Loewy-owned Avanti Up for Auction in May

" 1972 Avanti II Coupe originally owned by Raymond Loewy, the father of industrial design who streamlined everything from Greyhound buses to toothbrushes, will cross the auction block in May.

Loewy designed the Avanti, a two-door four-seater which has a European feel with minimalist trim, for Studebaker in the early 1960s. It is one of the highlights of the Les Grandes Marques a Monaco sale by Bonhams in Monte Carlo on May 11.

Bonhams said in a statement that the car is expected to fetch a minimum of $46,120."

Read the full article here.

Replica Of Charles And Ray Eames’s Living Room

"Last fall, LACMA carted a whopping 1,864 objects from the house in Pacific Palisades to the exhibition floor in L.A.’s Mid-Wilshire district. The result is a rare window onto the personal tastes of two of the 20th century’s most influential American taste makers."

View the full article here.

Avanti Sedan Prototypes - Hemmings May 2011

Hemmings May 2011 issue includes a great nod to the Avanti sedan prototypes (image below). There's also a good selection of Studebaker cars and parts for sale in the classifieds section. Pick up a copy today.

The Quest to Keep Studebaker Alive in Payson, Arizona

Such a cool article. I'm headed out to buy the hard copy version!

"I have a phrase, ‘You can drive a Studebaker forever.’ My lifelong ambition is proving that’s true."

"During his 31-year career as a jet- and industrial-turbine repairman, Ken Michael started collecting, driving, and restoring Studebakers as a hobby.

Michael fell hard for the styling of the Raymond Loewy–designed Studebaker Starlight coupe he bought in 1959, as well as the six other Studebakers in his collection. After retiring in 2002, he expected to split his time between fishing and restoring his cars. But people with Studebakers started calling him to fix their cars. The Studebaker needy kept piling up; last summer, Michael hired two technicians to help him with the seven customer cars he’s restoring. For each job he takes, he has to turn down two. We visited his shop in Payson, Arizona, to find the secret of his prosperity."

Click here to read the full article and to see the photos on Car and Driver's website.

Studebaker Avanti - 4-Door Concept Cars

There has been much discussion online about the 4-door Studebaker Avanti concept cars. Here are a few pics of them at the Studebaker National Museum. A must-see in person!

Classic 1968 Porsche 912

Quick digression: A friend just bought this sweet 1968 Porsche 912. While I'm an Avanti man, I have to admit that a vintage Porsche is a very nice machine.

Read more about the Porsche 912.

Did You Know? The Avanti and Lark Share a (Modified) Platform.

There are some great tidbits of information in the October 2010 issue of Hemmings Classic Cars magazine, including the one about the Avanti and the Studebaker Lark.

"The Avanti was built on a modified Lark platform, a car that debuted in 1959. Later Avantis were based on the GM-body (Monte Carlo) rear-drive platform." I had no idea that these cars shared anything!

Check out the October 2010 issue of Hemmings Classic Cars for other great stories, e.g., the Checker Marathon, Ford Model T, etc.

See the Studebaker Avanti page on Wikipedia here.

See the Studebaker Lark page on Wikipedia here.

1963 – 64 Studebaker Avanti

Here's a fun feature on CarDomain.com re: whether or not the Avanti belongs in the "muscle car parking lot."

"Key features include a long hood and short deck, popularized by the Ford Mustang: grill-less front end, which was popularized a decade later with other performance oriented cars, a glass fastback rear, picked up for the Plymouth Barracuda, and other vehicles, as well as other styling touches, too numerous to mention here. Let's just say that when the Avanti was introduced, it looked like nothing else on the market. But is it a muscle car, and does it deserve a place in the parking lot?"

Read the full article here.

1963 Studebaker Avanti #9

"In October 1963, Granatelli took several Studebakers to the Bonneville Salt Flats, including an R-3 Avanti (#9) in which he reached a record speed of 170.78 mph (274.84 km/h)." Source: Wikipedia

Here is the car noted above; shown at the California Automobile Museum.

Avanti to Enertia - 100mpg

An interesting redux of the Avanti ...

From http://www.enertiamotors.com:

After 20+ years of dealing with fuel-free heating and cooling and household electricity, we turn our attention to transportation - the last remaining piece of the environmental and self-sufficiency puzzle.

Enertia cars are diesel hybrid electric. They are plug-in hybrids with a biodiesel generator on board to extend the range. Combined with the Enertia Home photovoltaic smart garage, it may be possible to achieve the bulk of your transportation needs with no fuel at all.

The Enertia™ car is being built with several goals in mind:

- It has to travel at up to at least 100 mph.
- It has to travel 100 miles on one gallon of fuel.
- It has to be reproducible and marketable (people have to WANT it).

See the full Enertia Motors car project website.

Studebaker Barn Find - Simply Amazing - Avanti

I have never seen a more amazing Studebaker "barn find" than this. Simply amazing car porn.

See images on the SDC Forum.

1963 Studebaker Lark and Avanti Commercial

This one has speed; this one has interior room (for your hat); this one is juuuuust right!

It's criminal that disc brakes weren't standard on all cars starting on the date of their invention.

Studebaker - Avanti - Sketches

There's a good overview of the Avanti on Forbes.com. Raymond Loewy's sketches for the Avanti design are worth a cruise - and interesting in retrospect.

"Loewy's cars were always a bit more interesting to look at than what the competition was building. With the Avanti, Loewy saved the best for last, and despite its low volume and the subsequent demise of Studebaker, it was a car that came to influence almost every modern automobile from 1961 to today.

It had no grille (the air intake was hidden underneath the front bumper), exceedingly short overhangs for its day, was bodied in fiberglass, and heralded the wedge-shape aerodynamic design that more or less has been with us ever since."

See the full article on Forbes.com.

Don Draper, Mad Men and Studebaker

The New York Times published a light article discussing which type of car Don Draper's character on Mad Men would buy. Here are some excerpts and a link to the article.

"Among the other comments, there were many excellent suggestions for potential Drapermobiles: Thunderbird, Studebaker Avanti (though I doubt that Don would tie himself to a clear commercial loser) and even the Facel Vega, thanks to its associations with existentialist Albert Camus. (He died in one, and what is more existential than that?)"

"I was intrigued by the suggestion of a Studebaker Hawk GT, which Rob Kneen called “the quintessence of understated, but macho.”

I take issue with the assertion that the Avanti is a loser of any kind. The comment about the Studebaker Hawk is spot on.

So, did Don Draper buy the right car?

Not a Studebaker - XUV - SVO Lister

I had a good laugh at Ryan's comment in response to the Studebaker XUV image above. I can't say that I'm doing much to revive the Studebaker name aside from restoring our Champion and publishing this blog, but it seems that aside from the updated Avanti car, Avanti Motor Co. isn't conjuring the design inspiration of Loewy and Exner with their latest introductions. Sad.

See the image above and other "Studebakers" at Hemmings.com.

Studebaker Avanti

It's rare to see a Studebaker on the streets of Sacramento, CA; much less a Studebaker "driver" parked on the streets of Midtown. Here's an exceptionally-maintained Avanti in "Saturn Firemist" as seen in the area near Lumens Light + Living.

Live in or near Sacramento and own a Studebaker? Send me a photograph of your Studebaker: jason [at] jasonmichaels (dot) com. I'll feature it here on Studebaker Guide.