Why is it that certain cars seem to be built over and over, only to overpopulate every car show and most car magazines? What makes ’em so popular? One simple answer: charisma and machismo. It’s true. Think of any popular, lusted-after hot rod or muscle car and its great bodylines. They all have a certain style and presence that reaches across the boundaries of differing tastes and just ooze cool.

Occasionally an automotive design is devised that’s just an anomaly for its time, as if the artist was looking forward to an era of style just a bit beyond his contemporaries. Such was the case with the design of the 1953 Studebaker coupe penned by Robert E. Burke at the infamous Raymond Loewy studios. The sleek, low-slung Studes with their roofline at only 56 inches were a good 6 to 10 inches below most other American coupes of the era, and the rakish aero-styling stood in sharp contrast to its tall, square-nosed brethren. Think about any other American-built car in the same era: Ford, Chevy, Caddy, Buick, Packard all beautiful, but also big, bulky, and almost trucklike in comparison. Suffice it to say, the Starliner and Starlight coupes caught the public off guard and were immediate showroom hits.