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.
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I always liked this ad, for the '63 Cruiser, to my eyes the best-looking four-door Studebaker. Give me a Skytop and Broadcloth interior, and I'm all in! Too bad this ad wasn't in color.
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:
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Avanti – Desert Designed Car? I had to google that one! I found a page which included a pic of the 2-room studio tract house in Palm Springs which Loewy had leased as a place for the Avanti designers to work and sleep. 1961 was a different world in the car biz.
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.
Supposedly Loewy was a tyrant during this project, LOL--no clocks on the wall, phones removed, no wives or girlfriends stopping by, etc.! Big time pressure. I met two of the three main designers, John Ebstein and Tom Kellogg. Kellogg was at the 30th anniversary Avanti meet in South Bend in '93 and stopped and asked me if I knew the way up to the railroad tracks overlooking the display lot, where other people were located, LOL. We chatted for a minute or two; very approachable and friendly guy.
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About seven or eight years ago, I got a letter from a woman who had seen an article in Hemmings Motor News I'd written about meeting the original owner of my old '63 Studebaker. She had seen the article and wrote that while in college she ordered a gold '63 Avanti R1 Powershift automatic, which would've looked exactly like the poolside car, above. She said she was the first woman in North Dakota to buy an Avanti and that the dealer magazine had her picture in it for that but she didn't have a copy. I had three dealer magazines and the one was that one--I sent it to her and she was delighted! She was attempting to find the car and buy it back as a retirement project for her husband and her.
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.
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I always thought the Avanti looked good in that gold. As for Chevy's, at least they had a ton of colors exterior and interior to choose from back then.
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.
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.
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The Avanti that went 170 mph out there had Sherwood Egbert as a passenger. It was said that he was the 'fastest auto company executive' at the time, and a magazine article some years back added, "...and he probably still holds that record".
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Lot full of '63's at Gilbert's clothing store near downtown South Bend. I'd like to go through and pick out a few. Not a Hawk in sight. With all the people standing near them, makes me wonder if they actually had a "New Studebaker Customer Appreciation Day" or something there.
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Recent, short aerial video of the former Studebaker body production building in South Bend, being repurposed into a technical center. It's about the last Studebaker production building still standing in South Bend. There used to be a mile-long external, enclosed conveyor that started here, went through another building and ended up at final production down the road. Thanks ab348 for this. I was on a tour of this building last May, including up on the roof at night, which was extremely cool. What a huge undertaking this project is!
That smaller, beige building in front with the curved green roof, is the old Union Station (railroad). It also houses some technical stuff, although I'm told can also be rented out for parties, receptions, etc.
That old Ponton fintail looked at, would be just left of the red brick Studebaker Administration Building in this pic.
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Lot full of '63's at Gilbert's clothing store near downtown South Bend. I'd like to go through and pick out a few. Not a Hawk in sight. With all the people standing near them, makes me wonder if they actually had a "New Studebaker Customer Appreciation Day" or something there.
Does the vehicle at the far left of the picture have a different rear roofline than the two Avantis? Is it a Hawk? 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.
At 3:34 in the video of old body building being repurposed, in the lower right-hand corner, the green space is where the old Freeman-Spicer dealership, pictured here earlier, above, was located. It was also the first Studebaker National Museum building.
They were the smaller of the two dealers in South Bend. The cars above are '59 Larks.
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.
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Tangentially related to Studebaker--the bridge over East Grand Boulevard that led from two old Packard factory buildings in Detroit, collapsed. I remember this 'bridge' being brick. No reasons why as of now.
Just read an article in Collectible Auto that indicated Bourke was involved in both the propeller Studebaker and the shoebox 49-51 Ford (which had a small propeller grill).
This exact car, in a kind of lemon yellow, is the first car I remember. My father bought it in '52 from one of his professors, who was selling it because it had started running rough and the professor had heard that the V-8 had 'soft cams'. Dad took it down to his friendly neighborhood mechanic who put a blanket over the radiator, ran the engine until the temp gauge hit hot, and poured some water down the carb. It blew a six-foot long carbon trail out the exhaust pipe and after that ran fine. This is of course family lore; I was 2.
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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.
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We also spent time at the library at Crawford. It's a research library. You request a year and model car, and they bring you out large folders with shop manuals, owner's manuals, press releases, advertising, brochures, etc. I've looked at everything Studebaker I've wanted to look at in past visits; for some reason I've been thinking '65 and '66 Cadillac Eldorado convertibles lately so got those brochures. My friend asked for Continental Mark II stuff. There was a hardback book from when the cars were new about "the making of the Mark II"...the brochures, and description of care that went into those cars, were amazing.
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.
For some reason, I am almost certain the original destination on the build sheet for that last Avanti was "Jackson, MS". The NYT link above makes it sound as if the Warren buyer had ordered the car himself in Oct '63. I'm going to have to do some homework on that.
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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.
Here's a MB color chart (relevant because of Stude ) from just after gullwing production,I suspect many of these existed for that car too. Like many makers of the era, there was no shortage of choices. My fintail is DB 334:
Some Ponton charts - I suspect all of the single tones were possible on a gullwing:
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.
Thanks, ab. I guess I remembered correctly. The Times summarized incorrectly.
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When the Avanti was introduced, the R3 wasn't yet available. There is something about the height of the R3 engine that required the normal Avanti rake to be leveled-off. That's one thing I don't like about an R3. But they are so rare, I'd learn to live with it, LOL.
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I'm sure. I've seen that pic, but I've never seen a real one.
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.
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Other manufacturers like Ford and Chevy made panel wagons too, but I seldom saw one either. I think the drug store in town used one for deliveries while I was still in school.
Comments
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
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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.
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https://www.ebay.ca/itm/1963-Studebaker-Lark-Roadtest-Brochure-wz6277/352445783703?hash=item520f67de97:g:zZwAAOSwtRlbht8g:rk:7:pf:0
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.
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2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=226&v=t7lT4ClnfpA
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
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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.
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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.