Yesterday, as a delayed Fathers Day gift my wonderful wife and I took her parents to the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Her father is a big Studebaker fan and the museum is currently hosting a large Studebaker exhibit. Although my wife and I are museum members the nearly 200-mile round trip keeps us from visiting more often than we do.
Perhaps the big highlight for me was seeing the Studebaker Sceptre concept car in person for the first time. The car is on loan to the AACA Museum from the Studebaker museum in South Bend, Indiana. Without further ado:
By the way, showing photos in this blog is why I am glad I still use a desktop computer with a big monitor. I’m sorry, but you just can’t appreciate photos from the screen of a smartphone.
I think Brooks Stevens was a genius. After his death in 1995 the New York Times called him “a major force in industrial design.” Another great Stevens design was the Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk. In the bottom most of the four photos above you can see the red ’64 in the upper left. Here are some better pictures:
This is probably the finest GT Hawk I’ve ever seen. Stevens redesigned the Hawk, by this time a dated looking car, for a pittance and came up with a car that still looks good today. Tell me why I’ve left the GT Hawk out of both Ultimate Garages…
The AACA Museum is also hosting a small Pontiac exhibit that includes three GTOs. The only one of real interest to me is this one, a 1964 model.
It means nothing to anyone else, but I find something interesting in the fact that the last model year for the Studebaker GT Hawk is the same as the first year for the Pontiac GTO, 1964. I was just a wee lad, but I was alive at that time.
We all had a marvelous time. Kudos to Bill and to Warren, two volunteers at the museum who were so generous with their time and knowledge.
#AACAMuseum
#Studebaker
#StudebakerSceptre
#BrooksStevens
#1964StudebakerGTHawk
#1964PontiacGTO
#somanycarsjustonelife
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Disaffected Musings 
It looks like the AACA did a superb job with their Studebaker exhibit. It’s too bad Studebaker’s board wouldn’t green light the Sceptre and the other cars Stevens designed as companions to the Sceptre. Stevens paid out of his own pocket to have those prototypes built.
And, yes, that Gran Turismo Hawk is still a beautiful car.
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Thanks, 56packardman. By this time, as you know, the Studebaker board was not really concerned with automobile production. Maybe there’s something to be said for founders and their families remaining in control of their companies whenever possible.
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