#[1955-1962]The Eagle Story
###1953 Oliver Redhawk’s Vacation
In 1953, Oliver Redhawk needed a vacation and decided to head over to Europe. This was suppose to be a vacation, but with Oliver’s growing obsession in speed and power, he was also in Europe for the racing and to see other engine designs. I mean, this was his well deserved vacation after the second generation of Delux automobiles had hit the road, and he was going to spend it exactly how he wanted.
So in his two week vacation in Europe, Oliver traveled around, seeing the races, talking to other companies’ engineering departments, and also doing some general site-seeing. Well, he happened to find the headquarters for AG Ltd., and got to talking with them about their small operation. Oliver Redhawk talked to AG about what it takes to mass produce vehicles, but suddenly cut off his sentence when he noticed what was on the drawing board.
AG Ltd. Hawk
“What is that sporty looking convertible?” Oliver asked.
“Oh, umm… You’re not suppose to see that, … Why do we have that up here!, Benjamin, take that down, it’s not suppose to be here!”
Oliver poked further, “You know, I could see a great partnership here. If you let me take a look at that convertible, I could work out a deal where we provide you with engines for your mass production vehicle… Seeing as you don’t have the facilities to make that happen…”
“Wait, um… Hold that there, Benjamin. Mr. Redhawk I am greatly interested in your proposition now.”
“Please, call me Oliver,” Mr. Redhawk responded.
And with that, a deal was worked out. American Eagle Automotive would provide a mass produced engine for AG, in return for adding a US-based production facility where AEA would produce the convertible roadster code named “Hawk” for the North American market.
AG Ltd. Hawk
Now, when Oliver finally got back to the States, Andrew Eagleson was understandably frustrated with him, as Oliver got AEA into an unapproved contract with another company, and to top it off, the contract required new assembly buildings be built for the “Hawk” and the new “mass production export engine” that was not even designed yet! In fact, Andrew was so furious at Oliver’s brash decision making, he nearly flipped his desk over, and mandated this “Hawk” to be properly named after himself in an act of defiance against Oliver, thus the Eagle nameplate was born.
So the work was started. Oliver had a facility built and brought a third of the AG aluminum body workers over to the US to get a head start on the Eagle’s production. But there were problems. First off, Oliver wanted to fit their V8 in the thing, but that was found to be a tight squeeze. They had to use custom bent tubular exaust headers to get it in the small frame. Further early testing showed even more weaknesses. The main one being AG’s double wishbone IRS. While sufficent for AG’s I6, the IRS was simply too weak to use with AEA’s V8 engines and their massive torque. So, on a whim, Oliver, and a few fellow engineers, took one of the live-axel rear ends AEA had lying around, shortened it to fit within the confindes of the Eagle chassis, and took the coil springs from AG to suspend it. Amazingly it worked! The home-built coil-spring live-axle could hold up to the torque. Thus the V8s could be used in the little chassis!
Early AEA Eagle Base model
But the second big problem was with AG’s I6 engine. Due to some odd regulations and exporting/importing laws, AG could not get the I6 into the US. For two straight weeks Oliver fussed over the paperwork, trying to find a loophole. There was one. The engine could be mass imported separate from the rest of the car, but then AEA had to sell the car separate from the engine! (But AEA had no trouble sending the mass production I4 to AG Ltd.)
It was a mess… until another engineer suggested using the I4 they were designing in the base model of the Eagle instead of AG’s I6.
AG Ltd. Hawk Front End
“Well, Why didn’t we come up with that earlier!” Oliver exclaimed, surprized at how simple the solution was. So the I4 was used in the North American version of the Eagle, along with the coil-sprung solid-axle rear end. The European version, being the AG Hawk, had the AG I6 and IRS. The difference between the two versions, visually, was the front grill and the rear end. The European version… Was very European in looks. But the North American version, having to deal with the V8 engine, got a totally different grill. It was opened up to allow more cooling for the engine, giving the Eagle a distinctive front end.
AEA Eagle V8 Special Front End
Now, the final problem was not with the car itself, but the contract. Feeling very confident in AEA’s abilities Oliver Redhawk had agreed to a production of at least 2,000 total AEA Eagles each year for 6 years in the North American market. Well, that was a highly ambitious goal that was realistically unattainable. When production was fully underway, AEA found they could only produce about 10 to 12 cars a day*, as long as the imported bodies didn’t get delayed. And that left the total production number at just under 500 cars a year.
###Advertising and Marketing
With the introduction of Chevrolet’s Corvette in 1953, Oliver Redhawk watched its progress and success as he worked with AG Ltd with the Eagle. If the Corvette survived until 1955, he would aggressively advertise the Eagle as a direct competitor.
And the Corvette survived into 1955, getting its own V8 as well! Oliver saw this and talked to the advertisement department about aggressively going after the Chevrolet Corvette. Within that same year, more important events happened…
AEA Eagle TR
###In 1955 Andrew Eagleson finally gave Oliver Redhawk a separate branch inside American Eagle Automotive: The Redhawk Performance Group (RPG).
Done in an attempt to keep Oliver happy and give him an outlet for his “projects”, he also gave Oliver the reigns for all of AEA’s racing teams, and factory backing. This proved to further fuel Oliver’s obsession with speed and power, but at least he had his own division to explore within.
So, in 1955 the Eagle was offered in three trims, a base trim, a track oriented trim called TR, and the V8 Special trim. Due to the pricing, the base trim was a very popular choice, with the V8 Special taking the cake over the TR trim. All trims came with a 4-speed manual, the TR getting a special Close-Ratio super competition version of the 4-speed. The Eagle was well received in the North American markets, but the I4 in the TR version was a disaster!
AEA Eagle V8 Special
There were reports of bent connecting rods and scored pistons. While the base used the same I4, it had no issues at all due to the lower power output. So with reports of weakly designed conrods and pistons, Oliver Redhawk started an aggressive search for a better solution with the engineering team. That solution came in early 1956 in the form of Forging! By using forged pistons and conrods, not only could engines take much more abuse, they could also be tuned with slightly higher compression and timing compared to equal cased components.
American Eagle Automotive also tried to keep good public relations in this, as once the flaw was fixed with the TR version of the I4 they issued a recall to replace any of the affected engines with a brand new forged I4 (with some restrictions of course). And mid-year in 1956 they called the new TR with the forged engines TR-F just to differentiate from the early non-forged TRs in 1956. That made finding a non-forged 1956 TR in modern times extremely rare, as many were brought back under the recall for the replacement forged engine.
1956 AEA Eagle TR-F
But one more problem hit in 1956, Chevrolet dropped the base cost of a Corvette to only $2,900! This also hurt sales for the Eagle that year. It was a great move by Chevrolet to encourage buying a Corvette over an Eagle, but it only lasted one year (thankfully!).
In 1957 the Eagle was given a slightly bigger V8 for the V8 Special. Displacement went from 242ci to 255ci. Horsepower went up by 15 as well for 1957.
AEA Eagle V8 Special
In 1958 a new trim replaced the TR, that was the TR-200. Named due to the bump in displacement for the I4, the TR-200 was overall a bit better than the original 1955 TR. But it was missing something, as sales were not quite as strong as the original TR was.
By this time, though, the V8 Special, even with its high price, was actually selling much better than the TR or TR-200 did. The public wanted the V8 in North America. Unfortunately, the Eagle didn’t get the new-for-1957 273ci Special V8 until 1961! But while the 273ci engine was not standard, nor an option, the clever folks could Special Order anything in the catalog. Yes, someone did special order a 1957 Eagle with the 273ci Special. It was rumored to have gone racing and been very successful.
AEA Eagle V8 Special
While 1962 was the last production year for the Eagle, American Eagle Automotive had not held up their contract for 2,000 cars a year. Total production was only around 3,500 cars, including the special ordered cars. And Andrew Eagleson was done with producing the specialized Eagle, he had moved on with his El Govnor full-sized sedan, and searching for more mainstream markets to open up into, he was already planning a new midsize sedan to be sold alongside the El Govnor. On top of that, AEA needed a new Big Block engine to power the said El Govnor and midsize sedan, so letting go of Oliver’s Eagle would allow many more resources to be used for the sedans and engines.
####I’ll update this later with some performance data, but for now I need to get this posted.
Spec Sheet (not all models covered in all years)
1955 Base with 4-speed M
150ci I4 90hp @3900rpm
Top Speed 119 mph
Weight 1640 lbs
0-62 in 9.4s
50-75 in 6.6s
Quarter Mile: 17.22 @ 84 mph
Cornering (low and high speed): 0.85g and 0.82g
62-0 Braking: 134’ 8"
Marketed towards Sport Budget and Premium Budget
$11440 @30%
Notable Features:
29 mpg and 66.8 avg. reliability
1955 TR with 4-speed Close Ratio M
171ci Dual Carb Special I4 100hp @4300rpm
Top Speed 125 mph
Weight 1630 lbs
0-62 in 8.2s
50-75 in 4.9s
Quarter Mile: 16.26 @ 92 mph
62-0 Braking: 130’ 5"
Cornering (low and high speed): 0.92g and 0.88g
Marketed towards Track and Track Premium
$12320 @40%
Notable Features:
Engine is at its limits with a 36.1 reliability rating.
1955 V8 Special with 4-speed M
242ci Special V8 (180 hp est) @4000rpm
Top Speed 142 mph
Weight 1930 lbs
0-62 in 7.3s
50-75 in 3.6s
Quarter Mile: 15.18 @ 102 mph
62-0 Braking: 140’ 2"
Cornering (low and high speed): 0.89g and 0.87g
Marketed towards Sport and Muscle
$18000 @50%
Notable Features:
1957 V8 Special with 4-speed M
255ci Special V8 (195 hp est) @4200rpm
Top Speed 142 mph
Weight 1945 lbs
0-62 in 7.1s
50-75 in 3.4s
Quarter Mile: 15.06 @ 105 mph
62-0 Braking: 138’ 3"
Cornering (low and high speed): 0.90g and 0.87g
Marketed towards Sport and Muscle.
$18300 @50%
Notable Features:
Forged connecting rods and pistons
1958 TR-200 with 4-speed Close Ratio M
200ci Dual Carb Special I4 (145 hp est) @4100rpm
Top Speed 131 mph
Weight 1685 lbs
0-62 in 7.5s
50-75 in 3.8s
Quarter Mile: 15.42 @ 99 mph
62-0 Braking: 133’ 2"
Cornering (low and high speed): 0.91g and 0.88g
Marketed towards Track and Track Premium.
$11880 @35%
Notable Features:
1961 V8 Special with 4-speed M
273ci Special V8 (230 hp est) @4600rpm
Top Speed 158 mph
Weight 1970 lbs
0-62 in 6.7s
50-75 in 3.0s
Quarter Mile: 14.34 @ 110 mph
62-0 Braking: 129’ 1"
Cornering (low and high speed): 0.95g and 0.92g
Marketed towards Sport, Muscle, and Track Premium
$18750 @50%
Notable Features:
A 5,000 rpm redline. Last of the Eagles to be produced (under AEA). Better cornering than previous TR models.
######*IRL AC could only produce up to 15 cars a day for Shelby in 1963, so 10-12 is reasonable.