The 1962-64 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk (or GT Hawk) was the last iteration of the Golden Hawk series that began in 1956. As development dollars were few in the last days at Studebaker, designer Brooks Stevens pulled off a restyle that was reminiscent of the Ford Thunderbird of the era. More than 50 years later, it’s still one of the best looking cars on the road. This 1963 GT Hawk has been in a barn for 42 years and has the dust to prove it. It’s located in Springfield, Missouri and available here on Facebook Marketplace for $3.850.
Stevens’ 1962 restyle captured both American and European elements. It now looked more like a car of the ‘60s than one of the ‘50s. The interior featured bucket seats with a console, further helping to give it the feel of a grand-touring car. While the GT Hawk looked modern on the outside, its underpinnings remained similar to previous Hawks; in fact, there wasn’t much difference between a 1962 Hawk and a 1953 Starliner. This would work out as a plus for collectors as Studebaker’s practice of using commonly-engineered parts translates into greater availability 54 years after the company’s last breath. Studebaker sold less than 16,000 GT Hawks in total, with less than 5,000 of them in 1963.
The seller of this 1963 GT Hawk gives us little to go on about this particular car. She’d rather potential buyers call her for details rather than put a few sentences together in the ad listing. If it’s been in storage for 42 years as the seller says, that means it went dark around 1978. Under all that dust is a black paint job and the interior is finished in burgundy. The seller’s price is fixed until the middle of October 2020 when she’s moving. After she resettles, the price of the car goes up.
The Hawk seems mostly complete, but being picky notices a missing headlight and what might have been the tachometer in the dashboard. We can’t tell what engine is lurking under the hood, but it should be either the two- or four-barrel carbureted version of Studebaker’s 289-cubic-inch V-8 which kicked out either 210 or 225 horsepower. You could upgrade to 240 hp version that came from the Avanti, but there’s no mention of any of this by the seller.
The end of the line came for the GT Hawk when Studebaker closed its South Bend, Indiana plant. Production of the car did not move to Canada with the Lark-based cars. Fast forward to today and the GT Hawk is a moderately collectible car. The Studebaker Hawk Registry thinks about 900 of them are still on the road in the U.S. Perhaps the buyer of this one will make that 901. Hagerty says these are worth $20-25,000 in excellent or better condition.
Careful with that hood prop,,these hoods were known as “guillotine” hoods, for obvious reasons. Sheesh, well, it IS Barn Finds, and this is what you’ll find in a barn. Love these cars, but again, same old thing, you want to go through the heartaches of a restoration these days, or just go buy one at auction. I mean, by the time you restore it, and it could take a while and could even stall, be about the same money. I just don’t see a big future in total restoration jobs like this.
Since dust seems to be the new currency in classic cars, this car should be worth a fortune!
But seriously, even with the pool of Stude-interested enthusiasts ever dwindling, surely at this price this car will find a new home. Or new barn.
Probably a new barn. The submarket for hoarders is a real thing and at this price its a lead pipe cinch
If you already own a pressure washer then the price isn’t that bad. More details needed to get interest in this one. Could be good, could be bad.
I have a 1/18 scale die cast model of this very same car. It’s a “junkyard” model. Looks all dusty, parts missing, like the headlight, broken “glass” and it even has a 2×4 holding up the hood, just like this one! Amazing.
Had a teacher in HS that loved Hawks, he had more then one. He even had a supercharged one, but he had a hard time keeping it in tune. Very pretty cars, advanced for their day, comfortable as well.
Thanks for verifying that. All you see today are supercharged Studebakers, when in reality, I don’t think I ever saw one. I heard, were troublesome and many owners either removed them, or when the belt broke, just kept driving and the unit froze. One site said it was a $318 dollar option, and today was about $2800 bucks, so a hefty price tag.
I have one with the R1 package and A/c only asking 3k for it it does have rust which I’m sure this one does too.
List it and get it on BF, too. Clean it up, take lots of pics!!
Might be a buy at that price if it interests you – tach is missing and it does look like a base 289 4v motor. Storage could have only helped the rust sleep if it had any….. oh wait they came from the factory with rust….old joke from SDC.
Studebaker motto:
“The rust goes in, before the paint goes on!”
[I’ve owned dozens of Studebakers, 1941 to 1966.]
That looks like a stock oil bath air cleaner to me. Is the alternator missing? Should be on the rh side of engine. It’s hard to tell if I’m seeing the remote reservoir on the firewall, but if so it’s a disc brake car. Too bad the original tranny is gone. Wonder what it looks like under all that dust. When she “re-settles” it perhaps the transport company will require it be hosed down first!
Not a disc brake car. No booster.
Vince H,
You are correct.
Ah! good point. How could I miss that massive hydro-vac unit?
Not to worry, when it doesn’t se she is going to raise the price. I wonder where she learned that marketing tool.
No transmission -why?
If it doesn’t sell for $3850 from where is currently parked, what makes this idiotic woman think that it’s going to fetch more money from it’s new locality?
So of the dirt will blow off when it is moved.
Going to need a lot more than just the transmission: Headlight rims, radio, tachometer, horn ring emblem, just to name a few that we can see…
It raises great big questions when the seller cleans NOTHING off, and this car is covered with dust and vermin residue from top to bottom! Are you really trying to sell this??
First, I’ve owned many Hawks & 1 each of the GT versions, with my red ’63 having R2 engine, and worked on or restored many more. So I know a bit about the subject!
Very poor photos of featured car. It’s a black car, so paint and bodywork is going to be more effort/expense. GT, and hawk specific trim parts, are getting difficult to find. Missing tach & it’s distributor drive, both are not cheap either.
Missing trans lowers the price more than the value of the trans in the car, and without power steering or power brakes, their lack lowers the price again. Front fenders look like they will likely have the typical rust near the doors. Front fenders have been unavailable for 50+ years. Engine is surely locked solid after all those years.
Sorry, but this car isn’t worth what the owner is asking, not even close. Especially when there are way too many variables & unknowns.
Who says the transmission is missing? The ad says manual transmission, not missing, unless I’m missing something. Awful pictures, and it looks like the hood was propped open the whole 42 years. The owner apparently thinks it’s money in the bank. Good for her.
Says not with car.
Wow has the owner never heard of water an just a little soap?
Totally agree with Bill,, here you don’t even know about the engine and no transmission ,, rust fixing plus paint job plus interior and on top of that rebuild engine and locate a transmission and the icing on the cake will be locating all the missing trim , tach, radio and even the horn button,, sorry people,, who ever gets into this beast is clueless in car restoration,, as far as I’m concerned this is a cheap parts car and really don’t know if even that. A lot less head ache and even less money + (fix up restore costs) you can get some decent drivers.