The 1953 Studebaker Loewy Coupes

In 1953 Studebaker debuted their first completely new body style since 1947. The 4 door sedans were rather stodgy & not too attractive while the coupes & hardtops were simply beautiful. They had been mainly designed by Robert E. Bourke, chief of the Raymond Loewy studios at South Bend and nicknamed the Loewy coupes. They were were probably the most outstanding American automotive design of the '50s, and I think one of the all-time greats. Even today they are considered to be among the most beautiful production cars ever built. It was no surprise when the coupes out sold the sedans by a margin of 4 to 1.

The different body styles in 1953 consisted of the Commander and Champion Sedans along with the Commander and Champion post and hardtop coupes. The post coupe was known as the Starlight and the hardtop was called the Starliner.The styling for the Starlight and Starliner was about as perfect as a car could be: everything was perfectly in place and it just naturally flowed from the grill to the taillights. While the Starliner had a better styling the Starlight held together better due to the rigidity of the fixed roof post.

The main difference between the Commander and the Champion was the engine. The Champion had the 85HP 6 cylinder while the Commander had the 120HP V-8. The power plant or actually lack of power was the main drawback of the 1953 Studebaker. The 6 cylinder was very anemic by any measure with only 85 horsepower out of 169.6 cubic inches. The V-8 was also pretty weak with 120 horsepower from 232.6 cubic inches. The compression ratio was only 7.00 to 1 and it could only muster 190 foot pounds of torque. To say it didn't strike fear in any stop light draggers was an understatement to be sure. Even though it weighed only about 3,000 pounds it was still hard to light up the rear tires.

By 1953 the horsepower race was getting started. The Oldsmobile & Cadillac had V-8 starting in 1949, Chrysler had the Hemi in 1951 and Ford came out with a V-8 in 1953 along with Buick. No matter how beautiful the Studeys were the horsepower nuts had a hard time justifying the purchase of one. My 1950 Olds would outperform them which kept me from trying to buy one.

I can still remember going to the showroom to see them after reading about them & seeing their pictures. At that point I thought they were the most beautiful production American cars ever built and I still believe it today. Looking at the engine after admiring the body & interior I was disappointed they didn't have access to an engine with a few more horse and a lot more torque. Back then if your car wouldn't burn rubber it was pretty well ignored. Performance was very important.

While the Studebakers had a number of pluses along with them came some serious minuses which caused the numbers sold to drop dramatically from 1953 to 1954. The main complaints were that construction quality was only fair and they had a tendency to rust. The brakes were not very good either. Due to these faults a lot of them were scrapped making them pretty rare today. Another reason they are rare in original form is that many of them were modified into different types of racers due to the slippery body style.

As far as being collectible goes they rate very good due to the outstanding American styling and the low production numbers. They are still affordable considering how great the design was. They do have good appreciation potential mainly due to the fact both the coupe and the hardtop are Milestone cars.

Sources:

http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z4326/Studebaker-Commander-Starlin
er.aspx

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1953-1954-studebaker-champion-regal-sta
rlight-starliner.htm

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1953-1954-studebaker-commander-regal-st
arlight-starliner.htm