Here's a car I was prepared to dislike, based on its origins plus photos I'd seen in various magazines. And yet, when I came upon the 1958 Packard Hawk in RM Auction's tent at the Arizona Biltmore, my opinions were instantly mellowed. Blame it on nostalgia for, like most older folk, I have fond memories of earlier years, including the cars I knew and admired (and couldn't afford). With all its glitter and chrome, its flaring fins, its grossly overdecorated exterior, the Packard Hawk is a product of those times. The Hawk actually began life as a 1953 Studebaker Starliner coupe, designed in the Raymond Loewy studios by Bob Bourke, absolutely pure of line and very European in concept; perhaps the most beautiful mass-produced American car every made. In 1956 Studebaker added fins and a Mercedes-like grille to create the Hawk, and later the Golden Hawk. A marketing necessity, these moves nevertheless lost the purity of the original design.

Meanwhile the Packard Motor Company had fallen on hard times. The solution to its problems, it was felt, would be to amalgamate with Studebaker. Unfortunately the Packard-badged cars that were born from this marriage were little more than badge-engineered Studies, loaded with upmarket features but disasters from a styling point-of-view. About all the designers could so was add visual identity in an attempt to persuade the public that they were getting a genuine Packard. This Hawk is one of only 588 produced for 1958, featuring a fiberglass nose and McCullough-supercharged 289 c.i. V-8. RM claims the Hawk was the fastest Packard ever built. A concours award-winner, featured on TV and in magazines, it was offered without reserve, with $50,000 - $75,000 as an estimated selling price.