1963 Studebaker Avanti: A Fiberglass Coupe Built for Speed at a Company Running Out of Time

On April 21, 1962, Studebaker sent the Avanti prototype to New York, where it stayed under wraps until April 25, when it was unveiled at the auto show. The Avanti Owners Association's history says it drew rave reviews. The car was barely a year old as an idea. The same account records that Studebaker-Packard's board chose Sherwood H. Egbert as president early in January 1961, and Ate Up With Motor describes Egbert, a 41-year-old former Marine who had revived McCulloch, as having decided that something new and flashy was the surest way to revive interest in Studebaker.^1,2

The design came quickly. According to Ate Up With Motor, Egbert contacted Raymond Loewy after the two met on vacation in Palm Springs, and Loewy set up in a rented house there with designer Bob Andrews, his vice president John Ebstein and a young designer named Tom Kellogg. Egbert wanted the finished design within 40 days; the team had drawings and a one-eighth-scale clay model in a little over a week. A full-size clay was ready for Egbert to show the board on April 27, and it was quickly approved for production.^2,1

What reached production was a four-seat coupe with a fiberglass body on a 109-inch wheelbase, 192.4 inches long. Studebaker turned to the Molded Fiber Glass Body Company, which built the Corvette's bodies. Its brakes were, in Ate Up With Motor's judgment, excellent for the era. The article describes 11.5-inch Bendix front discs, a Dunlop design built under license, and 11-inch finned rear drums. The base price at introduction was $4,445, which Ate Up With Motor calls substantial. Dealers had cars in the fall of 1962, as 1963 models.^3,2,1

The engines were Studebaker's 289 V8 in new forms. The standard R1 had a four-barrel carburetor and 10.25:1 compression and was rated at 240 horsepower. The R2 added a Paxton supercharger for $210 more, and air conditioning could not be ordered with it. Its rating is usually given as 289 horsepower, though the sources disagree on the rpm: Old Cars Weekly says 5,200, Over-Drive Magazine says 4,800, and Ate Up With Motor rounds it to about 290. Studebaker-Packard had acquired Paxton in March 1962, and Andy Granatelli led the performance work.^4,3,2,5

Granatelli used Bonneville to make the case. In 1962 he drove a supercharged R3 Avanti to 29 USAC American records in 12 hours, according to the records table at theavanti.com, including a two-way average of 168.15 mph for the Class C flying mile, 167.82 for five miles and 163.90 for ten. Old Cars Weekly reports a separate run early in 1963 by an R2 that was stock except for its exhaust, which averaged 158.15 mph through the measured mile. These were record runs by prepared cars, not road tests of showroom Avantis.^5,4

The R3 is often listed with the 1963 car, but the records place it later. The R3/R4 registry at theavanti.com records its production R3 Avantis as 1964 models and describes the 1963 R3 cars it lists as prototypes or later conversions. Ate Up With Motor says Studebaker built only nine R3 Avantis and no known R4s. The R3's rating is reported as about 335 horsepower by Ate Up With Motor, as 305 or 335 by Over-Drive Magazine, and as 400 by theavanti.com. For a 1963 buyer, the realistic choices were the R1 and the R2.^5,2,3

Period tests gave the showroom cars their own numbers. Old Cars Weekly reports that Road & Track, in October 1962, timed a four-speed Avanti from 0 to 60 mph in 7.3 seconds, and that Motor Trend, in July 1962, recorded 8.0 seconds with the Power Shift automatic. The report does not say which engine either car had, so neither figure can be attached to the R1 or the R2. The option list was ordinary by comparison: air conditioning at $325, power steering at $81, power windows at $75 and a Twin Traction limited-slip axle at $39.^4,3

The body was where the plan went wrong. Ate Up With Motor writes that production problems, chiefly with the fiberglass body, kept Avantis out of showrooms until fairly late in the year, and that the early bodies' quality-control problems eventually forced Studebaker to bring body assembly in-house. Wikipedia records that problems with the supplier, fit and finish caused delays and cancelled orders, and that Egbert had planned to sell 20,000 Avantis in 1962 but could build only 1,200. The Avanti Owners Association, by contrast, says sales were almost instant once the car reached dealers.^2,6,1

The final count for the model year was 3,834 Avantis, a figure the Avanti Owners Association, Old Cars Weekly and Ate Up With Motor all give, though none names the Studebaker document behind it. No source read gives a factory split between R1 and R2 cars for 1963. Two secondary sources give 1,833 R2s across 1963 and 1964 combined, and RM Sotheby's puts 281 of those in 1964, which would leave about 1,550 for 1963 if the figures share a basis. That subtraction is an inference from two sources, not a factory count.^1,4,2,7,8

Measured against the 20,000 Egbert wanted, 3,834 was less than a fifth. Studebaker's troubles went beyond the Avanti. Ate Up With Motor writes that Egbert's departure was the last straw for the board, which on December 9 announced the closure of the South Bend factory. Wikipedia dates the closure to December 20, 1963. The Avanti Owners Association says 1964 production was limited to 809 by the shutdown of auto production in South Bend, and Ate Up With Motor gives the same 809.^6,2,1

The 1963 cars therefore account for most of the Studebaker Avanti. Of 4,643 built across the two Studebaker model years, 3,834, about 83 percent, were 1963 models. They came in six colors, according to theavanti.com's paint table: black, white, and iridescent turquoise, gold, red and gray. The car's supercharged engine, its disc brakes and its Bonneville records were all in place for its first season, and so was the body problem that kept buyers waiting.^1,5,2

The design outlived the company that commissioned it. The Avanti Owners Association records that Studebaker dealer Nate Altman and his partner Leo Newman bought the rights, equipment and remaining parts from Studebaker to keep the car alive, the start of the long Avanti II story. The 1963 model is where that story begins: a Loewy design completed in weeks, a supercharged 289 sold for $210 extra, a set of Bonneville records, and 3,834 cars built while Studebaker was running out of time.^1,2,4,5