I hope I’m not alone when I mention that I have a room in my house devoted to cars. If there’s a physical manifestation of the inside of my brain, it’s my car room: Advertisements hang from the walls with no visible consideration to geometric norms, diecast cars are more or less categorized by brand or genre, books are organized based on where they fit. It’s a neat mess, and within those four walls is a smattering of toy Studebakers, one of which is a white-on-white Golden Hawk. While this 1:1 scale Silver Hawk listed on eBay for $19,000 (or best) is a step down the model lineup from its auric brother, it’s still rare, it’s still beautiful, and it still makes me want a real Studebaker of my own.

This one wouldn’t be a bad choice at all. A dealer is handling the sale and claims that the present owner bought the Hawk from its original owner in 1981, and it has covered a mere 24,022 miles in its lifetime. Thus, it hasn’t traveled far; it’s currently located about 180 miles from its ancestral home of South Bend, Indiana. It’s not a completely original car; the interior has been very nicely redone by a “Studebaker Guy” in Nashville who was able to match the original materials. Perhaps a Studebaker concours judge can verify that for us. The only thing missing inside is the clock, and the seller and owner are on its trail…no luck finding it yet. The column shifted “Flightomatic” chooses gears for you automatically, although you could order an overdrive in addition to the standard three speed if you preferred to accomplish that task on your own.

Under the hood is Studebaker’s trusty 289, with what appears to be a Stromberg two-barrel carburetor. If that’s true, it’s the 210-horsepower version with 300 lb.-ft. of torque – basically the same engine powering Studebakers until the end of South Bend production in late ’63. There’s still plenty of parts support for ’50s and ’60s Studebakers, and the 289 is well-known as a robust powerplant.

Aside from some floor repair on the driver’s side, the car is advertised as solid, with some paint work having been done at some point in the past. It’s represented as a nice driver and not a show car, and the flaws in the paintwork are shown in several closeups in the ad.

There are few cars whose basic bodies lived out as many personas as the ’53 Studebaker, the basis for this Silver Hawk. It was a smooth, vaguely European sedan upon its introduction, a finned glamourmobile as the Silver and Golden Hawks, and an understated, jazzy personal luxury coupe by 1962. Along the way, it also became an economy compact. It’s tough to say which one I prefer (that’s a lie – it’s the GT Hawk), but the Silver Hawk has to be somewhere near the top of the list. This one looks very clean – do you think the price is right?