It isn't exactly shirtsleeves weather, cool and cloudy. And we're dodging rain showers on the back roads that connect Yarker, Moscow and Camden East near Kingston. But the windows are down and our elbows are perched on the door caps just as they should be for an afternoon cruise in a 1963 Studebaker GT Hawk.
Owner Will Norton looks relaxed and comfortable behind the big leather-wrapped steering wheel and the 289 cubic inch (4.7-litre) V-8 under the hood is just loafing along, emitting a contented burble.
That can change with a firm prod on the gas pedal, dropping the Flight-O-Matic transmission down a ratio and delivering 225 horsepower to the rear wheels. The GT in the Hawk's name stands for Gran Tourismo and isn't just marketing hyperbole. It can press on when required.
Norton though generally prefers a more sedate pace, enjoying the car's solid feel and a chance to take in the passing scenery. This approach also means the mileage sticks closer to the 15 mpg (19 L/100 km) the Hawk usually drains through its four-barrel carb.
Another aspect of the fun in owning this distinctively-styled and rare automobile -- 360 were built in Canada in 1963 and maybe 50 survive -- is the reaction it draws.
You can see heads swivel in passing cars and at the gas station where we top up the tank -- it's an immediate conversation starter.
When we stop for a photo op outside the Waterfall Tea Room back in Yarker, Ont., chef Eric DePoe takes a break to look this black beauty over.
That Norton acquired the car in 1999 had a degree of inevitability. His father had purchased his first Studebaker in 1960, a 1959 Lark wagon, and followed it up with three others in which the family toured extensively during Norton's impressionable years.
After settling down in Yarker following a peripatetic 35-year military career that included four overseas tours with the airborne regiment (he's now Sergeant-Major of 772 Electronic Warfare Squadron in the reserves) it was finally time for a Studebaker of his own.
And it had to be a GT Hawk. As a 12-year-old camping in B.C., he'd seen a white 1962 model, carrying more chrome as Canadian models did, and was smitten. "It's a beautifully styled car with a real sporting flare. And it was the premier Studebaker vehicle for many years," he says.
Norton found his GT Hawk in Huntsville, paying $4,000 for a decent runner he's invested another $8,000 in so far, to make it into a good-looking, reliable car that can be driven on a daily basis. He's got a shed full of parts from two other Hawks to help keep it running.
Studebaker is a name that's likely not familiar to many these days outside the old car community, although it played a significant role in putting both Americans and Canadians on wheels.
The company was created in 1852 by brothers Henry and Clem Studebaker, as a wagon-making enterprise in South Bend, Ind. It began building automobiles in 1902 and by 1909 had established a branch plant in Walkerville, Ont., near Windsor.
Studebaker produced a model called the Dictator in the 1930s, which may have had something to do with this plant's closure in 1939. It began building cars here again after World War Two in a plant in Hamilton.
Studebaker merged with Packard in 1954 and the Canadian operation became Studebaker-Packard Canada producing, among other models, the Scotsman station wagon and distributing Mercedes-Benz automobiles.
Studebaker production ended in the U.S. in 1963 but continued in Canada until 1966. One of the last well-known Studebaker models, the sporty Avanti, is still being built in Georgia.
The Hawk's history starts in the early 1950s when, under the influence of renowned industrial designer Raymond Loewy, Studebaker began building some very attractive coupes. In 1956 these evolved into four European-flavoured vehicles called the Flight Hawk, Power Hawk, Sky Hawk and the more extroverted Golden Hawk.
Only a be-finned Silver Hawk survived as the decade ended and sales were slipping badly, but the arrival of the fin-less and very cleanly styled Gran Tourismo of 1962 kept the model alive. About 100,000 Hawks were produced in all.
Norton's 1963 GT Hawk is a pillar-less two-door design with a sharply angled rear roofline and prominent grille.
Underneath is a separate ladder frame, and the wheelbase is a long 3,060 mm. It has independent suspension up front with a solid rear axle at the rear, weighs about 1,500 kg, rode originally on 6.70- by 15-inch bias-ply tires and is stopped by four drum brakes.
Under the hood is Studebaker's own 289-cubic-inch, overhead-valve, cast-iron V-8 engine, fed by a four-barrel carburetor and rated at 225 hp at 4,500 rpm. Behind it is a three-speed Borg Warner automatic transmission.
It may have taken Norton a while to get around to owning a Studebaker, but he's made up for lost time rapidly. He now serves as president of the Ontario Chapter of the 13,000 member Studebaker Drivers Club and his next project is getting a 1964 Cruiser Delux sedan, once the personal car of the president of Studebaker Canada, Gordon Grundy, on the road for wife Lorna to drive.
A new Studebaker museum opens this fall in South Bend, but you don't have to wait that long to see some of these interesting cars.
This weekend, July 8-10, 100 or more Studebakers, plus a number of other vehicles, will take part in the 2005 Orphan Car Show and Studebaker Driver's Club Zone Meet being staged at the Country Heritage Park in Milton, Ont.
A swap meet starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday with the car show and judging from noon to 4 p.m.
Sunday will feature an orphan car drive past from 11 a.m. to noon. Show entry fee is $20, adult visitors $7, kids free.
