Faster than you think!
04/29/2026
I'm sure we all have a colleague who has always had a project in the workshop: "Yes, I'll do that one, I'll do that one, I'll start there..." But the car has just been sitting there for 20 years. I feel the same way.
About four years ago, I pushed it into my workshop - the old memory from my childhood: the Studebaker GT Hawk in Riviera blue, built in 1961, i.e. a 1962 model year. It's true, this year, even if history teaches us that the Gran Turismo Hawk was built from 1962 onwards. Ours was completed in the factory in South Bend Indiana on December 28, 1961 and was sold in Switzerland by Binelli and Ehrsam, the importer, in April 1962.
The coupé with a 4.8-liter V8 engine and 180 hp belonged to a neighbor who always drove it with white gloves, as I still remember encounters with the car in my childhood. She drove it almost reverently, as if the "Studi" was more her companion than simply a machine. When her granddaughter, who lives in the USA, wanted to sell the house, the car had to go too. And I couldn't help myself - I took it over. The owner insisted that we should get the car after I told her about my memories of her grandmother and the 1970s in our neighborhood. My everyday life was her vacation memories when she came to Switzerland from the USA for the summer months: The soccer field, the Migros supermarket, our playground by the school building. She probably sold the car too cheaply for all the memories that were attached to it.
The GT Hawk in front of the first owner's house in the 1960s
Shortly afterwards, I gave it to my daughter, who was 13 at the time, because the car had never belonged to a man. I thought it would be wrong to change that. Maybe it was a big gift - maybe too big, but I think it was just right. Now she's 17 and will soon be learning to drive, and I'll probably be sitting next to her quite often. The assisted learning to drive is a good thing. She'll soon be 18 and will be able to take her test - and the Hawk should be ready by then at the latest! The main thing it lacks are the brakes and all the things that have been damaged during its 30-year service life. After all, the car is rust-free and the engine started after little work and adjusting the ignition and the automatic does its job.
I once thought there was still enough time. But it passes so quickly! And now the impetuous youth is pushing! So let's go!
