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https://www.mecum.com/lots/FL0119-355871/1964-studebaker-avanti-r2/
The buckets in '63's look skimpy to me, although I've read they were a copy of Alfa seats and I have seen magazines of the time say they were the only true buckets in a domestic car at the time. For looks, I like how in '64 they added a section to the seat back.
Whenever I see a dash cover, I assume the original dash under it is not in great shape. This car has a dash cover in photos.
I'm thinking when I get mine (ha!), I want a '64 with the 'thick seat backs', Avanti Gold, fawn interior, R2, Powershift automatic, whitewalls, and repro Halibrand wheels. I've never seen a real such car though.
https://www.amazon.com/Print-Ad-Studebaker-Cruiser-Substance/dp/B005DU2QJK
https://scontent-frx5-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/7e2462e9a7006d731aa2d0443f2654b3/5CB842BD/t51.2885-15/e35/44252237_1631359040343553_6763711348930111384_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-frx5-1.cdninstagram.com&ig_cache_key=MTkwNTk2NDIwNTMyNjQyMTY2Mw==.2
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
I had told my wife years ago that I'd get her a Karmann-Ghia (which I'm lukewarm about) on her 40th birthday. She'll be 54 at her next birthday, and she reminds me of that still.
Stumbled on a '63 Lark Marshal brochure here, since we were talking about Marshals here not long ago:
I was looking beyond the hood
She remembered the dealer name, what month she took delivery, and that it was an automatic, non-supercharged car.
I put one of the most knowledgeable Avanti guys I know on the project, and he could pin it down to three serial nos. I wrote the museum and they found the retail sale card the dealer filled out for this lady so we had a serial number.
A year of posting on various Studebaker, Avanti, and AACA forums brought up nothing--until one Sunday night on an AACA forum, a guy said "I have that serial number...she likely won't want it as the interior's shot, it's been painted white, and I'm in the process of putting a Chevy engine in it". I let her know immediately and her husband said 'no way'. But amazing we could find the car after all those years. She and her husband had traded it on a new Cutlass in Philadelphia in 1966.
Well, she and her husband flew to look at eBay cars, and came home disappointed. Then, at a dealer 90 mins. away, a '64 gold Avanti with automatic and R1 was available, very clean and well-kept. They bought it. Here the serial was 5634, only nine from the last Studebaker Avanti. I told her that as the dealer said nothing about it. Some work through the Studebaker National Museum and she was able to determine that it was sold new through Snuffy Smith Motors (LOL) in Dallas and was driven as a demo by Snuffy's daughter. She got in touch with the lady and received a color picture of her with the car in 1965!
With Studebaker's small production, comparatively, those are things that most likely would never happen with a Chevy.
You would have thought that maybe this ad would have helped Studebaker change its image a bit into one of a manufacturer that offered fast cars, but clearly it did not work.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
The Studebaker Avanti was the world's fastest production car based on the Bonneville tests, for what good it did. Not much.
No one in my family so much as looked at a Studebaker then, but I sure admire what they put out, for such a small company, and removed from Detroit. I also admire how they built a full line of trucks right up to the end of U.S. production.
Of course, once I went to South Bend and saw the old buildings (most of which are gone now), I realized that even a small car company is still a large company.
Avanti-powered Studebakers, '63 and '64, have been sought-after for as long as I've been in the club, 32 years. And I personally believe those engines add more to the selling price than the price guides suggest. I think there simply are't that many out there to have set a true pattern.
I sure enjoyed mine.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/1963-Studebaker-Lark-Roadtest-Brochure-wz6277/352445783703?hash=item520f67de97:g:zZwAAOSwtRlbht8g:rk:7:pf:0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7lT4ClnfpA
That old Ponton fintail looked at, would be just left of the red brick Studebaker Administration Building in this pic.
It's the one with the edge of the picture cutting it right behind the A-pillar.
Threre's a white vehicle next to it that looks like a wagon.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=226&v=t7lT4ClnfpA
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
Nate Altman is the one who resurrected the Avanti. Like them or not, his stick-to-it-iveness was remarkable. That's him in the front, short and in light-colored suit. He had been a Packard dealer most of his life; then went with Edsel, and only picked up in Studebaker for '59, but later said his years with the Studebaker were the most enjoyable of his sales career, as he'd get called into the office and asked about product decisions.
He, his partner Newman, and Newman's son Geoff also ran the Studebaker NOS parts business for decades after Studebaker shut down production. They were in an old 1880's six-story building in South Bend where you could read "Studebaker" and "Carriages and Harness" between rows of windows. It was torn down in the '90's and it's where the jail is now.
https://www.freep.com/picture-gallery/news/local/michigan/detroit/2019/01/24/photos-packard-plant-bridge-detroit-collapses/2662573002/
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
I have heard that Stude's earliest V8's had soft cams.
I went with a friend to the Crawford Museum in Cleveland today. They have the last Studebaker Avanti built, which is an R3 with under 10K miles, and also this Gullwing Benz: I like the color of the Gullwing; no idea if that's original/correct or not.
This Avanti is actually the last U.S.-built Studebaker, as it wasn't built on the regular assembly line but built in a separate building with more hand-work involved. They built Avantis for another week after the other cars.
I really, really like those Mark II's. Conservative but elegant, and top-notch quality everywhere. Leather from Scotland. I've heard they were slow, but with looks like that, who cares? LOL
First truly long-hood/short deck styling I can think of, although I guess the '56 Hawk came out the same time. But the Mark II had a reallllly long hood.
Back to that white Avanti--it was sold new at the dealer in Warren, OH, less than an hour away from me. It was originally shipped to Jackson, MS where apparently the order was cancelled after Studebaker announced the discontinuation of the Avanti (no dealer would inventory an R3!). In late '64 a guy walked into the Warren dealer wanting to know if any new R3 Avantis were still in stock and somehow they found this one in MS and either he picked it up there or it was shipped to Warren (I can't remember). The buyer had no idea it was the last car until he removed the trunk mat and found a note from an assembly-line worker stating that. I've seen pics of the note, plus the response he got from Studebaker to his inquiry if the letter was accurate, and they confirmed it indeed was.
Copy of the note in trunk here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/20/automobiles/the-note-in-the-trunk-of-the-last-studebaker-avanti.html
If you look at the letter shown in the article that the original owner sent to Studebaker asking for confirmation of it being the last one built, you will see he mentions that the dealer in Ohio made arrangements to pick up the car in Mississippi.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
Some Ponton charts - I suspect all of the single tones were possible on a gullwing:
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
The '57-58 Scotsman gets ribbed (I do it myself), but it was very much a sales success when not much else was looking up for the company in those years.