than the 1956 for the same rated horsepower.^1,3

The rest of the Hawk line was simplified around the Golden Hawk. The museum records that the four 1956 Hawks became two for 1957: the Golden Hawk hardtop and the Silver Hawk, a pillared coupe offered with a six or a V8. The Silver Hawk six listed at $2,142 and the V8 at $2,263, more than $900 below the Golden Hawk. The Silver Hawk's V8s were the 259 at 180 horsepower and an unsupercharged 289 rated at 210 or 225, and its six was the 185 at 101 horsepower.^3,1

In April 1957 Studebaker added a more expensive version. The museum describes the Golden Hawk 400 as having special paint, a full leather interior and an upholstered luggage compartment, and lists it at $3,671. It counts 51 built. Mac's Motor City Garage explains the figure of 41 that appears elsewhere: of the 51, it says, 10 were show cars and 41 went to customers. Mac's also describes the 400's two-tone paint and notes that only a handful survive.^3,2,4

The production figures for 1957 agree across sources. The museum lists 4,305 standard Golden Hawks and 51 Golden Hawk 400s. Old Cars Weekly and 1956goldenhawk.com give 4,356, the sum of those two numbers. The Golden Hawk 400 was therefore about 1 percent of 1957 Golden Hawk production. Against the 1956 Golden Hawk's 4,071, the museum's figure for the Packard-engined car, the supercharged 1957 sold 285 more, a rise of about 7 percent in a year when the Hawk line was cut from four models to two.^3,5,6

The Silver Hawk sold in much larger numbers. 1956goldenhawk.com gives 15,318 in all, the sum of the museum's 4,283 sixes and 11,035 V8s. The V8 figure includes 1,180 coupes and 248 hardtops with the Commander 259 built for Canadian and export sale, and there were also 120 export-only six-cylinder hardtops. Together the two Hawks came to 19,674 cars, consistent with Ate Up With Motor's statement that Hawk sales stayed under 20,000. The Golden Hawk was about 22 percent of the total.^6,3,1

The period press gave the supercharged car a generally good hearing. Mac's Motor City Garage records that the 1957 Golden Hawk appeared in Sports Cars Illustrated and Motor Life, and describes their reviews as complimentary overall, with the understeer as the chief complaint. Mac's does not relay their measured figures, so the magazines' verdicts survive only in summary. The Twin Traction differential, four-barrel carburetor with dual exhausts, power steering, power brakes and air conditioning were among the options listed for the Hawks.^2,3,5

The 1957 car was the high point of the supercharged Golden Hawk. For 1958 the museum lists only 878 Golden Hawks, and a new model built on the same body took the Packard name: the Packard Hawk, which Ate Up With Motor says began as a one-off for Roy Hurley and was styled by Duncan McRae. It sold 588 copies at $3,995. The Curtiss-Wright arrangement that had removed the Packard engine from the Golden Hawk in 1957 produced a Packard-badged Hawk a year later.^3,1

Seen through its numbers, the 1957 Golden Hawk solved a supply problem without losing ground. Studebaker kept the 275 horsepower rating when the Packard engine disappeared, the car handled better with a lighter engine, and production rose from 4,071 to 4,356. The cost was a higher price and a supercharger bought from an outside maker. The result was the best-selling year of the supercharged Golden Hawk, before its production fell to 878 in 1958.^2,3,1