Studebaker Avanti
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The Studebaker Avanti was a sports coupe originally built by the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana, USA between June of 1962 and December of 1963. Designed by a team of stylists employed by industrial designer Raymond Loewy, the Avanti was all new on the surface and a radical design that is still appealing in the 21st century. Dimensionally, the car's size was very close to that of the Ford Mustang.
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[edit] Introduction
Avanti is Italian for "forward" or "advance," and the car lived up to its name. While Jaguar began offering production-car disc brakes in 1957 on the XK140, the Avanti was the first American mass-produced car to feature standard disc brakes (check 1951 Chrysler Crown Imperial), it also led in its adoption of aerodynamics with a smooth nose -- beating the Ford Taurus and other cars to the streamlining trick of hiding its grill under the bumper by 20 years. The Avanti's emphasis on safety, with seatbelts available as an option, safety door latches and roll-over protection bar, was also very advanced, befitting its name. The Avanti has survived failure after failure of its host companies, yet has risen to cult status, maintaining a loyal customer base large enough to support production as a luxury specialty car on and off for over 40 years.
[edit] Origins
The Avanti's classic design originated in an intense five-week session in a rented house in Palm Springs near the home of lead designer Raymond Loewy. It proved so timeless in appeal the car was produced as a hand-built, custom-order model for decades after Studebaker stopped its production.
Because of Studebaker's precarious financial situation, it had little capital to invest in product development. Though the Avanti looked entirely new it was mounted on a Lark convertible frame first developed in 1953. For power, the Avanti relied on Studebaker's own excellent V8, which underwent considerable high-performance modifications.
[edit] Power
When it debuted in 1951, the Studebaker 232-cubic inch V8 produced just 120 horsepower. However, the base Avanti version of this engine (R-1) produced 240 horsepower from 289 cubic inches and the optional "R-2", which added a Paxton supercharger, produced an honest 289 horsepower, or one horsepower to every cubic inch.
To put the performance of Studebaker's 289 V8 in perspective, the Ford 289 V8, as used in the 1965 - 1967 Mustangs, produced 210 horsepower with a two-barrel carburetor, 220 horsepower with a four-barrel carburetor, and 271 horsepower in Ford's high-compression, solid-lifter, four-barrel "K-code" engine. Thus, Studebaker's "Jet Thrust" 289 V8's were significantly more powerful than any 289 production engine offered by Ford through 1967 (in 1968, Ford began relying on the new 302 cubic-inch engine).
With the assistance of car racing legend Andy Granatelli, Studebaker also developed a production "R-3" engine for the Avanti. The 289 was bored initially to 299 cubic inches, and later to 304.5 cubic inches (just under the class-C five-liter limit). The R-3 employed special cylinder heads with much larger intake ports and larger valves, an aluminum intake manifold with correspondingly larger ports, "long-branch" lower restriction exhaust manifolds, a higher lift cam, and a Paxton Supercharger blowing through a Carter AFB four-barrel carburetor mounted in a pressurized aluminum box. The R-3 was rated at 335 horsepower, but reportedly dynoed at 400 horsepower at the flywheel!
The most powerful version of the Studebaker V8 was the Granatelli-developed, experimental R-5. With a supercharger mounted on each cylinder bank, it produced 575 horsepower! The R-5 was used only in Granatelli’s special Avanti “Due Cento” (200 in Italian), with which he planned to break 200 miles per hour. Unfortunately, Granatelli could not get enough traction during his Bonneville run, only achieving a top speed of 196.62 miles per hour.
During the summer and fall of 1962, Granatelli took an R-3 Avanti to the Bonneville Salt Flats, where he piloted it to a record speed of 170.78 mph. By the time he was done, Granatelli had set or broken 34 U.S. land speed records in the Avanti, allowing Studebaker to proudly proclaim it the "World's Fastest Production Car." In addition to being fast, the Avanti led the domestic auto industry in the use of front caliper disc brakes (Dunlop discs produced under license by the Bendix Corporation).
[edit] Early orders and problems
The Avanti was heavily promoted and many enthusiastic buyers placed advance orders. However, long production delays negatively affected sales. The production delay of the Avanti was due to problems with the alignment of some of the fiberglass body panels and that the rear window opening was too large for the glass. These difficulties were quite surprising to Studebaker executives since body fabrication had been farmed out to the Moulded Fiberglass Products Company of Ashtabula, Ohio, the same firm that had fabricated the Chevrolet Corvette bodies since that car's production began in 1953. In order to solve these problems, Studebaker was eventually forced to assemble the body panels themselves - but it was too late as many sales had already been lost.
Instead of offering separate model years of the Avanti, Studebaker made running changes until production of the car ended. In general, the easiest way to differentiate between the earlier and later variants is by the headlight bezels. All Avantis produced from June 1962 through July 1963 featured round headlight bezels. Beginning in August 1963 the car was fitted with squared bezels. Most people refer to the models with round headlight bezels as 1963's and the models with square headlight bezels as 1964's though a number of early 1964 models were made with the round headlight surrounds.
In December 1963, Studebaker announced the end of automobile manufacturing in South Bend, Indiana and the consolidation of all Studebaker automotive manufacturing in its Hamilton, Ontario, Canada plant. At that point, the company dropped the Avanti, the Gran Turismo Hawk, and all pickups and trucks in order to focus on sedans, coupes and station wagons. Only 4,643 Avantis had been produced by the time Studebaker closed the South Bend factory. The final Avanti, a white fully optioned R-3 car, contained a letter signed by Studebaker employees advising the future owner of the car's significance under the carpeting near the spare tire well.
Studebaker survived another two years by assembling Commanders, Daytonas, and Cruisers equipped with Canadian built McKinnon (GM) engines.
[edit] Avanti II
Following the closure of the South Bend operation, two South Bend, Indiana Studebaker dealers, Nate Altman and Leo Newman purchased the Avanti name, the body molds, remaining parts, tools, jigs, and a portion of the South Bend factory to continue making the Avanti. Altman and Newman had first approached the Checker Motors Company, maker of the iconic Checker Marathon and taxi cab, about taking over production. However David Markin, Checker's President reportedly stated that his company was not interested in building "an ugly car" like the Avanti.
These Avantis, called the Avanti II, were given a 327 in³ (5.4 L) Chevrolet Corvette engine and were meticulously hand-built to order in very small numbers. The Avanti II's engine evolved from the 327 to the 350, the 400, and finally the 305.
On October 1, 1982, real estate developer Stephen Blake bought the rights to the Avanti II. Stephen Blake made some updates to the car and also introduced a convertible model.
Blake's company declared bankruptcy in 1986, and the company was purchased by Michael Kelly, who relocated production to Youngstown, Ohio. These cars continued to be built until 1991.
[edit] Avanti
A second generation of Avanti automobile was styled by Tom Kellogg, one of the original Avanti design team members working for industrial designer Raymond Loewy, in the late 1980s. This car was based on GM's "F" platform Camaro/Firebird and carried the same styling themes as the Avanti marketed today.
[edit] Trivia
Many celebrities have owned Avantis including:
- Shirley Bassey, Singer
- Dick Van Dyke, Entertainer
- Ian Fleming, Novelist
- Frank Sinatra, Singer/Entertainer
- Gene Siskel, Film Critic
- Johnny Carson, Television Host
- DeForest Kelley, Actor
- Jimmy Dean, Singer and sausage entrepreneur
- Rod Serling, Creator and host of The Twilight Zone
The Avanti survived the closure of Studebaker's US operations as the Avanti II
[edit] Toy Reproductions
Micro Machines There are relatively few reproductions of the Avanti, no Hot Wheels or Matchbox. However Micro Machines made them in a very small size in several colors and they can be found on Ebay for $5-$7, somewhat higher than the average anonymous micro car which is only worth perhaps 25 cents. In 2006, Johnny Lightning produced a 1/64 scale 1963 Studebaker Avanti.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Avanti Owners Association International homepage
- Avanti Motor Corporation (company page)
- Avanti Source Home Page
- TheAvanti.com
