We just had a very fine CC on the Avanti recently, but I just had to share this aqua Avanti I saw at a show last summer in downtown Davenport. This is my favorite color on the Avanti, and the only thing that would make it better would be an aqua interior!
Yes, Avantis are awesome. So were 1963 Days; thanks Jason!
Very nice! I second that, doesn’t seem like a color seen too often on these. Usually I like a white interior on an aqua car but can’t go wrong either way with a car like this!
Nice,I’d like an aqua interior a white one wouldn’t be white for long with me.It makes a change from the red or white Avanti’s usually seen.The Avanti is so elegant
Somebody h-A-s been working too m-A-ny qu-A-dr-A-tic equ-A-tions!
Huh? I’ll have to to admit that I don’t get it. ax squared + bx + c = you stumped me, pal. Please explain.
That is part of the joke (making no sense), along with the fact that 4 “A”s are in the title (4=”quad”), and the fact that I believe that Tom is an accountant, so he woks with math a lot.
Oh. So you were altogether awed by his alliterative abilities? I thought it was some sort of obscure pop-culture reference.
What is this “Popped couture” stuff you speak of?
What is this “Pop Culture” stuff you speak of?
I don’t think it’s possible to OD on these. If I’m wrong just keep it up anyway Tom. I’ll tell you if I start getting dizzy.
Another fan of aqua Avantis. Of course, there is no color that Studebaker painted these that I would turn down. And I like almost anything in aqua.
Any Aqua American Auto Appeals to the Junqueboi.
About 14 years ago, I saw an Avanti of the same color at an outdoor car show north of Toronto. I was shooting film at the time, and I was only able to get off a shot of the front end before I ran out. I’d take an Avanti in any color, but the aqua works well for me.
Yes, Avanti being a life long favorite of mine looks good in any color. Never saw one in this color, but I like it
Here’s your matching interior…
Ooh, nice!
I am partial to the two tone aqua/parchment interior also offered here. Actually, I have never seen an Avanti with an all-aqua interior before.
That’s really nice, but a white dash? Blinding glare
CC Effect: I saw my first Avanti outside of the internet driving past me around Selinsgrove, PA tonight. I though “Wow, neat, an Avanti!” So what greets me when I get home?
This website is telepathic, I swear.
Late edit: I hadn’t seen one in about a decade. When I was a young child my rich neighbors had one along with a BMW 2002tii, but I was more concerned with riding my bicycle than I was with cars. I did note the cars were unusual, but that’s about it. Since then I can count the number of Avantis I have seen in person on one hand, which is why I got excited tonight.
Also, the drive up US 15 from Harrisburg to Williamsport/Selinsgrove always reveals some nice CCs. I also saw a Boattail Riviera and a cab-forward Dodge pickup.
That’s probably due to the car shows in Carlisle, PA, just southwest of Harrisburg. US-15 is the primary route north into central NY state as there’s no interstate that runs that way.
Unfortunately, that stretch (actually US11/15 multiplexed, and usually pronounced in the central PA/Coal Region dialect as “llenfitteen”) runs right along the Susquehanna River, which is picturesque but during the warm part of the year produces hellacious cloud of bugs which splatter all over the car. When I still lived in Mechanicsburg and drove up that way to visit my parents in Elysburg, I had to wash the car the very next day, every time. That combined with PennDOT using cinders from coal fired power plants for traction aides in winter, unlike the sand that civilized DOTs use elsewhere (yes, really) made the area hell on the front ends of cars.
That’s why we can’t have nice things!
By the way, here is the interior on this car. Note the integrated roll bar:
Wow, excellent condition, but black makes me wonder if that’s original. It just doesn’t seem to go with the car
Just breathtakingly beautiful………
This would be my second best color though – I just think bronze brings out the true beauty of the car…….
+1 What is it about that color? I don’t really care for it on any other car, but on the Avanti it just works
For me, there are no bad Avanti colors because there are no bad Avantis. But this Aqua is extra nice. Although I’d get something contrasting, like white, for the interior: the Aqua just doesn’t look right with the woodgrain. Replacing that woodgrain with aluminum or something similarly silvery, however, would be great. (Why the use of dead tree in the Avanti, anyhow? I thought the whole car was supposed to be Space Age?)
I remember reading somewhere on the ‘Net about the Avanti II of the 1970s and ’80s, written by a man who owned one. He stressed how accommodating the new, post-Studebaker company was to customers who wanted to personalize their vehicles. Selling so few units per year, the Avanti II folks could offer buyers a policy of, “If a paint exists, we can paint your car with it. If an upholstery material exists, we can do your interior in it.” The latter, on at least one occasion, was ordered in alligator hide. The writer of the piece also says he witnessed a “II” being built at the factory that had been ordered in (IIRC) metallic lime green on the outside with silver leather on the inside. Yow!
There were actually four post-Studebaker Avanti producing companies the final one built in the US was a four-door built on a Chevy caprice chassis in 1991.
I’ve actually seen one of these on the road, in silver, which I mentioned on some previous Avanti thread on here over a year ago. It’s quite the startling sight to see a car that’s not supposed to exist. Didn’t know they were Caprice-based. I believe the last gen coupes and convertibles (“Avanti III”? “Avanti IV”?) were on Mustangs, although they also look like they could be on third-gen F-bodies. I’ve seen pictures of one that appeared to have the same doors and mirrors as my ’89 Camaro.
The willingness to do extreme custom-order paints and interiors was I believe on the Avanti II, which was made in South Bend from 1965 (shortly after Studebaker closed their doors) through 1991. Since then, various Avanti-like approximations have been produced here and there, but some of these “tributes” (like that four-door) have strayed quite far from the car’s origins, and lost much of Loewy’s unique charm along the way. The Avanti II people, however, tried to stay close to Studebaker’s vision — as much as changing legislation would allow. Also, by the late-80s, due to the strangled, soporific 305s and other such underwhelming powerplants that the Big Three were sending to South Bend, some of the later II’s suffered from performance levels that were not quite up to the glories of the Stude’s Supercharged R2, to put it mildly.
This car is surprisingly attractive. A four door adaptation of the Avanti always sounded like a terrible idea, but until now I had never seen a photo of it. The coke bottle flanks, front end, and roofline work surprisingly well on the longer body. Different from the original Avanti, but attractive in its own right. On top of that, the Caprice chassis confers unbeatable availability of parts and performance upgrades. A four door Avanti with a 383 and THM700R4, Hotchkiss or Moog suspension upgrades, and four wheel discs could be a great, stylish luxury performance sedan.
When the sedan came out Avanti ran a rare ad in car-buff magazines. The car was shown in an unflattering color and camera angle. The basic vibe: Avanti was in over its head. Isn’t it refreshing to see truth in advertising?
I’ve never seen one of these in person, but the basic idea seems questionable. Much like the Hawk, the Avanti sedan’s length/width proportions aren’t ideal by modern standards. Perhaps more importantly, the aircraft-style door frames have a kit car awkwardness because they clash with the angular windshield.
If Studebaker had come out with this sedan I wonder if it would have sold better than the coupe, which was a sales disaster.
I’m guessing that Avanti came out with the four door to capitalize on the Studebaker plan to come out with one had they and the original Avanti lived.
Judging by this prototype the four door Avanti would have been a worst disaster. The Avanti is best in it’s original form, round headlights, skinny whitewall bias-ply tires and all
Never seen that prototype before. I quite like it!
Do you have any other pictures of this, was very interested… cool car
http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/avanti-garde-experimental-studebakers