Quick Silver

When Patrick Watts went looking for the basis of his new race car he made a novel choice in this 1959 Studebaker Silver Hawk, but it’s worked out rather well…

- Patrick Watts

You don’t see many racing Studebakers − certainly not on British circuits − but then Patrick Watts has never followed trends. “I wanted something different for Historic Racing Drivers Club racing,” explains Patrick. “I’d been competing in a Volvo doing club racing, then got an invite to the Goodwood Revival to run in their pre-1960 races, so started thinking about what I might like to drive next. I’d been considering a 1.5-litre Riley with a 1.8 MGB engine, as allowed by HRDC regulations, but then I was chatting with fellow racer and HRDC founder Julius Thurgood and he directed me toward a pair of Studebakers, this Silver Hawk and a Golden Hawk. They were effectively rusty wrecks with a lorry load of bits and I thought I could build an unusual race car.

“I took the body from the Silver Hawk and the best bits from the other to produce one complete car, although it turned out a lot of parts were missing. I did most of the build at home in my workshop. After having the body shell sandblasted, I put in a new floor, making half of it after welding in the transmission tunnel from the Golden Hawk. The front repair sections came back from the States in my hand luggage. I solid-mounted the body to the chassis with aluminium spacers – originally they would have been rubber – and uprated the chassis outriggers to make stronger mountings for the Custom Cages six-point roll cage.”