Studebaker Starlight

The Studebaker Starlight was a two-door, five-passenger coupe body style that the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana, used from 1947 to 1955 on its Champion and Commander series. The 1947 body was designed by Virgil Exner, formerly of Raymond Loewy Associates, along ponton lines, and was the first all-new postwar car in the United States. Its signature was a wraparound rear window made of four fixed glass panels and a very long, hood-like luggage cover that led critics to ask which way the car was going. The coupe was not named Starlight until the 1949 model year, and a pillarless hardtop version called the Starliner followed in 1952. In 1953 Robert Bourke redesigned it lower on a longer 120 inch wheelbase, and for 1956 these coupes were reworked into the Hawk series. Studebaker used the Starlight name once more in 1958 on a full-size hardtop and then retired it for good.