Thirty-three years ago, his father asked: “What are you getting that for? Why don’t you get a Camaro?” [1]
“Because everybody’s got a Camaro,” John Begian answered at the time.
In 1963, only forty-eight Studebaker GT models were made in this configuration, Mr Begian told Saline Journal last week during the regular “Saline Cars & Coffee” get together at Brewed Awakenings. “The Gran Turismo Hawk was called the ‘Super Hawk’ because it had the high performance package. It cost, $4500 new in 1963,” he added — to the concurring nods of others at the table that morning. [2,3,4,5]
The Super package on this fine automobile included a supercharger, front and rear sway bars, and disc brakes, which were rare in those days. Under the hood, the Studebaker GT Super Hawk is powered by a 289 Studebaker V8 coupled with a Borg Warner automatic transmission.
Exterior coloring was called “Super Red” and was only available with the performance package.
This wasn’t the first Studebaker for John Begian, and he readily admitted, good-naturedly, that the story of the predescessor to this car did not end well. “I ended up parting it out,” he said in summary. The car shown above came through better networking and his affiliation with the Studebaker Drivers Club. Still, when it came into his possession in the mid-1980s, “It was pretty beat up. It had some rust, and it was dented — it had been hit a few times. The interior was cooked.” [6]
Taking it from there, after a two-year restoration effort, he got it back on the road in 1987, and some years later got it repainted. Naturally that means back to its original “Super Red,” which was the color choice of only twenty-three of the forty-eight GT Super Hawks of 1963.
He also knows the ownership history of his car, answering questions expansively off the top of his head. The first owner was a doctor who’d bought it from the lone Studebaker dealership in Beatrice Nebaska. Twenty years and two owners later, it has been traded to pay off a debt, rescued en route to the crusher, and bought for $800 before ultimately ending up in the hands of John Begian as it fifth and current owner.
Now with 140,000 on the odometer, Mr Begian claims the last 60,000 as his own. “I used to be president of the Studebaker Drivers Club, and I drove it to meets. I drove it to Boston, Charlotte North Carolina, Springfield Missouri. I used to drive it all over.”
Most recently, last Saturday he drove it to Brewed Awakenings on East Michigan Avenue, for coffee and discussion of all things cars, with like-minded friends.
“That’s the fun of it.”
No one asked if he was planning to attend Camaro Superfest at the end of this month, however. Nor if taking a look there might tempt him to rethink that now decades-old answer to his dad.
References
- “The Annual Camaro Superfest Is How a Great Car Show Should Look and Feel” Dell Deaton (July 7, 2017) Saline Journal.
- “Collectible Classic — 1962-64 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk” Bob Merlis (June 15, 2003) Automobile Magazine.
- “Car of the Week: 1963 Studebaker GT Hawk” bearnest (February 21, 2012) Old Cars Report.
- “1962 – 1964 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk” Caaarguide.
- “Saline Michigan Is a Place That Gets ‘Car People’ (Year Round, as It Turns Out)” Dell Deaton (April 23, 2018) Saline Journal.
- Studebaker Drivers Club (home page).
