Studebaker Champion Deluxe, 1950, Starlight Coupe

Topical stamp collectors will be able to add to their "car" collections when a six-stamp souvenir sheet is issued featuring Canadian automobiles on August 23, 1993. It is the first of a four-year series on historic vehicles, highlighting transportation's major role in Canada's development. The most significant transportation revolution on this century has been the mass-production automobile. The supply and demand for newer and faster vehicles never ceases as Canadian continue to make innovative contributions to the fascinating story of the automobile. Vehicles powered by internal combustion engines began to appear in Europe in the 1880s as dozen of inventors strove to develop the automobile. The enthusiasm for self-powered vehicles in Canada was initially hampered by streets better suited to carriages and sleighs, and trains were available to avoid bumpy and slow treks over poor roads. As the advantage became clearer - no fixed itineraries, no time schedules, and the more autos were used - the better the road became, car sales boomed. The Studebaker, a popular car of the 1950s, was an important example of post-war styling. Studebaker opened a Canadian plant in Walkerville, Ontario in 1909, and manufactured hundreds of cars for Canadian and Commonwealth sale before it closed in 1936. The post-war demand for cars led Studebaker to open a Canadian facility at Hamilton in 1948. The first car to roll off the assembly line was a 4-door Champion Deluxe. This series included the 2-door Starlight coupe, built from 1948 to 1952. Studebaker's design team, led by Raymond Loewy, based its designs on Aerodynamic motifs. The 1950 model included styling similar to a DC-3 in the shape and detailing of the front end. In 1964, "Track and Traffic" magazine voted Studebaker Car of the Year. Two years later, the Hamilton factory closed. This souvenir sheet was created by using images of the six cars, drawn and illustrated on computer. All of the line, tonal and full-colour drawings were produced in Aldus Freehand. The typography and image assembly was done in Quarkxpress.