1963-64 Studebaker Avanti R-1/R-2

by Dave Kinney

UFO styling in a matter of weeks.

The Avanti was an automotive Hail Mary, a last-ditch effort to bring excitement and warm bodies to Studebaker showrooms. In 1961 Studebaker president Sherwood Egbert made the decision to build a sports car—and to do it as fast as possible. He called upon one of the best-known industrial designers in the world, Raymond Loewy, who assembled a group of talented designers in Palm Springs, California. The team produced the basic Avanti design in just a few weeks. The Avanti is an automotive design that few are neutral about. When new, its all-fiberglass design looked as ordinary on the American road as a UFO, and many of its visual cues are still controversial today. On August 14, 1962, Andy Granatelli took a specially prepared Avanti to the Bonneville Salt Flats and came home with 29 new national stock car records. Race on Sunday, sell on Monday was the rule, and the Avanti was, for a short time, the car to have. Production problems plagued the first Avantis;...