The ailing Studebaker company needed something of an image booster at the beginning of the sixties and for this they went back to Raymond Loewy, a name connected with the company since the introduction of the ground breaking Champion, introduced in 1946. In six months time he now designed a four seat two door coupe, on the basis of a Studebaker Lark chassis. The Lark was introduced in 1959, during the first post-war wave of US compact cars.
The name chosen for the new car was Avanti, reflecting the leap forward that Studebaker expected from the new car. It’s body was made of fiberglass and initial production and quality problems meant that the introduction had to be postponed for about 6 months until late 1962. Original introduction was scheduled for the 1962 Indy 500. The delay in the introduction resulted in the cancellation of a number of advance orders, which also contributed heavily to the ultimate commercial failure of the car.
The base motorisation was the Jet Thrust V8 in 4.7 liter shape, but there were some interesting options incase one wanted more power. First there was Paxton Supercharger for the 4.7 litre engine, increasing power from 240 to 290 BHP. Then there was a 5.0 liter version of the Jet-Thrust V8, where the Paxton supercharger gave up to 335 BHP. A special 4-barrel carb version of this engine was also available, giving 280 BHP. Topping the range was the R5 version which sported two Paxton superchargers, and produced 535 BHP. This engine was only supplied via Paxton itself.
Although attracting considerable interest and positive reviews, the Avanti could not prevent the demise of the American Studebaker factory in 1964 with all production shifting to Canada. The end came in 1966. Production of the Avanti stopped in 1964, and only 4643 cars were made.
After that several attempts were made to continue the Avanti production, and for some time the Avanti II was available, and other offshoots, well into the nineties.
Shown here is a 1963 example that has been in Holland for all of its life, and I personally remember having seen it very soon after it came here. It was now present at the American Classics show, a support event to the 2006 Concours d’Elegance at Palace Het Loo.
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