Saturday Studebaker

I have mentioned Bring a Trailer before. It is a website where people buy and sell cars online via auction. The consignor pays just $99 and the buyer pays just five percent commission, which is capped at $5,000. You don’t think that matters? A VERY rare Lancia Stratos sold on Bring a Trailer for over $440,000 meaning the buyer saved almost $40,000 in commission compared to the standard fee of ten percent uncapped at most brick and mortar auctions.

To my surprise and delight Bring a Trailer currently has not one, but two Studebaker GT Hawks for sale. The GT Hawk was Brooks Stevens’ masterful redesign of the Hawk on a budget. From Bring a Trailer here are pictures of the two GT Hawks currently available via auction.

The top one is a 1963 model while the bottom one is from 1964, the last year of the GT Hawk. 1962 was the first model year for the Gran Turismo (or GT) Hawk. The current bid on the ’63 is $3,600 with three days left and the bid on the ’64 is $7,000 with five days left. Buying a collector car doesn’t have to be expensive, even for a car as rare as the GT Hawk of which only about 14,000 were made.

Unfortunately, production of the GT Hawk (and the Avanti) ceased when Studebaker ended production at its factory in South Bend, Indiana in December, 1963 and moved all of its operations to its plant in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. More than 55 years after its initial release the GT Hawk still looks fresh and sleek to me. It’s interesting to me that two of these are available concurrently on Bring a Trailer given they are almost never seen at auctions like Barrett-Jackson and Mecum. When my OCD-addled and ADD-addled brain wanders occasionally I dream of starting a car auction company called ATOC Auctions. ATOC stands for All The Other Cars. I would limit the percentage of lots that could be any one model and I would try like hell to find cars like the GT Hawk. (Not trying to pick on anyone, but at one Barrett-Jackson auction Mustangs/Shelbys were 51 of the roughly 700 cars available. I think that’s just WAY too many. I even sent Barrett-Jackson a letter in which I mentioned this among other things.) I would also only sell cars at no reserve and have lower fees than other brick and mortar auction houses. Hey, a free business idea. Just make sure you give me a cut when this takes off. 🙂

Anyone else a fan of the GT Hawk? I wonder if any will be available when my wonderful wife, her parents and I go to Scottsdale, Arizona for the Barrett-Jackson auction in January. No, I don’t think I’ll buy one, but who knows? Stranger things have happened and consider the source.

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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