Studebaker Starlight
The Studebaker Starlight was a two-door coupe that the Studebaker Corporation in South Bend (Indiana) produced between 1947 and 1952 for the Champion and Commander model ranges. The Starlight body was seen as a show car and given the designation 5P, which meant that, unlike the business coupé (for 3 passengers), it was suitable for 5 people.
1947-1952
In contrast to other two-door sedans, which have two side windows that are separated from the rear window by a wide C-pillar, Robert Bourke , a designer from Raymond Loewy's team , designed a rounded rear roof with a panoramic rear window , similar to that of an observation car Railroad. This panorama window consisted of four solid panes of glass. The roof had two wide C-pillars just behind the doors, in front of the panoramic window.
Critics of the radically styled model asked the rhetorical question whether the car was going forwards or backwards. Fred Allen quipped: “Next year Studebaker is bringing out a model that you don't know if it's going sideways.” But this unique style gave Studebaker a model that is highly recognizable . Although the car was considered revolutionary, other US automakers did not follow this trend, but rather focused on hardtop models without B-pillars.
In 1950 and 1951, all Studebaker got a revision of the design from 1947 with the "ball nose" (often also referred to as "propeller front"); with the Starlight model, it looked pretty futuristic at the time. This version of the Starlight was produced until the end of the model year 1952 and was offered together with the corresponding hardtop model.
1953-1955
In 1953, Studebaker reworked all of its models from scratch and the Starlight model from 1947–1952 was discontinued. The Studebaker sedans had a wheelbase of 2,946.4 mm, but the main focus was on the sports car-like two-door “Loewy” coupés, which had a longer wheelbase of 3,048 mm. Coupés with B-pillars and hardtop coupés were available as parts of the Champion and Commander series. The hardtop coupés were called Starliners , while the versions with B-pillars and two side windows were sold as Starlight . The styling of both versions was copied from the Hillman Minx of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which was also designed by Raymond Loewy . The names Starlight and Starliner were used until the end of the 1955 model year.
In 1956 both coupés were fundamentally revised and reappeared as the Studebaker-Packard-Hawk series .
1958
In 1958, Studebaker used the name Starlight again for a body shape, this time for the first large hardtop model since 1952. With the dwindling sales figures and the transition to the “compact model” Lark , the company no longer needed the name Starlight, and so it finally disappeared End of this model year.
In 1977, Oldsmobile tried to achieve a similar effect as Studebaker with the Starlight, namely with the Toronado XS . In contrast to the Studebaker, the technology of the Oldsmobile was so advanced that it was now possible to manufacture the panorama window in one piece and bend it using "hot wire technology".
swell
- James H. Maloney: Studebaker Cars , Crestline Books (1994), ISBN 0-87938-884-6
- Richard Langworth: Studebaker, the Postwar Years , Motorbooks International (1979), ISBN 0-87938-058-6
- John Gunnell (editor): The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975 , Kraus Publications (1987), ISBN 0-87341-096-3