… In Georgetown. The Peugeot 406.

I love beautiful coupes. It’s part of the reason I bought my car (see above). In the late 90’s and early 00’s nobody did coupes as beautiful as Peugeot, definitely none as beautiful as the Peugeot coupe styled Pininfarina. As I have mentioned before, one of the benefits of living in DC is spotting cars that aren’t available in US. I just never thought I’d run into something so lovely walking home from work.

As I have said before, I have been enthralled by cars since I was a kid. My father took me to my first auto show when I was 13, in 1983, and the one car that stuck with me was the Avanti. I thought the car was stunning, different than any American car, almost more European. When I found out that the Avanti was a twenty year old design, and originally a Studebaker, my curiosity was piqued. I had never even seen a Studebaker, since they were out of production before I was born.

Thus started my fascination with the Studebaker, Packard and the demise of the company. Post-war Studebakers were innovative. The designs created by Raymond Loewy are timeless. The mid-50’s Starliner coupes are some of the most beautiful automobiles in history, and were a great foil for Harley Earl’s monstrous, tail-finned, chrome-laden vision of the future. The Lark predicted the rise of compact car before the Big Three had anything in it’s showroom.

When I stumbled across this ad from 1963, I was even more amazed. The 1964 model year was just as Studebaker production stopped in South Bend, and production of the Chevybakers (GM engines) was moved to Canada. And they introduced a high performance, supercharged compact! In 1963! This had me thinking.. what if Studebaker hadn’t been financially mismanaged and were to survive, or even merged with Daimler-Benz? (Mercedes-Benzes were sold through Studebaker dealers) Would it still be here? Would it provide a truly, uniquely American sport sedan? Better yet, would the spirit of the Super Hawk and Super Lark be alive in an M3 fighter?

For your enjoyment, the last gasp of an American icon:

Volvo C30		A Door Stop
Nissan Mixim Concept
Thankfully, this is just a concept.