CarBrandLogos archive · Studebaker · 1962

StudebakerAvanti

Designed in a rented house in two weeks, and still selling twenty years later.

Photo: CZmarlin — Christopher Ziemnowicz, releases all rights but a photo credit would · Public domain

The story

A defining chapter in Studebaker history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Studebaker Avanti, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Sherwood Egbert took over Studebaker in 1961 knowing the company needed attention more than it needed volume. He called Raymond Loewy, who assembled a small team including Bob Andrews, Tom Kellogg and John Ebstein in a rented house near Palm Springs and gave them about a fortnight to produce a design. What came out was unlike any other American car: no grille, a wedge profile, a curved rear window, a raised rear haunch and an asymmetric bulge along the bonnet.

1967 Studebaker Avanti II f L · Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

Production reality forced a fibreglass body, because Studebaker could not afford steel tooling for the volumes involved, and it was moulded by an outside supplier. Underneath sat a modified Lark convertible frame with a stiffening structure, a 289 cubic inch V8 in normally aspirated R1 form or supercharged R2 form, and front disc brakes, which no other American production car of 1962 offered as standard. A built-in roll bar hoop and aircraft-style overhead switchgear reflected Egbert's interest in safety.

1963 Studebaker Avanti Coupe - fvr · Rex Gray · CC BY 2.0

1963 Studebaker Avanti with 4-speed in white 12of12

In production

Studebaker went to Bonneville to prove the point, and Avantis driven under Andy Granatelli's direction took a long list of American speed records, including runs with the experimental R3 engine that made the car quicker than most things sold in Europe.

1963 Studebaker Avanti with 4-speed in white 12of12 · CZmarlin — Christopher Ziemnowicz — a photo credit is required if this image is used anywhere other than Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 4.0

Legacy

Then the fibreglass bodies arrived warped and out of tolerance, deliveries slipped by months, and customers who had paid deposits bought Corvettes instead. Fewer than six thousand were built before South Bend closed at the end of 1963. Two local Studebaker dealers bought the tooling and the rights and restarted production as the Avanti II with Chevrolet engines, and the shape stayed in low-volume manufacture under a succession of owners into the 2000s. Almost nothing else about Studebaker outlived Studebaker by forty years.

At a glance