A name that never died: The Avanti

In the beginning

Studebaker in the early 1960’s wasn’t in the greatest of shape. Barely managing to scrape by the late 1950’s through selling their Lark compact and sporty Hawk, neither of these cars being updated from their 1950’s styling because of a notable lack of funds.

Studebaker being a small and independant (and the most storied manufacturer, being the only major company to switch from carriages to cars), didn’t have nearly the funds like the Big Three had.

Furthermore, when the prosperous 1960’s rolled along, economic and cheap cars like the Lark weren’t needed like they were in the later half of the 1950’s and sales of their volume selling Lark fell in half by 1961.

Studebaker needed to do something and fast to save their image and regain sales, enter Sherwood Egbert.

Development

Egbert a young, hard-charging, former US Marine, was the new president at Studebaker for 1961 and, sensing the trouble the company was in, had the Lark and Hawk restyled for the 1962 model year as a sort of stop gap measure to catch the public’s attention. He needed something more dramatic.

On a plane trip from Chicago only about a month before becoming president, Egbert had “doodled” a design of a elegant grand tourer on a napkin. He needed someone with a bit more experience at design to interpret the doodles.

Raymond Loewy needs no introduction, the man basically designed everything good in the world (the glass coke bottle, Shell logo, locomotives to name but a few). He had also done work previously for Studebaker, designing the elegant 1953-54 Champion.

Loewy and his team got to work on interpreting Egbert’s drawings on a 40 day crash program, designing a fiberglass four seater on a modified 109in Lark convertible chassis with a 289 CID (4.7L) V8 from the Hawk sports car line.

Loewy’s envisioned low slung, semi-fastback would need to be made of fiberglass regardless as the complex design would be difficult and expensive to build in steel. Studebaker would outsource the moldings to Molded Fiberglass Body, the same company that did moldings for the Chevrolet Corvette.

What came was a beautifully elegant and fast looking design with a number of unique design features and quirks.
A big one was the bottom mounted air intake. No conventional grille was on the car, only a large air intake bellow the front bumper, making it one of the first bottom breather designs, a trend that would become popular some 20 years later.
The asymmetrical hood hump and large, round headlights were also trademark Loewy touches.

The car both looked good and also packed some advanced features for the time.
Caliper style disc brakes, the first American car to feature them, built in anti-roll bars, and padded interior and door latches to name a few.

Egbert was more than thrilled with his new car and wanted it unveiled quickly and save his company.

Initial release and performance

The work paid off. When it was unveiled in New York, the public went crazy for the new car and people lined up outside dealerships to get a glimpse at it, drawing them to other Studebaker models as well.

Priced at $4,445 ($36,910 in today’s money) for a base model, it was practical and nicely equipped compared to a $4,252 Corvette.

Performance? The Avanti delivered on that front quite well from R1-R5 specs.
The base R1 spec came with a N/A 289 “Jet-Thrust” V8 equipped with a 4 barrel carbourater, mild cams, and dual exhaust making 240 HP.
R2s had all of the aforementioned items and a Paxton supercharger bolted onto it for 290 HP, one horsepower for every cubic inch.
R3s came with a larger supercharger and 335 HP.
The R4 was an experimental version without any forced induction and 280 HP, this version never made it into production.
Finally, the R5. This monster of a car had twin superchargers, fuel injection, and magneto ignition all to make a reported 575 HP, impressive even for today. Obviously this never made it to serial production either.

The Avanti R3 was the fastest production car in the world in 1963. #9 shown above set a record for Class C closed cars at 170.81 MPH
Another car managed a top speed of 196 MPH, insanely fast for the 1960’s.
The Avanti went on to break 29 Bonneville Salt flats records.

All of this good press and racing success must have meant the Avanti was an instant hit and would save Studebaker, right…?

The uphill battle begins

To answer that, no. While it was successful in its arguably easiest task of wowing the public, actually selling them proved to be another story.

Production delays arose as a result of the outsourced fiberglass molding. Molded Fiberglass Body ended up botchcing most of the bodies, forcing Studebaker to set up it’s own fiberglass molding facility, seriously delaying orders as a result.

On top of botching the bodies, Egbert rushed the Avanti to market as well, causing more quality problems.
As a result of these issues, many would-be owners cancelled their orders and bought Corvettes or other sporty cars.

It didn’t help either that Studebaker would be closing its historic South Bend, Indiana plant in December of 1963, just as the last 1964 Avantis rolled off the production line. Studebaker would end up moving it’s production to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and close it’s doors on automobile production for good in 1966. The Avanti died with the South Bend factory as well.

A total of 3,834 Avantis were built in 1963 and 809 for 1964, a total of 4,643 Studebaker branded Avantis were built.

Legends never die; 1965-1982 Altman Bros

Such a beautiful car like the Avanti couldn’t be left for dead, so two local Studebaker dealers named Nate and Arnold Altman bought the Avanti name, tooling, and production space in South Bend and was incorporated as Avanti Motor Corporation and sold small amounts of these now hand built Avantis.

According to Stu Chapman, Studebaker Director of Advertising and Public Relations from 1964-66, there was talk of reintroducing the Avanti in showrooms in 1965/66, this never materialized however.

Initial 1965 Avanti II’s had Chevrolet 327 CID V8s out of a Corvette rated at 300 HP mated to either a Borg-Warner 4 speed manual or “Power-Shift” 3 speed automatic.

The Altman Avanti IIs used a range of Chevrolet powerplants depending on when they were produced. The 327 would be used until 1968 with the 350 taking it’s place in 1969 and then the 400, then finally the 305 in 1981.
Avanti II’s would be built on a Studebaker designed chassis all the way from 1963 until 1985, moving to a Chevolet Monte Carlo chassis then a Caprice platform.

Due to the limited production run, the quality, available options like power windows and air conditioning, and price all increased.
While the original car started at $4,445, Altman Avantis started between $6,550-$7,200 and could go up to near $10K with options such as tinted glass, limited slip, and all leather interior.

Sadly, with the death of Arnold Altman, Nate sold the company in 1982 to real estate developer Stephen H. Blake.

Under Blake management, 1982-1987

Blake bought the rights in 1982 as well as the State of Indiana giving him $1.9 million (~$5 million in today’s money) in loans.
Blake made some modifications to the car, which had largely remained unchanged since the 1960’s (part of the cars appeal IMO).
A convertible bodystyle was added, new backbone chassis designed by Herb Adams (former Pontiac engineer), Corvette rear end, and independant suspension.
All of these cars came with 305s mated to a 3 speed auto.

These changes could not keep Blake’s venture afloat and he resigned in 1986, and declare bankruptcy in 1987.

The Cafaro years

John J. Cafaro bought the bankrupt company in 1987 with financial assistance from the State of Ohio and moved it’s production from South Bend to Youngstown, Ohio and continued producing the coupe and convertible.

Cafaro, apparently losing faith in the coupe, added a bizzare four door sedan to the line up in 1990. Only 90 sedans and 405 coupes and convertibles were built in Youngstown from 1987-1991 before it closed.

End of the line: Michael E. Kelly, 1999-2006

Kelly purchased the company in 1999 and moved it’s production to Georgia and produced them there from 2000-2005.
From 2004 on, the Avanti switched over to using Ford SN-95 Mustang chassis and 4.6L V8s, with the option of a V6 (only one was ever made with a V6).

In 2006, Kelly moved production to Cancun, Mexico.
This plan was short lived as Kelly was arrested in December 2006 for running a large Ponzi scheme not only involving the Avanti, but also retirement funds and fake resorts. Many rare Studebaker and Avanti concepts were found in the Cancun facility.

Epilogue

Where do I begin to wrap up this legend, first starting as a failed attempt to save one of America’s greatest independant auto makers, to being cut short as it was involved in a huge Ponzi scheme, bounced around different owners in between.

With loyal fans of the car keeping it alive 40 years after its original creator went out of business, we may see a revival of the great Avanti name, powered by 6.2 LS engines or 5.2 Ford Voodoos, maybe even electric.
Regardless, this is a car that refused to be forgotten along with its loyal following.

The Avanti: a name which refused to die.

Thanks for reading!

-Nick

Sources

http://www.danjedlicka.com/classic_cars/studebaker_avanti.html

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2015/09/16/a-brief-history-of-studebaker-1852-1966/

http://www.theavanti.com/r1007.html

https://auto.howstuffworks.com/1965-1969-avanti-ii2.htm