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- Wayback Wheels -
Vintage Car Talk
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- Wayback Wheels
- By Aaron Neilly
- Moving Forward - The Studebaker
Avanti
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- The Studebaker Avanti sports
car was likely one of the most innovative domestic cars presented
to the North American market in 1963.
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- Studebaker was struggling and
management decided the manufacturer had to have a car that could
reverse the downward trend the Studebaker name was experiencing.
Because of this, it was announced that a new, exotic sports coupe
would be introduced.
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- The Avanti was built in South
Bend, Indiana, between June of 1962 and December of 1963. Designed
by a team of stylists (during an intense five-week session in
a rented house in Palm Springs) who were employed by industrial
designer Raymond Loewy, the Avanti was an entirely new
looking car on the outside, and resembled nothing else on the
road.
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- The timeless design could almost
pass for a modern car today. Having said that, the car was actually
built on top of the Studebaker Lark convertible frame, which
was first developed in 1953. Interesting appointments on the
interior included overhead mounted switches for accessories,
a flip-up mirror and makeup tray on the passengers’ side
of the dashboard, an opening from the interior to access items
in the trunk, and red illuminated gauges and dials.
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- Avanti is Italian for "forward"
or "advance," a description this car lived up to. The
Avanti was the first American mass-produced car to feature standard
caliper operated disc brakes and was designed entirely with streamlining
in mind. When Ford introduced the Taurus in 1984, they claimed
they had reduced wind drag substantially by hiding the radiator
grille below the bumper and having a smooth nose on the car.
Studebaker, however, had beatten them to this by over 20 years.
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- The car was also designed with
safety in mind, having seatbelts available as an option. As well,
all cars produced had safety door latches and an integral roll-bar.
Engines ranged from a 120 horsepower 232-cubic inch V8, to the
Avanti “R-3,” with a 304.5 cubic inch V8 that had much
larger intake ports and larger valves, an intake manifold with
larger ports, headers, a very aggressive cam, a supercharger
and a four-barrel carburetor. The R-3 was tested at over 400
horsepower at the flywheel.
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- In late 1962, Studebaker ran
an R-3 Avanti at the Bonneville Salt Flats, and pushed the car
to a record top speed of 170.78 mph, breaking 34 U.S. land speed
records, allowing Studebaker to name it the world's fastest production
car.
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- The Avanti received wild amounts
of press coverage, reviews, reports and praise, which led many
enthusiastic buyers to place advance orders. However, the car
faced some serious production delays, mostly due to problems
with the fiberglass body. The Moulded Fiberglass Products Company
of Ohio (Who produced bodies for the Corvette at the time) had
built shells with the rear window opening too large for the already
made rear glass pieces. Studebaker gave up on the company, and
eventually produced their own bodies for the Avanti.
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- Studebaker didn’t offer
separate model years of the Avanti. Instead, they made running
changes to the car. The easiest way to determine the age of one
is from the headlight bezels: Cars made until July of 1963 had
round bezels while cars made after that had square bezels. And
to make things complicated, a few 1964 cars slipped by with round
bezels.
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- In December of 1963, Studebaker
announced they would be moving their automotive manufacturing
facilities from Indiana to Hamilton, Ontario, and decided to
drop the Avanti from their line-up, even though only 4,643 were
built. The final one contained a letter signed by Studebaker
executives explaining the car's significance, hidden beneath
the carpeting near the spare tire. This car was a white R-3 model.
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- After the move, Studebaker survived
only two more years, assembling Commanders, Daytonas, and Cruisers
equipped with Canadian built GM engines.
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- However, all hope was not lost
for the Avanti. After the Indiana plant was closed, Nate Altman
and Leo Newman (former Studebaker dealers) purchased the
production rights, remaining parts and moulds and a portion of
the South Bend plant to continue producing the Avanti.
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- They had approached the Checker
Motor Company (maker of the iconic Checker Cab), about taking
over production, but the president explained he was not interesting
in building an “ugly car.”
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- Altman and Newman meticulously
hand built these new Avantis (called the Avanti II) in very limited
numbers, first with a 327 cubic inch GM engine (From the Corvette),
then a 350, then a 400 and then the reliable 305.
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- In 1982, Stephen Blake,
a wealthy real estate developer, purchased the rights
to the Avanti and made some updates to the car, including making
a convertible model available. However, Blake’s company
declared bankruptcy in 1986, and production rights were taken
over by Michael Kelly, who continued to produce the cars
until 1991.
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- The Avanti has survived numerous
failures after being produced by a handful of companies. It has
evolved into somewhat of a cult car, keeping a very loyal base
of enthusiasts for over 40 years. The Avanti was even proudly
owned by several celebrities including Shirley Bassey,
Dick Van Dyke, Ian Fleming, Frank Sinatra and
Johnny Carson.
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- Thanks for reading, and see
you next time when I’ll write about a rather obscure Japanese
supercar of the 60’s, the Toyota 2000GT.
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- Wayback Wheels Archives
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