The late fifties threw-up some of the most extreme examples of American automotive styling extravagance with huge fins, oversize bumpers and lashings of chrome spread over many of the industry's top models.

This excess was rife among the Big Three manufacturers (Ford, General Motors and Chrysler) but there was another carmaker that offered a slightly different approach whilst keeping their products broadly within the style of the times.

Studebaker Corporation was a small (by comparison) company based in South Bend, Indiana, producing a very distinctive range of models that originated from the drawing board of Raymond Loewy Associates.

Loewy made his mark as an industrial designer between the wars, with everything from Gestetner duplicating machines to giant streamlined locomotives and the 1932 Hupmobile roadster.

He was later to gain international respect for originating such diverse and iconic images as the Coke bottle, the Greyhound bus, the Lucky Strike cigarette packet and both...