Three-quarter rear view of a rare Studebaker Commander Starlight coupe Hot Rod, at the Yokohama Shift and Drift Zone of the 2023 Silverstone Festival
The Starlight coupe is a unique 2-door body style that was offered by Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana (United States) from 1947 to 1955 on its Champion and Commander model series. It was designed by Virgil Exner, formerly of Raymond Loewy Associates along the lines of the ponton style that had just gone mainstream after the WWII. The most striking feature was the extremely long (for a five-passenger car) hood-like cover over the luggage compartment of the sedan which was exaggerated on the Starlight. Critics of the radically styled models commented by asking the rhetorical question, "Which way is it going?"[2] (Comedian Fred Allen quipped: "Next year Studebaker is coming out with a model that you won't be able to tell if it is going sideways".) The viewer's astonishment was compounded by the great expanse of the wrap-around rear window. Previously cars had tended to shroud back-seat passengers. For 1950 and 1951, all Studebakers received a freshening of the 1947 design with the addition of the "bullet nose" (or "spinner") front sheet metal design, sharing a similar appearance with the 1949 Ford sedan. When combined with the Starlight body style, Studebakers looked comparatively futuristic at the time. This version of the Starlight body style continued until the end of the 1952 model year, when it was sold side by side with a hardtop "Starliner" version of the same model.
Size: 5440px × 3572px
Location: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -quarter, 1950, 2023, 5700cc, american, bullet, circuit, commander, coupe, drift, exner, festival, futuristic, grass, hot, northamptonshire, nose, orange, rear, rod, shift, silverstone, spinner, starlight, studebaker, towcester, view, virgil, yokohama, zone.
