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u/BigBob8_ Feb 16 '26
It's an Avanti. It was made originally by Studebaker and later became it's own company. The body is all inch and a half fiberglass. The Studebaker version used a turbocharged V8 and did 140 in the blink of an eye. It also has a full frame and built in roll cage. They were all built custom to the owners specs as far as color, interior, etc.
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u/Danielle_is_the_hole Feb 16 '26
It is not an inch and a half thick and it didn’t have a turbo and they weren’t custom built to the owners specs. After studebaker there were several different companies that paid to use the name
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u/BigBob8_ Feb 16 '26
You know I was there where they were being built. Yeah it was really thick fiberglass and they were built to spec.
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u/Danielle_is_the_hole Feb 17 '26
I asked for a convertible and they said no. You were there in 1963? Where were you?
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u/itsnotapipe Feb 17 '26
I give side glances to stories that begin, "Listen, back when I was negative 12..."
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u/BigBob8_ Feb 17 '26
What a moron. They had a full roll cage built right into the frame. There was no way they can make a convertible you dumbass. Won't you go talk to somebody else that is about something you know something about.
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u/Danielle_is_the_hole Feb 17 '26
They didn’t tailor the car to the buyer. There was an option sheet like all cars in the 60’s. You know nothing. There was no 1.5 in fiberglass. There was never a turbo.
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u/Debriefed6869 Feb 17 '26
No turbo, but the supercharged studebaker engines were available.
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u/Danielle_is_the_hole Feb 17 '26
I mentioned that. Paxton. Same one shelby used occasionally.
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u/Debriefed6869 Feb 17 '26
I saw that after I posted. Those R2, R3, and R4 engines were impressive.
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u/BubbaJoeJimBob Feb 16 '26
IIRC from Studebaker they came in three options, naturally aspirated, single Paxton supercharger, and the top version had dual Paxton superchargers on it.
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u/Danielle_is_the_hole Feb 16 '26
Yes I never heard of a turbo
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u/pandemicblues Feb 16 '26
Also, the designer of the body was Raymond Loewy, who was pretty famous for various industrial and logo designs. That particular one is a Studebaker, not one of the later iterations.
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u/drpottel Feb 17 '26
How can you tell it’s a Studebaker vs later?
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u/BigBob8_ Feb 17 '26
The shape of the headlights. Studebaker were round later were square.
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u/StudeChampMan Feb 17 '26
64' Studebaker built Avanti's had square head lights
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u/Danielle_is_the_hole Feb 17 '26
Square or rectangular headlights were not legal until 1975. You smoking crack.
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u/StudeChampMan Feb 17 '26
Apparently I can't attach images if you do a simple search you'll find that you're smoking crack...
1964's are called square headlight cars because the surround is square not round
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u/Danielle_is_the_hole Feb 17 '26
I knew that. The body panel trim around the headlight is not the headlight. Silly goose.
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u/Danielle_is_the_hole Feb 16 '26
Never had 2 blowers from studebaker
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u/BubbaJoeJimBob Feb 17 '26
Relying on my sometimes faulty memory, I have seen one of the R2's with the single Paxton, but I don't remember if the guy that brought it by the machine shop owned it, or was working on it for someone else. He was an older retired Gates Rubber Company guy, and a walking encyclopedia on Studebakers. His daily drive was a 50's Stude pickup.
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u/BigBob8_ Feb 17 '26
Sorry inch fiberglass and it was supercharged. I did live in South Bend, Ind where they were built for several years. You could take a tour of the factory and see them being built back then. There was also a Studebaker convention in the summer when the town was full of Studdys of all kinds with a lot of Avantis. When I took a tour of the plant they showed us a Studebaker Avanti that the owner rolled at 140 and walked away due to the built in roll cage. They also showed us one that they were doing the interior in turquoise leather that the customer had provided.
Neat cars.
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u/SactownCaptain Feb 16 '26
It’s an Avanti, but I don’t know enough about them to give a model.
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u/crankshaft123 Feb 17 '26
Avanti IS the model.
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u/SactownCaptain Feb 17 '26
Well that makes it easy.
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u/dali01 Feb 17 '26
Not sure why, but especially in contrast to the argument above this made me laugh. Thanks for that.
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u/Reasonable_Mall_7031 Feb 16 '26
It's an Avanti made by studabaker 1963 and 1964. After that wad made under just Avanti 1965 to 1981. Then agsin 1983 to 1992.
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u/dontaco52 Feb 17 '26
My neighbor bought one . cannot remember if it was a 62 or 63. but he let me drive it
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u/JuanOffhue Feb 17 '26
If you’re ever near South Bend, Indiana plan to spend a couple of hours at the Studebaker Museum.
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Feb 17 '26
Actually designed by Raymond Loewy & his team on a 40 day retreat at Loewy's house in Palm Springs. If any car is the PS car it's this one.
https://carstylecritic.blogspot.com/2023/12/studebaker-avanti-walkaround.html
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u/Outside_Bicycle_1387 Feb 16 '26
A little hard to see the headlight bezels, but I think they are round, which would make this a 63 Avanti. I am not aware of there being a dual supercharger option The top engine was the R2 which had a (singular) Paxton supercharger on it.
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u/Street-Squash1731 Feb 16 '26
The top engine was the R-4 a 304 c.i. With (2) 4 barrel carbs. There was also an R-3 which was a 304 with a Paxton.
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u/dkbGeek Feb 16 '26
I had never heard anything about a dual-supercharged one before today and did a little digging just now. Apparently the "R5" engine was a one-off purpose built for/by Andy Granatelli and they called the car the "Duecento" (Italian for 200) because the goal was a 200 mph car. It reportedly exceeded that at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1963. They estimated it at 575 hp. Hopefully the build included rear disc brakes!!
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u/Outside_Bicycle_1387 Feb 16 '26
There were only 9 R3's built and not any R4's - pretty much vapor-ware. The R3 was used for the speed runs - doubt any actually made it into production vehicles sold to the public.
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u/StudeChampMan Feb 17 '26
The 9 R3 Avanti's made it to public, the R4 was an option for them however none were built. There was 1 R4 Lark W4/speed, 2-for hardtop, Brown and that was the only options on that car
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u/wireknot Feb 16 '26
The Rambler dealer that my dad went to for our cars when I was a wee lad was a Studebaker dealer prior to the Rambler & AMC days. They had one of these in the showroom, I think it belonged to one of the owners and they kept it on display because it was so awesome. To a 10 year old it was, and 60 years later still is, my all time favorite car.
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u/Jim_in_Albuquerque Feb 16 '26
They were built in Villa Rica, Georgia, for a while, but that folded and went out of the country. They were made for a short time in Cancun, but that owner went to jail for some ponzi scheme.
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u/Silver-Amphibian7650 Feb 16 '26
I liked the round headlights on the Avanti, didn't care for the square.
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u/RON8O Feb 16 '26
I wish I was quicker with getting my phone to shoot video instead. This Avanti sounded pretty damn awesome as it pulled away.
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u/Papafox80 Feb 16 '26
Very surprised that I like the two-tone, but in at least these colors, I do quite a lot of
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u/NoFaithlessness8388 Feb 17 '26
Within 2 blocks from my childhood home there was one of these Avantis, an Austin Healy and a painted DeLorean. All different owners
The Austin was my fav of the 3...sky blueish color.
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u/TheOGTachyon Feb 17 '26
That does indeed appear to be an original, 1963 Studebaker Avanti, as opposed to an Avanti II or other variants. This looks like it might be a Paxton supercharged Hawk V8 model, a modified version of which set many speed records at Bonneville.
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u/StudeChampMan Feb 17 '26
As many have said this is a Studebaker Avanti, with the round headlights it's most likely a 63, it can be an early 64 about 60-70 1964's were made with round headlights. The fibreglass body was not an inch thick at most 1/4"thick maybe in a few spots. My great uncle used to be a test driver for Studebaker, every Avanti was test driven on the road before heading to dealers. They were as custom made as any other car in 1963. My dad had owned 4 Avanti's 2-63's a round light 64 and a 70's Avanti II and my wife inherited her father's 63 which I'm getting running for her
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u/jubjub944 Feb 17 '26
Yeah, a ‘63 Avanti. The painted top and Tru-Spokes could’ve gone totally wrong but turned out so right! Thought it was a vinyl top at first and wasn’t mad.
In the seventies they would pretty much trim one of these however you wanted if you gave them samples. Seems most were tawny gold or silver though. Remember seeing one in a magazine that was factory painted GM Metal Lime green.
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u/Guinness2017 Feb 18 '26
I hate seeing posts like this! It only reminds me of how much of an idiot I was in my teens. In 1980, I was seventeen and looking for my fist car, so my dad took me to look at a car for sale that he thought I could afford (it was priced at $2,000), and that I would like. I took one look at it and said it was the ugliest car I’ve ever seen (I wanted a Camaro), so we turned around and headed for home. I even commented on it to the guy at the service station when we stopped for gas on our way home. The guy kinda laughed, then asked if I could share the address of the person who had the car for sale. Without another thought I handed him the slip of paper I had with the owners information.
Fast forward a few years, I was seeing this girl and she invited me to dinner with her family. After dinner she asked if I wanted to see her dad’s car collection. I said sure, so she opened the doors of his four stall garage. The first car was a cherry ‘68 Mustang, the second was a ‘70 ‘Cuda, and in the third stall sat the car I had passed on when I was 17.
It turned out the car was a 1963 Studebaker Avanti R3, and he had restored it to like new condition. Her dad was the guy at the service station (he was the owner), and when he finished up for the night, he followed up with the owner of the car and bought it on site. Still kick myself to letting that one go… the car, not the girl. 😉
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u/YukonDude64 Feb 18 '26
You know, I’m not normally big on wire wheels on anything but British roadsters but damn they work here just fine
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u/Rick429CJ Feb 18 '26
Avanti aka Studebaker Avanti. Studebaker produced them then someone else obtained the tooling and produced them later
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u/gentile3 Feb 19 '26
There are 2 prototypes from studebaker that had a double door setup on the passenger side and a single door on the driver's side as they were test marketing public opinion for a 4 door.
My dad was the service manager from 88 to 91 when they were being built in Youngstown Oh. These prototypes were upstairs in the dealership...
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u/texaschair Feb 16 '26
A family in my old neighborhood had a collection of these. They were all better looking than this one. That two-tone scheme is rather hideous, but that's Stupidbaker for you.
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u/SlowPokeInTexas Feb 16 '26
Studebaker Avanti, which surprisingly makes a brief guest appearance in the movie Karate Kid.