In 1956 the Studebaker Hawks were launched with a full lineup of four models led by the flashy Golden Hawk, but the Sky Hawk was arguably the best of the lot.

A few years back here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, we told the story of the 1956 Hawks, the cars that launched the nine-year run of Studebaker’s “family sports car.” (See the feature here.) The November 1, 1955 rollout featured a broad lineup of four Hawks: The Flight Hawk and Power Hawk based on the C-body Starlight post coupe, and two K-body Skyliner hardtops, the Sky Hawk and the Golden Hawk. With its deluxe appointments, tail fins, and 352 cubic-inch V8 the Golden Hawk was the top of the line, but we’re wondering if actually, the Sky Hawk might be the pick of the bunch.

While the Golden Hawk was powered by a 352 cubic-inch Packard V8, the Sky Hawk received a Studebaker-built V8 with a 289 cubic-inch displacement, new for 1956. With a 3.56-in x 3.63 bore and stroke and a Carter WCFB four-barrel carburetor, the Sky Hawk V8 was rated at 210 hp—considerably less than the 275 hp of the big Packard V8. But the Stude V8 was a bit lighter, and it was paired with the Borg-Warner automatic transmission instead of the Packard Ultramatic. As a result, the Golden Hawk was more than 150 lbs heavier in advertised curb weight than the Sky Hawk, with the extra weight mainly over the front wheels. Hawk enthusiasts are known to say that the Sky Hawk is more balanced and nimble in its handling.

Unlike the Sky Hawk, the Golden Hawk was blessed with a pair of rakish tail fins, and in 1956, fins were in. But the fins were fiberglass and bolted onto the rear quarters, which in the modern perception might seem cheesy. Also, without the tacked-on fins, the Sky Hawk’s lines are closer to Bob Bourke’s stunning original design from 1953. The Sky Hawk also lacks the Golden Hawk’s thick band of bright metal over the backlite—flashy, but it adds little to the overall look. These are matters of personal taste, of course, but if yours runs toward the clean and simple, you might prefer the Sky Hawk.

While in base production form the Sky Hawk lacked the tachometer and vacuum gauge of the Golden Hawk, otherwise their instrument panels are the same, with an engine-turned fascia and round Stewart-Warner dials. As a member of the senior President model line, the Sky Hawk received a full set of interior appointments approaching those of the Golden Hawk. If we approach it as a value proposition, the Sky Hawk is arguably the better buy as it was priced nearly $600 less than the Golden Hawk, $2.477 vs. $3,061, a savings of nearly 20 percent.

Whatever we might say about the relative merits of the Sky Hawk over the Golden Hawk, Studebaker buyers didn’t see it that way. Despite its higher price, the Golden Hawk outsold the Sky Hawk by a clear margin, 4,071 to 3,050. In fact, the Sky was the lowest-selling Hawk for ’56. In any event, Hawk sales could never support four distinct models, so for ’57 the line was pared down to two models and to just one in 1959, becoming the Gran Turismo Hawk in 1962. The Hawks never did sell in large numbers and added little to automaker’s annual volume over the nine-year run, but they brought some much-needed glamour to the Studebaker lineup.