The Hawk -
Specially designed automobile for the miniseries WHEELS,
a five part, 10-hour series based on Arthur Hailey's best selling
novel. The program told the story of the National Motors
Corporation (NMC), a fictional Detroit manufacturer whose Vice
President Adam Trenton (Rock Hudson) put his career on the line
proposing a new youth-oriented car design called The Hawk.
The story is loosely based on Lee Iacocca's struggle to develop
The Mustang for Ford Motors.
To
create the car for the series, former Detroit auto designer, Curt
Brubaker bought a 1968 AMC Javelin for $700. Cutting off the
doors, he chopped about 2 and 1/2 feet off the rear deck and then
covered it with urethane foam to contour Hawk's new look which
included gull-wing doors. To create the illusion that there were
two of these cars, the original red car was painted white.
