Avanti Stories From Owners, Drivers and Fans?

The guy also couldn`t convince the judge that the 350 Chevy motor came in the car from the factory. So he had to go in the modified class. So he went home early.

 

I had an '84 that had the H.O. 305 and was a nice driving car, some small problems, but always drew a lot of attention. Don't think they ever came with a 350 Chevy, might be wrong....I was once before

 

49 Caddy fastback in the avatar pic is cool!

 

I suppose many things were not on Studebaker's side at the time...they were up against the bigger more successful companies...and what was stated in the story of its launch year below...on Wikipedia

"Many production problems concerning the supplier, fit, and finish resulted in delays and cancelled orders. Egbert planned to sell 20,000 Avantis in 1962, but could build only 1,200."

It's no different than today when the manufacturers 'f' up and are held accountable if it is found out and then there are the recalls...if there's lots it can impact sales. Again this one despite so many walls lives on in its own curious way albeit the company finally shuttered in 2007.

@stanlows post highlights the oddness of the situation...as every year the cars change with brand specific parts this was a little more custom and they for the most part for many years were quite similar. Tricky for the Judges...​

 

The real 'coincidence' with Studebaker V8's was the (seemingly) extreme similarity between the Stude (1951) and the Cadillac (1949). Outwardly, they are very very similar almost anywhere you look. The motor mounts even are near identical. That led to a lot of speculation/accusations that Studebaker copied the Cadillac design. The similarity also was the impetus for the Bill Frick 'Studillac' conversions after the intro of the 1953 Studebaker 'Loewy Coupe'.

The Caddy was 331 cubic inches to the Stude 232" displacement, but with the size and weight about the same, the Studebaker really perked up. Engineering wise, though, there were many detail differences between the two. If there was undue 'influence', anyone who knew has long since moved on to their reward and left us to wonder.

The Stude was enlarged to 259” in ‘55 and 289" displacement made it's debut in the 1956 model Sky Hawk. Both versions served Studebaker for many years thereafter.

Ray

 

Just an update of sorts. The fella I met while getting the daily driver serviced had his Avanti at the cruise night and again these are a mixed bag of vintage parts and newer stuff based on what they had to build with at the time. A somewhat unusual story. He does drive this thing quite a lot and has fun with it as you fellas do.






...The Lane Sight

That Stylized S makes me think of several things...Superman, Star Trek, The Jetson's
& these two characters below...This Avanti is loaded with all kinds of neat stuff like this...
the windshield squirter thing was kinda unique too...




​

 

There's a '64, one owner, Cad (472/500) powered Avanti on eBay right now. It also some rare(?) spyder mags on it! Probably get it pretty reasonably.

 

a friend and I drug a 1975 Avanti II out of a guys back yard about 5 years ago. Engine was locked up and the rear wheels were locked. Several gallons of WD40 down the carbs and a few weeks along with some muscle got the engine broke loose. The rear brakes had to be replaced...…………..and then this happened.



I thought the porn music added to the overall scene

 

About 1978 -9, I was a bodyman at Claremont Ford, Claremont, NH. The owner, Steve Blake, called me into the office one day, told me he was going to buy the Avanti factory and asked I'd consider working for him in his new business. It would have meant moving the family, so I didn't do it. He did buy that Avanti factory and even commissioned an Avanti circle track car built for, I think, Daytona.

 

This is our 1964 Studebaker Avanti R2, 4-speed, traction control. R2 designates the Avanti is equipped with a Paxton Supercharger. Paxton was a subsidiary of Studebaker at the time. Our Avanti has won at Boca Raton Concours d'Elegance in 2012, Texas Concours in 2017 and Keels & Wheels in Houston earlier this year. The car is all fiberglass. Only the 1963 and 1964 models were built by Studebaker. 1965 and later years are considered continuation models produced by a number of companies and investors.

 

Beautiful factory Wild 60's offering and your last statement outlines the unique continuation of this Green Hornet Era Studebaker offering in their Dare to be Different Existence...They sure left a Mark.​

 

The (very little) reading I've done on the Avanti said the first production cars came out in 1962, were they for the 62 model year or were they titled as 63's?

 

In '69 or '70, I (the new guy) was picked to rebuild the trans & put a clutch in a '63 or '64 R1. It seemed strange an Avanti was even sold with a 3 speed, but here it was, a T-86 with an unmachined overdrive tailhousing. All the parts were available from local parts houses. I can't remember what the shift linkage was due to CRS setting in ...

 

DDDenny - you are correct in that for the most part 1963 models were built in in 62, 1964 models built in 63.

302GMC - 3,834 1963 Avanti's were produced. Only 67 were built with a 3-speed manual transmission. It was not available in a 64 model.

 

Wikipedia says 1200 were produced in 1962 but was actually wondering if any were titled as 1962 model, always thought 63 was the first model year.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker_Avanti

 

None were titled as a 1962. Sort of like today, a 2019 model will come out any day now. All those produced between now and end of the year are 2019 models produced in 2018.

Fiberglass bodies were produced by MFG Fiberglass in Ashtubula Ohio. They also made Corvette parts and bodies early on. Avanti bodies were then shipped to South Bend. Later in production Studebaker did build some of its own bodies along with MFG. My Avanti body was built by MFG. MFG is still in business today and still making Corvette parts.

 

Yeh, (for the most part) that has always been standard practice for the Big 3 but wasn't sure about Studebaker, especially with the expedited production timeline of the Avanti.

 

Thanks for the ride - SailingAdventure - and great color there too ! Hope to run those wheels on my 64 Daytona some day.....

 

Avanti's were imported here into Oz over the years, I recollect seeing 3 in the 1970's a gold, a maroon and a white one all in the southern suburbs of Sydney, the white one a couple of times, at least once in the local auto electricians...........they must have been suckers for punishment as I also saw a Studebaker Golden Hawk, blower & all, white & gold at this auto electricians........all were RHD............would like to think these cars are still around..........andyd

 

Posted by me before on the HAMB, this photo is from 1974. On the campus of Aviation High School in Redondo Beach, CA., I was in Photo Class looking for interesting images to capture on film when I came upon this Avanti. I believe it was a teachers car, and it might have been burgundy in color.

 

This is a cool story to me.
I dono if anyone else considers it cool or not.
Three portions.
The first two are just like David Lettermans "Brush With Greatness" tv clips.
Grand Ole Opry number one hit star Billy Grammer was visiting with us at a friends house. He was a neighbor. I gave him a ride home in my 63 Avanti. He said the car was nice, but I should go easy on it because it was too bad that Studebaker was known for having soft engine blocks.
I said "nonsense" they had the strongest engines made. On the two lane rural road on the way to his house, I stomped on it, ran thru the gears to 100 quickly, then did a very hard stop and pointed out that it didnt take much distance to 100 then back to zero. I didnt know if he was going to be mad at me or not. He smiled and said "Do that again!". The Grammer family was a very musical bunch. They insisted they wanted to be the band at our wedding for no charge.
Then they told me the story of my pulling them out of a muddy ditch with my Jeep. I had forgotten doing that. Didn't know it was a famous family.
So the Grammers were the band that played at our wedding. for free.
Avanti "brush with greatness" story number two... World famous racer Buddy Ingersol was a neighborhood repair shop owner. He always enjoyed my kids visiting to see what cool cars he was building at the time.
I let Buddy drive my Avanti a couple times.
Buddy Ingersol said "Hey, that's not bad!" about a car I built.
ok, I don't care if you think it's lame, but I thought it was a good story

WHY BE ORDINARY ?

 

Back in the 60's on the first day they went on Display in Yakima Wa it also just happened to be when the hobby shop a few blocks away from the Studebaker dealer was having the full size "Big T" T bucket on display to promote the kit.
I was 15 and didn't have license or car but convinced my mom to drive up so I could see both. The T was pretty cool and I got to check it put pretty close then we went around to the Studebaker dealer to see the Avanti and the salesmen spent more time flirting with my newly divorced got in great shape 35 year old mom then they did talking about the car but I got to check it out, sit in it and create a memory.

 

Avanti story number three..
Back in the mid 1980s a fellow Stude nut, Ron, and I were talking about Studes and fast cars. Ron Hall and a couple buddies started working on his wifes daily car Avanti. Many people know it today as the first Stude to hit 200 mph with a true Studebaker engine, and that it eventually had the worlds largest "crew".
But fewer people know that only 2, 3, or 4 ppl were the real instigators.
While the race team was still small , Ron loaded the R3 engine in the back of his Stude pickup and drove a few hours south, from Chicago where he lived at the time, I drove my Avanti a couple hours north, and we all met at Jim Lange's place (Jim Lange is a current record holder with a Stude engine in another class, but at the time Neither One had hit 200 yet)
At the very first dyno test on the R3 engine, Jim and Ron were messing with the carburetor, while I was working the ignition with the MSD box.
I started tuning the advance curve when I noticed the distributor wasnt very precise with the timing, and had a lot of spark scatter. That costs horespower.
I ran outside to the parking lot to my Avanti, and quickly yanked out my junkyard HEI distributor I made for my Stude engine. At that time, 1980s, I was the ONLY person making HEI distributors for odd cars such as Jeep, AMC, Hudson, Stude, Packard.
Today everyone seems to be making them, but in the 80s it was only me....
Anyway, I yanked the distributor and complete ignition from the Avanti I drove up with, and put it in the dyno engine.
As Ron and Jim messed with carb setup, I kept recurving and adjusting the ignition from my car, grinding new shapes for the advance pivot plate, changing weights & springs etc. to move the curve around.
With the carb work and ignition work, the horsepower kept inching its way higher and higher as the day went on.
Late at night the dyno owner announced we only had time for two more pulls before he had to shut down. So we pulled my homemade hei ignition I had been tuning on the dyno, put back in the mallory dist and msd box Ron had used, and the R3 lost 34 HP with that change alone. That convinced Ron that he needed a better ignition than the one he brought with him.
Sooo, after 10 o'clock, after we loaded the R3 back on Rons truck for his long drive home, here I was late at night in a far away dark parking lot, working on my Avanti which I deliberately disabled far far from home, installing my distributor and ignition setup for the long drive home.
Most people might call it an ordeal if they had to put their disabled car together in a dark parking lot far from home, but I disabled mine on PURPOSE, called it FUN.
I still call it a memorable adventure I would do all over again if the adventure presents itself again.
Yes it is tremendous FUN.
A little known aspect of the adventure of us getting that now famous car project started is the fact that while we were building the roll cage for Ron's record setting Avanti, we actually made TWO sets of roll cage tubing on the computerized bending machine that Ron had permission to use at his job. Known to only a few today, I have the second cloned cage, the exact copy, built into a tube chassis that we had planned to use as the next generation race car to upgrade the Lark race car that Mike Scherer and I were racing and drawing attention with at the time.
The plan before the disastrous shop fire was to transplant the race drivetrain of the attention-getting drag car into this chassis 1,000 lbs lighter and really get into our turbo experiments.
Yep, there exists an exact copy of Ron Halls Avanti cage + tubes as a lightweight tube frame with Avanti skin that was built at the same time as Ron Halls record setting Avanti. It has been waiting for us to revive the old racing adventure.
Although I seem to have been almost forgotten when a whole crowd rushed to jump on the stage, I still regard it as one of the most memorable adventures of my hotrod days.
But now more years go by, and we talk about the good ole days.
That's my Avanti story



WHY BE ORDINARY ?

 

When Hemmings . com wrote an article about Ron's car, I was surprised to see them link to a video I put up.
Hemmings link gave my posted vid 15,000 hits in just a couple days
I still have the signed paper where Ron Hall gave me permission to share vids to help promote the historic event
I treat it like a treasured autograph.

Here it is- the worlds first 200 mph Stude powered run.
1963 Stude Powered Avanti
Ron Hall at the wheel.



WHY BE ORDINARY ?

 

And will be again. The Avanti II used the base Corvette engine from '65 onward, first, the 327", then the 350". In the '70s, they used the 400" and when that was discontinued, back to the 305".

jack vines

 

This is the coolest photo ever posted (by another member) to the "Sitting & Rotting" forum of the HAMB.

 

That was a wild crazy adventure...but he guided it through to a milestone wow...

 

To me, the best thing about an Avanti (well, the early ones anyway) is the design really is timeless. There's several stude-powered ones I see around here, and parked in a sea of late-models it still looks 'different' but not out-of-date. None of the additions done later for fed requirements improved their looks. The later ones with the square headlights and integrated bumpers lack the élan of the early cars...

 

Here's a pic of my 81000 mile 69 Avanti. 327 chevy auto, only 92 cars built in 69

 

Then you probably reacted the same way I did the first time I saw this.