A series of the Excalibur exotic car products of Brooks Stevens' creative minds

Creative MINDS As for this one car, it's rare for anyone to know, and we're also seeing it for the first time exactly. As you can see from its unique and unusual shapes, it looks a bit like a batmobile with its long nose at front and double short-fins at rear. This is one of the racing car prototypes that carries the Excalibur name of Brooks Stevens' creative minds.

Did you ever see this is a unique 1963 Excalibur Hawk Coupé racing car prototype? (Picture from: Человек! on Flickr)

For your info, the Excalibur is the sword of King Arthur, according to legend it has miraculous powers and gave him the right to rule England. Then the Excalibur name was adopted and used as a car styled after the 1928 Mercedes-Benz SSK by Brooks Stevens for Studebaker.

This is the 1928 Mercedes-Benz SSK that inspired Brooks Stevens for his Excalibur car creations. (Picture from: OtoBlitz)

Its story began in the early 1950s, Brooks Stevens had created the Excalibur J, a two-seat roadster built on a Henry J frame powered by a Willys engine. At the time only three Excalibur J Sports Cars are known to have been built. All three were used for racing and promotions up to 1958 and known as the First American Sports Cars.

The 1952 Excalibur J is a two-seat roadster built on a Henry J frame powered by a Willys engine, only three units ever built by Brooks Stevens, and known as the First American Sports Cars. (Picture from: ExcaliburClassics)

In 1961, Stevens designed and built the Excalibur Hawk Coupé featured with custom aluminum coachwork based on a Studebaker Hawk chassis, and powered by the supercharged Studebaker R2 V8 engine.

The Excalibur cars of Brooks Stevens were inspired by the Mercedes-Benz SSK roadster, were sort of hot rod versions of the German classic with performance-modified Studebaker V-8 engines. (Picture from: HotRodHotline)

The car was built as racing prototype which had a reported top speed of 165 mph. Although he also designed its spyder version at that time, but never built and left it only existed on the paper until 1990s. Brooks Stevens subsequently formed a company to manufacture and market the cars, which were a standard Studebaker car with special bodywork (and soon got an upgraded engine as well).

The 1961 Excalibur Hawk Coupé racing car prototype featured with custom aluminum coachwork based on a Studebaker Hawk chassis, and powered by the supercharged Studebaker R2 V8 engine. (Picture from: RacingSportsCars)

Later, a prototype premiered at car shows in 1963, fitted on a Studebaker Lark Convertible chassis and using a Studebaker 289 V8 engine with 290-brake-horsepower (290 PS; 220 kW). As quoted of HotRodHotline, the first Series I Excaliburs were built in the David Stevens Research and Development Building at the Brooks Stevens Auto Museum.

The 1961 Excalibur Hawk Coupé racing car prototype which had a reported top speed of 165 mph. (Picture from: RacingSportsCars)

Since then, the production Excalibur evolved into more of a neo-classic luxury car, but remained a sporty looking ride. It inspired the 'production' models of the 1960s. Unfortunately, production had faltered when Studebaker discontinued the supply of its engines at the end of 1963. 

The 1963 Studebaker SS is Brooks Stevens' first prototype of what became the Excalibur, fitted on a Studebaker Lark Convertible chassis and using a Studebaker 289 V8 engine. (Picture from: JournalClassicCars)

To overcome such problem, Stevens contacted his colleagues, GM's executives Ed Cole and Semon 'Bunkie' Knudsen to obtain supplies of a replacement engine from General Motors, namely the Chevrolet 327s in 300-brake-horsepower (300 PS; 220 kW) of Corvette tune, making the 2,100-pound (950 kg) Excalibur a strong performer. Finally over 3,500 Excalibur cars were built, all in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After that the company failed in 1986 but was revived several times.

According to Alice Preston, the first Series I Excaliburs (in pictured is Alice Preston's No. 1 Monaco Edition Excalibur) were built in the David Stevens Research and Development Building at the Brooks Stevens Auto Museum. (Picture from: HotRodHotline)

Fast forward to the early 1990s; Stevens' friend, Robert 'Bob' Shaw managed to convince Stevens to give him the drawings and original model so he can build a spyder version of the Excalibur Hawk later known as the Excalibur Hawk RS. In short, the chassis is designed and built by Chuck Rahn, while Dave Draper and Time Machines Unlimited are employed to build the body and complete the car.

The Excalibur Hawk RS is a two-seat spyder built by Robert Shaw in 1990s based on Brooks Stevens' design sketches of 1959. (Picture from: Pinterest)

Basically, the Excalibur Hawk RS is an appropriately modernized version of the Hawk sports roadster that Stevens designed in 1959 and developed to the scale-model stage (currently in Shaw's possession). From start to completion three years ago, Shaw invested ten years and way too much money into this project. Constructing the chassis consumed a year; designing and building the formed-aluminum body took more than three.

The Excalibur Hawk RS is powered by a 5.7-liter General Motors V8 crate engine is equipped with Edelbrock throttle-body fuel injection, tubular headers, and custom valve covers by Shaw's craftsmen. (Picture from: Historic Automotive Promotion)

The interior consists of fiberglass moldings trimmed in leather and engine-turned aluminum panels. The doors, hood, and deck lid all open and close at the touch of a button. While its drivetrain is used a 5.7-liter General Motors V8 crate engine is equipped with Edelbrock throttle-body fuel injection, tubular headers, and custom valve covers manufactured by Shaw's craftsmen.

Furthermore, the car got traditional red, white, and blue livery as a tribute to Stevens, Shaw selected Mercedes-Benz mystic blue metallic paint, which he spotted in a London dealer's showroom, and paired it with pearl-white and brilliant-red accent colors. For the legs, he utilized the classic Borrani wire wheels wear low-profile BFGoodrich radial tires. As the finishing touch is an official Excalibur vehicle identification plate. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | EXCALIBURCLASSICS | CARTHROTTLE | RACINGSPORTSCARS | HOTRODHOTLINE | CONCEPTCARZ | WIKIPEDIA | FLICKR | PREZI | HISTORIC AUTOMOTIVE PROMOTION ]

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