The Studebaker Speedster was originally conceived as a show car but quickly moved into limited production as a high trim level President Hardtop Coupe. One can easily surmise that Studebaker management was using this car as a “toe in the water” entry into the sporty car market. In 1955 the only cars that even pretended to be sporty were the Corvette, Thunderbird, Chrysler 300 and Kaiser Darrin; three of the four were of the two seater, sports car mode all relatively new to the market. Studebaker must have sensed a rare opening to exploit in the bruising automobile marketplace of the mid-fifties. Studebaker's Speedster preceded the "Sports Sedan" trend by many years. HooRay