Costing $11 million to develop these new Studebakers were presented in the
spring of 1946. This was the work of Robert E Bourke and Virgil M Exner
at Loewy Associates. Exner, who by the time it was released had set up its
own design studio, was actually the person responsible for the details of the
car. Commanders returned along the Champions. The latter dropped the
Skyway name. The Champion and Commander had different fronts and
rode different chassis. The Commander wheelbase had an extra 7 inch but
since those inches was placed ahead of the cowl no extra interior room was
gained. The '47 had a body colored molding on the front edge of the hood.
Parking lights were rectangular and placed in grille opening. Front emblems
were different on Commanders and Champions. Commanders had Commander
inscript on left side of hood and Studebaker on right. Both Champion and
Commander convertibles had a one-piece curved windshield, while all others
had the traditional two-piece. Introduced this year was the Hill-Holder, which
was a pioneering Studebaker option designed to hold manual cars in place
on hills. Another advance was the employment of automatic, self-adjusting
brakes. There was also an overdrive transmission provided as optional
equipment, and this consisted of an automatic higher gear that cuts in at 30
mph and reduces the engine speed 30 per cent. Other options were radio
with telescopic antenna which could be wound out or retracted from the
driving seat, a controlled spotlight mounted on the windscreen pillar, a two-
way switch which linked the horn ring to flash the headlights as a silent
warning. A special 123 inch chassis was reserved for the new Commander
Land Cruiser. Both Commanders and Champions were offered as two-
and four-door sedans, (4-doors had suicide rear doors) 3 passenger
coupe, convertible coupe and the new 5 passenger coupe which had a radical
wraparound rear window. All except convertibles and Land Cruiser were
available in both base DeLuxe trim and an optional Regal DeLuxe trim.
Some of the Regal trim differences included stainless steel rocker panel
moldings and windshield borders. Champions carried a 169.6 cui inline
six producing 80 hp and Commanders had a 226 cui inline six with 94 hp.

A total of 105.097 Champions and 56.399 Commanders were
produced during the year.