If there was one US company to rival Chrysler for innovative --- read outrageous --- car designs it was Studebaker.
It was anything goes on the drawing boards at Raymond Loewy Associates, the firm that designed Studebakers from 1938-1955.
That Loewy got away with the designs he did was no doubt due to the fact Studebaker was a small, lean, independent manufacturer.
They had little of the bureaucracy of the big three makers: Ford, GM and Chrysler.
If Studebaker had a `signature' vehicle, it was be the 1950-51 `bullet' nose models.
These were Studebaker's best sellers with an aggressive front styling that resembled the front of a twin engine WW2 fighter.
It was also remarkably similar to the front of the 1948 Tucker and had cues to the 1937 Willys.
The Tucker used the `third eye' to house a third headlight, just under the bonnet line.
Instead of a light the Studie used a chrome dome, but the principle of an aggressive pointed bonnet feature remained.
On the Studie it resembled a torpedo head.
Of course, Studebaker were not the only company to used this type of embellishment.
Ford fanatics will soon point you in the direction of the 1950-1951 Ford V8s, which featured firstly a single dome and then twin domes in the grille.
These became known as single spinner and twin spinner models.
It is believed Bob Bourke, a Studebaker designer employed by Loewy, had the bullet or torpedo nose concept on paper as early as 1941.
If that's the case then the reason it was not introduced earlier would clearly have been
WW2 with most manufacturers, including Studebaker, putting their factories to work for the war effort.
Loewy and his chief designer Virgil Exner, put their stamp on Studebaker for years and their 1947-1949 designs gave Studebaker more than four per cent of the US market.
Studebaker held great hopes for the 1950 bullet nose model, and claimed it would influence car design for years.
It was a well-founded hope.
The bullet nose models, Champion and Commander, with variants within the models scored sales of 343,164 units between July 1949 and September 1950.
Yet, the designed failed to ignite other makers.
Radical car styles tend to have a short shelf life, and the Big Three, did not fall for the copycat game.
So the Studebaker torpedo nose became a short lived fad, a designers dream that made it to reality and then went as quickly as it came.
If the aim was to put Studebaker on the map, it achieved its goal.
History now judges these models as iconic. Besides the rare Tucker there is nothing else like it on the road.
It's a highly sought-after model that brings with it a wow factor rarely seen in this era of car design.
The torpedo nose theme was carried into the 1951 model which also received a small, but lively 232 cubic inch V8 option.
Studebaker would last only another 15 years.
In that short period it produced the magnificent Hawk, Golden Hawk, Gran Turismo plus Lark and Cruiser.
Then the car that was to be the saviour: the futuristic Avanti.
Unfortunately even Avanti could not save Studebaker and its sales were as poor as the company's management. |
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