I was at a yard sale a few months back and got friendly with the man running it. He was kind enough to show me his car collection. And sitting there was an avanti. It was truly a sight to behold. He let me sit in it and told me the many tales of that car and his life. It was a very memorable experience.
MANY years ago I worked on cars in a small garage. We had an Avanti come in for an alignment (back then there were few good alignment techs and cars hadn't yet switched fully to radial tires to give you an idea). It was easy to work on and I liked test driving it. It was way, way ahead of it's time.
All the idiots here who think this is an ugly car don’t really realize what everything else looks like back then. This car was 10 years ahead of its time.
I never appreciated how beautiful the Avanti was until I stood next to one. I was about 15. The fact it was developed in 2 years, shows how much of a genius Raymond Loewy was. I’ve wanted one ever since.
Studebaker did NOT move production to Hamilton, ON to even try to resurrect car production. The corporation did this to evade lawsuits from the dealers. By supplying this trickle of automobiles for the next two years, it allowed the company to fulfill its legal obligations to the dealer network. Once the contract was complete, Studebaker stopped all vehicle production and went on to be very profitable until Studebaker-Worthington Corporation (formed in 1967) was absorbed by McGraw-Edison in 1979. …and that’s the rest of the story.
In a manner of speaking...sort of. They brought in Sherwood Egbert to shut down automobile production. He saw the reliance South Bend had on Studebaker and made a last ditch effort to save it. When things were up for the automotive side, in the late 1950's, the Board started diversification. When Egbert became ill...and the writing was on the wall...they dribbled down the dealer network and the production with it, moving it to Hamilton, ON. Actually, some of the dealers prospered and are still in business today. They tended to be Packard dealers, who switched over to Mercedes-Benz, when Studebaker had US distribution. A couple I can think of are W.I. Simonsen in Santa Monica and Stahl Motors in Monterey, CA. Then there were other dealers, like Wise in little Newman, CA, who started as Packard, switched to Studebaker and dried up in 1966.
It wasn't a grift, they were required by contract to provide cars through x number of years, which necessitated the '65 and '66 models. Their lineup was extremely dated and they had no $ to update it. They had some cool looking concepts built in '62 but they were still atop the 1953 chassis. @@caribman10
I think a good rule of thumb is: The more highly paid a management person is, the more incompetent he is. Most companies that were once successful are driven into the ground by management.
No mention that the Avanti outlived Studebaker by decades and continued to be produced into the early 2000s. After Studebaker got out of the car business, one of the former dealers incorporated the Avanti Car Company which continued producing the car as the Avanti II with Chevy and Ford components. Some of your videos in which cars are coming down the production line are in fact of post-Studebaker Avanti IIs, recognizable by the square headlight buckets.
What always struck me about the Avanti is just how fresh and futuristic the body was compared to everything else on the road at the time. It must have looked like a spaceship in comparison. Even today it has a somewhat awkwardly sophisticated look to it. I think we need a Studebaker Starliner historic video now.
@@dominickabbriano-ns6nf Looks are a subjective matter, but the Avanti absolutely was faster than a Corvette of the period. The Avanti held the speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats until the end of the 60s.
The Avanti was a huge success. It was an outstanding vehicle that outlived its manufacturer. Studebaker didn't go bankrupt, either. It went out of the car building business but succeeded through diversification.
One of the freshest designs ever. Saw one back in the day and was blown away by the styling. Still looks good, far more interesting than 95 % of what is being made today. Studebaker made some really cool cars. This was the most unusual, but others like the Golden Hawk were also very special.
I was 17 when the Avanti came out. I fell hopelessly in love and have been in love ever since. I never owned one and never will, but my love affair has remained hot. Thanks to all who made this gorgeous car. You are a permanent part of history.
I was six when it came out. I've loved the Studebaker "Loewy Coupes", the Hawks, Larks and especially the Avanti. I've never been able to own one, but have built 1/25th scale models of the 1953 Starliner Coupe and the Avanti.
Raymond Loewy DID NOT design the 1953-1954 Commander Starliner. That honor goes Robert Bourke. Although Loewy was a highly respected industrial designer, he was not capable of drawing a car with such impeccably subtle lines as the “Loewy coupe.” Yes, Loewy was project manager and took credit, but those who know better, credit the true genius, Robert (Bob) Bourke.
Studebaker did quite a lot right. It lasted for over 125 years. It was the only successful wagon carrige maker to enter and succeed in the automobile business in all the world. It was consistently in the top leading car builders in the United States. I could go on, they developed many firsts, were a revolutionary and innovative company. Hopefully, the Avanti will return yet again.
@@russbell6418 Yes, and it only failed because the CEO was a crook, and landed in jail where he died, from a fraudulent real estate scheme in Mexico. Sad as well because Avanti had just built a state of the art Manufacturing facility, and beautiful new showroom in Cancun. Last model was 2007.
Our family owned two Avantis. First was destroyed when a drunk ran into it. It was white with a beautiful turquoise interior. Second one was also white with a burgundy interior. We lived in SoCal where it does not rain a lot, but in the rain, even with the Firestone 500 tires the handling was dangerous. The 289 engine was a gas hog (10-12 mpg requiring high octane fuel) and a Mustang or Falcon with a 289 was more fun to drive. There are several comprehensive published histories of Studebaker and several factors in the companies' demise should be noted: 1) The Studebaker factory and employees were the most inefficient of the major manufacturers. The cost per unit to build a car was much higher than what it cost the Big 3 to build cars, and thus the profit per car was lower 2) the styling for the Lark was bland and out-dated compared to what the Big 3 and even American Motors were doing. 3) the build quality and engineering were not equal to what the other American companies had to offer. Thanks for this video. 👍 I highly recommend viewers read one of the written histories and visit the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend. The cars built before WWII are truly magnificent.
Great video, now I have a better understanding of what led to Studebakers demise. My two dream cars are the Raymond Loewy designed Studebakers: the 53 Starliner Coupe and the 63 Avanti, both cars styling well ahead of their time.
One thing: The Lark was a compact, not a subcompact, and was actually a full-size Studebaker with the ends chopped off. They did a pretty good job of it, IMO.
I live in South Bend. My grandpa worked at the Studebaker factory all the way until it's closing. South Bend was essentially a mini company town. It was seen as a mini Detroit. The failure of Studebaker was an incredible damper on the city and led to a downturn that's only been reversed in the last couple decades. It was one of the instigators of white flight in the city, which my grandpa wasn't above. BTW, my dad tried to steal the concerete Studebaker sign on display at the museum today. Apparently the building was transferring ownership pretty soon so they wanted to take it before it did. The new owner got wind of their plan and told them to buzz off. Not that they would have had any luck moving a one ton sign anyway. Even with the help of my uncle.
With a last name like yours I believe it, my brother in law is from Mishawaka and he worked at Dodge up there and his friends had Polish names. One ran OB's Tavern in late 70s.
@@mikekokomomike And my grandpa was well and truly a polack. I remember as a kid him unironically playing polka music in his minivan. Bonus: how many polacks does it take to unscrew a lightbulb? The answer is five. One to hold the bulb and the other four to spin the ladder.
@@jacobrzeszewski6527 yeah it's a great area up there, I live in Kokomo and my brother in law has one of those old split windshield Studebaker trucks. The Dodge factory he worked at was unrelated to Dodge Chrysler. It was a machine shop of some sort, maybe making pulleys or sheaves.
Great explanation of the details of car design. I wanted to be a car designer in 7th grade and participated in GM's Fisher Body design program by building models of future designs. I loved Raymond Loewey's designs. It is a bit sad that Studibaker was under such financial pressure (as I loved the Hawk Gran Truismo series).
Fisher body Craftsman Guild was a big deal for kids my age back then. I even sent for the college catalog for the Art Center College of Design, hoping to go there and worked on a portfolio of my drawings. However my high school guidance counselor discouraged me. Apparently Native American kids didn’t do that in the early 60s. Small minded people ruled my world.
Thanks for putting this together. When showing “the competition” you showed a ‘67 Camaro… Also of note McCulloch was the founder of Paxton Superchargers, which was then purchased by Studebaker in 1962. I’m guessing Egbert convinced his new company to buy his former employer. Lastly, I may have missed it, but GM/Chevrolet threatened the fiberglass suppliers to not supply Studebaker or risk losing GM’s business.
Before retiring, my dad owned an antique car restoration business focused on Studebaker and Packard. He has a couple go through the shop over the years. They have all the same problems as fiberglass Corvettes. They can look spotless from above, but have every bit of the metal structure rotted away. The fiberglass can and does change shape over time and they weren't exactly masters of fit and finish to start with. It's a shame they aren't worth more because it's really easy to spend more getting one sorted than you'll ever get out of it. Spend $20k on a $30k Avanti and you end up with a $35 Avanti. That makes them a loser in the collector community.
A well-rounded overview of the the most beautiful post-war American car. Brilliant design and tireless creative staff could not make up for a complacent and out of touch executive class.
There is a red one of these roaming around the highways and beltways of Maryland. I was driving home from work and then this red car passed me. It was definitely a standout. At first, I didn't realize what it was because I only caught a glimpse and could only see the tail end. Once I got a bit closer and pulled closer to be alongside of it, I knew what it was.
My father worked on the early Avanti project in Palm Springs. When it was given the green light the final work was to take place in NYC. My mother told me she did not want to move there. She set up the introduction of Tom to Raymond over dinner. That worked out very well.
The Avanti was not a failure - at all. The Studebaker turbo Golden Hawk was not a failure either. Both the Golden Hawk and the Avanti came too late in the game to save Stuudebaker. (In a tribute to Studebaker from an unlikely source, Nikita Khruschev said in a 1957 speech that it was a disgrace to the Soviet Union that Soviet transportation still depended on Studebaker trucks from WWII lend lease.)
My first car was a '54 Studebaker coupe. Who knew that the future would decide that the Starliner look would be considered classic. It was one of the few cars I regret getting rid of.
Hey I loved this video, long time fan of yours. I was wondering if you would consider making a video on the GS line from Lexus. Truly some unique and forward-thinking cars. My favorite is the 4th gen (2013-2015).
One footnote to my Aunts love of Studebaker Hawks, in about 1995, out of the blue I received a phone call from an auto collector from Ohio who had bought the 1964 Hawk and was restoring it. He wanted to see if we had any historical pictures in our family albums of the Hawk. Surprised and flattered, we actually found a couple from early delivery days which we sent along to an appreciative Study collector.
Eh, I think its prettu neat. But like all cars you can kinda tell if it would have mass market appeal. The front is different enough to split opinions and I could see why some people would say no to it.
A beautiful car that came just too late to save company It is supposed to have been said by Lowery that at the time 80% of cars were Larks and 20% were Hawks Lowery said it should be the ote4 way around Had that happened the Avanti may have had more impact and Studebake4 may have liv3d longer
I read an article about 5 years ago which explained why Studebaker went out of business. It seems that Studebaker had another company make the fiberglass bodies for the new Avantis. When they came back to be installed however, Studebaker found that they didn't fit and had to be cut to fit every car. It was an expensive process that Studebaker could not afford to do. It's a shame too because Studebaker was not a bad little car. My grandparents bought their first one after the war because it was the first car available. They liked them so much that they stayed with Studebaker until they went out of business in 1965.
Years ago when I was pretty much a kid there was an Avanti dealership at the end of my street. They also had a shop of course so I saw these things every day and thought what an odd-looking car it was. Of course, it eventually closed yet some of those cars sat there for years.
Studebaker was ahead of it's time . I was at the Auto Museum in Hershey a couple years ago and they had a pick up there from 1963 that had a ladder attached to the tail gate . Sound familiar ? Small companies that brought out new tech were ignored only to see their innovations adopted by the Big 3 years later and lauded for them. AMC suffered the same fate.
The Studebaker, like the Bricklin, was buried by import taxes after they moved to Canada... Studebaker was ahead of it's time in many aspects. But,....
I have my dad's Hawk and Avanti. I have recently completed a full restoration of the Avanti. A year ago, I finished the Hawk. Both are 4 speed manuals with manual overdrives. Both are super charged, and they are a joy to drive. It's a shame Studebaker and Packard bot went out of business. My current project is a 1937 Packard Twin six.
Tge avanti wasn’t meant to save the company, it and the super lark were meant to go out with a bang. Studebaker continued to be in business until 1979, they merely just stopped making cars. And the avanti 2 was made from 1967-1989 in the original avanti factory.
The Avanti wasn't a failure, Studebaker was a failure. It wasn't the product line that killed Studebaker, Studebaker was a mess and had the highest labor cost in the auto industry. If Packard had accepted George Mason's proposal and joined AMC immediately with Nash and Hudson, Studebaker wouldn't have lasted through the 1950's, in spite of making good cars. But by the time Packard needed to merger Studebaker was the only one left on the dance floor, and for good reason.
Studebaker did not shut its doors in 1966. The Studebaker Board had initiated diversification programs to exit the auto market back in 1961. Those strategies allow Studebaker to continue as a company for the next twenty years. Later absorbed into McGraw Industries, Studebaker was still a business unit as late as 1985. Egbert never had full support of the Board. Auto business continuation post December of 1963 was merely and exercise to fulfill contractual dealer agreements and reduction of automotive parts inventory
There is a visual clip at 1:10 of radial aircraft engines. Did Studebaker actually produce these? Or is this just misleading visual hyperbolic filler material?
The lost pension thing really irks me. Should be criminal - not to the company but to those who make that decision. Pension is part of the comp plan, this amounted to stolen wages.
I have to believe the car, as designed originally was stunningly gorgeous. Unfortunately the "no grille" directive, and removal of the rear fender bulges really took too much away from what could have been. The rear of the Avanti was always like 98% perfect. Seeing the sketches and the tale about the lights, it all makes sense now.
I’m going to reject at least the title immediately because that car never looked dated, has always been timeless, and while Studebaker did fail as a company, that the Avanti still succeeds as one of the most beautiful cars ever built, it is therefore NOT a failure.
Some of the mitigating circumstances surrounding Studebaker's failure, can't be deniged, but lack of emphasis on one aspect that really "tanked" them, was the thousands of orders for the Avanti, that were cancelled because of failure to deliver. And this blame can be placed solely at the feet of the Ashtabula, Ohio fiberglass factory responsible for the bodies. They gave all their output priority to GM's Corvette bodies, of which there was more orders. I loved my Avanti and wished I'd never sold it!
A lot of the blame lies with Studebaker's board of directors. They hired Egbert in hopes of further diversification from the auto business. But he thought the auto division could be saved by a radically new car that would drive interest in their other offerings and change the stodgy image of Studebaker. When he presented the clay model to the board, they became hooked on Avanti and forgot about diversification (which was driving profits). Egbert had no experience in automobile production and pushed Avanti development through in record time for the industry. But there were a lot of hiccups...especially producing enough vehicles to satisfy initial demand and requests by dealers to have an Avanti in their showrooms. Advance orders were canceled, and new orders were few and far between. By the summer of 1963 the writing was on the wall - Avanti wasn't selling; Egbert was out sick; and dealer orders for their other '64 vehicles were down from the previous year. Egbert was bought out in November '63 and new President Byers Burlingame had the dubious distinction of shuttering the South Bend plant. Burlingame had no choice as Studebaker was losing too much money manufacturing automobiles. Fortunately for Avanti fans, two Studebaker dealers in South Bend revived Avanti and the unique car lived on until 2006.
What was not stated was the 1963 AVANTI R3 supercharged 289ci v8 WAS the FASTEST production CAR in THE WORLD !I believe it attained 165 mph off the showroom floor!
Wasn't a 289 per se. Bored out to 299 then 304 cubes it topped 168 then Oct 63 topped 170+ MPH two way average. But actual top end was 178.5 mph. Only USA Auto maker and car to EVER make the world's fastest production car between 1949 and 2012. NO big 3 EVER made it.
The company didn't fail! At least in 1966. Studebaker stopped making cars in 1967 in Haifa Israel, Studebaker continued as a Corporation until 1979. Egbert was the President of Studebaker which was a diversified company. They stopped making cars in South bend in 1963, but the company didn't fail, it was traded on the NYSE until 1979.
My swinger Aunt bought a Study Hawk back in about 1960. Years later the car drew stares and admiring glances. She traded every few years and by the trade year she had a Cadre of psychophant gas jockey buyers hanging on her every trade in move. Of course I was hoping she would buy an Avanti as a successor car, but she went with an even nicer, up to date Hawk instead. It was really sharp, but an Avanti@!!!!!
As a car, the Avanti was not a failure, rather, the company failed the car. The failure of the company began in the 1950's with labor disputes and strikes. Also, the lineup of the Studebaker models were difficult to pigeonhole as to which models were the elite and which were the "sport" models.
The Avanti is a car design that from many angles shouldn’t work. And yet it does. Very avant-garde. The original round headlight under glass versions look best. As the years progressed there were several updated versions. All failed to capture what I’d refer to as the awkward symmetry of the original body style. Very cool car.
Avanti let down an otherwise eager potential buying public due to curing issues regarding method of fiberglass application during assembly. An increasing waiting list into the closing stages of 1963 ultimately for most enthusiastic to give up, and look to the far surer promise Ford had with its' exciting new Falcon based pony car waiting around the corner. Stude, with a darkening sky every which way, axed both Avanti, and the Hawk GT; the latter a sales victim of competing Riviera and Thunderbird. All there was left was a solitary line of generic cars, and the dealers ' inabilities to expect customers to rest in no harm unrealistically so, that Studebaker was becoming an orphan make. You felt far more confident that your Ford dealer could get you into a Mercury Comet, and it was only true.
Studebaker was a viable and profitable company until it was acquired by McGraw-Edison in 1979. The company was far from cash strapped in 1961, to the contrary, it was full of cash. Studebaker executed a strategy to exit the car business in 1961. The profits of the Lark funded the 1961 diversification program. Egbert did not have the support of the Board of Directors. Auto production was run through 1966 to deplete inventory and comply with various automotive contracts. The die was cast long before the introduction of the Avanti for 1963.
Everything was still running the underpinnings from 1953 all the way through to the end. Under the skin, even the Avanti was part Lark convertible, part Wagoneer.
Dad had a white/turq 64. Great driver condition...and he did for yrs in the 90s...i got to twice. Then had its driverside melted off...in his driveway when the travel trailer (parked Right next to it) decided to fry its breakerbox/waterheater unit and turned into its own pile... All Dad could do was hold the garden hose on the pair of propane btls on the tounge of the trailer....probably wishing he at least had the tires aired up....😢
Before I was born, my parents owned a Studebaker. It was a station wagon, because of the kids. Years later in the 1970's when I was a teenager my pops would tell me that back in the late 1950's, he could get that Studebaker unto 120 MPH !! I couldn't imagine going that fast in a wagon on the roads in the 1950's !! IDK whatever happened to that beast ?? Nice video.
0:48 Raymond Loewy assembled the team of Bob Andrews, John Ebstein, and Tom Kellogg and the team under Loewy's supervision created the design. 1:51 Loewy presented the Starlight/Starlnerdesigns to Studebaker, but it was Loewy Associates designer Bob Bourke who penned the basic design profile. Starlight shown. 2:42 The Lark was a compact, not a sub-compact, and its passenger cabin shared dimensions with the immediatey-preceding full-size Champion and Commander models. 7:32 Don't overlook the Studebaker-Porsche project Z87.
As a kid in north Indiana in the 50-60s there were many Studebakers in our small town. Mostly Hawks, a couple Larks, some older Pioneers, and one Avanti. My favorite design series were the Hawks. Golden, Silver, Power, Sky, Flight.. even the names are cool..(Power Hawk!)
I was a little kid when Studebaker went out of business, but I found out about the Avanti car's about 10 years ago. I fell in love with them. They are so futuristic and just a sexy car. My other rare car that I like, is the Bricklin.
I have a real fascination those Crosleys he mentioned. The engine out of the Crosley Hot-Shot was used in some early experimental Mooneys (revealing a crankshaft weakness). Of course, Mooney went on to be a major player in high speed personal transport.
My first car was a 1955 Packard Patrician and we needed a part. That was after the merger and the Studebaker dealership was located in the old Packard building in Atlanta, so while we were there, we visited the showroom. The Avanti had just been introduced and they had one. I had never seen a car that beautiful! Over 50 years later, the car is still stunning!
I wouldnt mind the Avanti, but, my heart belongs to the 53-55 coupes. I mean, id settle for a 59-61 lark, or a 64-66... Ok, yeah, i just want another Studebaker.....lol
For the Starliner shown early in the video, you might notice the three pointed star logo, especially at 2:16. Mercedes-Benz told Studebaker that it resembled their three pointed emblem too much and could not use it. Studebaker obliged removed the downward pointing leg making it a V instead of a tri-star. Interestingly, Studebaker became the distributor for Mercedes-Benz in the U.S. and Canada from 1957-1963. And the door locks in the Avanti are Mercedes-Benz cone style door locks. These were better door locks than the typical and part of a safety improvement.
Studebakers were not uncommon in our area in the late '50s-early '60s. My uncle had a '57 Silver Hawk in a beautiful red that was very impressive. He had it for a couple of years and then had a white Avanti for a about a year. Now that was awesome looking and attracted a lot of admiration. It reminded me of a spy car. I enjoyed this detailed look into their story especially about Raymond Loewy and the Palm Springs 'getaway'. Palm Springs was so nice in those days. An Avanti would have been perfect to cruise in.
The Studebaker, 2+2, Avanti was futuristic & timeless. THAT SAID, I believe (1) It had Edsel syndrome. Too radical. (2) New segment, 2 door Coupe but way ahead of Mustang. (3) No racing program (240 Hp, 289 cu. in. (4) GM had resources to keep updating the Corvette. Studebaker could not. (5) See (1). (6) Hitting one out of the park to save the company was a big long shot. The slow evolution not revolution is the safer path but NOT a big scorer; however, TOO DIFFERENT and you get reduced sales volume.
Cool and sad.... I was born in '57 and had Lark toy cars so knew of Studebaker at a young age. I'm like 5 when i read about The Avanti. YIKES, Paxton's topping speed records all over the place. Only saw one on the road, late '70s. Almost wanted to do a U turn. ha, 76, Leslie West is playing at Winterland (car and guitar guy). Me and 4 friends,,,,"Who's got the most gas?" Guy with a Studebaker Hawk from like ....i can't recall....'57? Anyways i'd park wherever but he wanted to park on site,,,,nice car. LW slays us, Elvin Bishop,,,,"Lets leave...". Did. Bounced a Bug out of our way,,,,i hope we didn't hurt it.
As referred to in the video, the Avanti was meant to be a "halo car" meaning to get attention and get people to the dealerships. And it did do that. They didn't expect to sell many as the price was the same as a Cadillac. Instead, once people got to the dealership they were expected to buy the regular lineup. People DID come to the dealerships but were simply afraid to buy from the shaky company. Also, at first, they really had no cars for the dealerships and flew the same two cars from town to town in cargo plane. They would set up bleachers, give out free "Avanti" stadium seat cushions, and had a lot of hoopla introducing the car. Then they would fly off with this "Avanti Airlift" marketing project to do the same in another city.
Studebaker's failure was because of poor management. Studebaker cannibalize Packard, which may have added a few years to the life of Studebaker. Studebaker should have followed GM business model. GM acquired car brands like Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Oakland. GM didn't cannibalize these companies, but instead made them viable Car Companies in there own right. Studebaker didn't take the challenge of road salt. In the late 50's road salt was destroying the car body. Studebaker were rusting out real quick. Rusted Studebakers were advertisements to Studebaker poor build quality. So all the styling in the world could not cover come the rusting Studebaker.
All car buffs look at the Avanti with longing and regret that Studebaker could not continue to develop and sell cars. On the other hand, cars became safer by 1968, until today. An accident in an Avanti wouldn't be pretty, but I imagine most owners were careful with such a special car. Most of our cars are exponentially safer today: One of my sons crashed a 1997 Chevy Malibu, driving drunk, flying along a local road with curves and small hills . . . hit a utility pole, then the car flipped over before coming to a rest. But he did have his seatbelt on and the airbag was effective. He walked away from it---to the police who were called to the scene. The new Corvettes and Mustangs and Challengers, etc., have poor crash ratings but the boring sedans are a lot safer. Still, the Avanti is still a beautiful creation for collectors today.
I wish the guy who was 6'4" and made them raise the roof line was still designing cars. I'm 6'3" and can't fit in any of the newer cars properly. Either not enough head room or no leg room. Cars need to be designed so people of all sizes can drive them safely and comfortably. The Avanti seems to have been such a car. Beautiful too.
I still don't think it is a memorable design. But once Roy Lonberger, the designer of the Chevrolet Astro 1 summed up in an e-mail why this car was great, at least on the drawing board. It introduced so many new features and ideas. But hey, that's true also for the Citroen DS, which I think is a much nicer design. Although once again, Lonberger disagrees completely on this with me. But a famous American TV figure / car collector agrees with me wholeheartedly. So: let's agree the car deserves an A for innovation, but for design, I wouldn't go much further than a C or even D, even if originality certainly would be a solid B, maybe also A.
This could have been an interesting video. The narration (be it human or AI), sounded like he or it was in a drunken stupor . . . slurred speech . . . boring.
I was at a yard sale a few months back and got friendly with the man running it. He was kind enough to show me his car collection. And sitting there was an avanti. It was truly a sight to behold. He let me sit in it and told me the many tales of that car and his life. It was a very memorable experience.
MANY years ago I worked on cars in a small garage. We had an Avanti come in for an alignment (back then there were few good alignment techs and cars hadn't yet switched fully to radial tires to give you an idea). It was easy to work on and I liked test driving it. It was way, way ahead of it's time.
The last I heard, the Avanti was still being built under license in Saudi Arabia. Always a popular and well received model.
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All the idiots here who think this is an ugly car don’t really realize what everything else looks like back then. This car was 10 years ahead of its time.
It has to be seen in person in order to really be able to appreciate it
No Uglier than a Tesla
Sixty years later, the Avanti is STILL beautful.
spot on
I had a round headlight 1964 Avanti for about 25 years. Sure miss that car!
Your a lucky guy 👦 😌
I never appreciated how beautiful the Avanti was until I stood next to one. I was about 15. The fact it was developed in 2 years, shows how much of a genius Raymond Loewy was. I’ve wanted one ever since.
just got mine
Studebaker did NOT move production to Hamilton, ON to even try to resurrect car production. The corporation did this to evade lawsuits from the dealers. By supplying this trickle of automobiles for the next two years, it allowed the company to fulfill its legal obligations to the dealer network. Once the contract was complete, Studebaker stopped all vehicle production and went on to be very profitable until Studebaker-Worthington Corporation (formed in 1967) was absorbed by McGraw-Edison in 1979.
…and that’s the rest of the story.
And it wasn't a "move" as they were building cars in Hamilton for years along side South Bend.
@@seed_drill7135 True. For many years, the Hamilton cars had a small maple leaf 🍁 on the dash.
It was a grift.
In a manner of speaking...sort of. They brought in Sherwood Egbert to shut down automobile production. He saw the reliance South Bend had on Studebaker and made a last ditch effort to save it. When things were up for the automotive side, in the late 1950's, the Board started diversification. When Egbert became ill...and the writing was on the wall...they dribbled down the dealer network and the production with it, moving it to Hamilton, ON.
Actually, some of the dealers prospered and are still in business today. They tended to be Packard dealers, who switched over to Mercedes-Benz, when Studebaker had US distribution. A couple I can think of are W.I. Simonsen in Santa Monica and Stahl Motors in Monterey, CA. Then there were other dealers, like Wise in little Newman, CA, who started as Packard, switched to Studebaker and dried up in 1966.
It wasn't a grift, they were required by contract to provide cars through x number of years, which necessitated the '65 and '66 models. Their lineup was extremely dated and they had no $ to update it. They had some cool looking concepts built in '62 but they were still atop the 1953 chassis. @@caribman10
I think a good rule of thumb is: The more highly paid a management person is, the more incompetent he is. Most companies that were once successful are driven into the ground by management.
See "Boeing" devolvement of an engineering to a money company.
@@samrapheal1828 Will do! Thanks!
Or look at the dummies running what used to be General Motors, stupid money for stupid people.
No mention that the Avanti outlived Studebaker by decades and continued to be produced into the early 2000s. After Studebaker got out of the car business, one of the former dealers incorporated the Avanti Car Company which continued producing the car as the Avanti II with Chevy and Ford components. Some of your videos in which cars are coming down the production line are in fact of post-Studebaker Avanti IIs, recognizable by the square headlight buckets.
The 62 had the round headlights, the 63 had the squarish bezels surrounding the headlights.
What always struck me about the Avanti is just how fresh and futuristic the body was compared to everything else on the road at the time. It must have looked like a spaceship in comparison. Even today it has a somewhat awkwardly sophisticated look to it. I think we need a Studebaker Starliner historic video now.
It was no Citroen DS.
@@bcbc3762 : Citroen is on a planet of its own, both in looks and engineering.
It wasn't better looking than the Corvette or faster 😅
It wasn't better looking than the Corvette or faster 😅
@@dominickabbriano-ns6nf Looks are a subjective matter, but the Avanti absolutely was faster than a Corvette of the period. The Avanti held the speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats until the end of the 60s.
The Avanti was a huge success. It was an outstanding vehicle that outlived its manufacturer. Studebaker didn't go bankrupt, either. It went out of the car building business but succeeded through diversification.
The man with the lisp says otherwise.
@@atarian345
At that point, NOTHING could have “saved” their Car production.
🚗😢
One of the freshest designs ever. Saw one back in the day and was blown away by the styling. Still looks good, far more interesting than 95 % of what is being made today.
Studebaker made some really cool cars. This was the most unusual, but others like the Golden Hawk were also very special.
I was 17 when the Avanti came out. I fell hopelessly in love and have been in love ever since. I never owned one and never will, but my love affair has remained hot. Thanks to all who made this gorgeous car. You are a permanent part of history.
I was six when it came out. I've loved the Studebaker "Loewy Coupes", the Hawks, Larks and especially the Avanti. I've never been able to own one, but have built 1/25th scale models of the 1953 Starliner Coupe and the Avanti.
Raymond Loewy DID NOT design the 1953-1954 Commander Starliner. That honor goes Robert Bourke. Although Loewy was a highly respected industrial designer, he was not capable of drawing a car with such impeccably subtle lines as the “Loewy coupe.” Yes, Loewy was project manager and took credit, but those who know better, credit the true genius,
Robert (Bob) Bourke.
Absolutely, I've heard that my whole life.
Thank you for setting the record straight about Bob Bourke... 🤗
To my 66 year old eyes, the Avanti is still the most beautiful car ever built, anywhere. A truly gorgeous piece of automotive art.
I’m fond of it, but a ‘53 2-door Champion is first in my heart. (I own neither , but have a ‘62 Champ pickup.)
Design really sticks out from its competition. Beautiful car imo
sure does...weird lookin car 4 sure
"There was plenty of blame to go around as to why the company failed"
UAW being the primary culprit.
Studebaker did quite a lot right. It lasted for over 125 years. It was the only successful wagon carrige maker to enter and succeed in the automobile business in all the world. It was consistently in the top leading car builders in the United States. I could go on, they developed many firsts, were a revolutionary and innovative company. Hopefully, the Avanti will return yet again.
And of course, was manufactured by a non-Studebaker entity up through 2006.
@@russbell6418 Yes, and it only failed because the CEO was a crook, and landed in jail where he died, from a fraudulent real estate scheme in Mexico. Sad as well because Avanti had just built a state of the art Manufacturing facility, and beautiful new showroom in Cancun. Last model was 2007.
Our family owned two Avantis. First was destroyed when a drunk ran into it. It was white with a beautiful turquoise interior. Second one was also white with a burgundy interior. We lived in SoCal where it does not rain a lot, but in the rain, even with the Firestone 500 tires the handling was dangerous. The 289 engine was a gas hog (10-12 mpg requiring high octane fuel) and a Mustang or Falcon with a 289 was more fun to drive. There are several comprehensive published histories of Studebaker and several factors in the companies' demise should be noted: 1) The Studebaker factory and employees were the most inefficient of the major manufacturers. The cost per unit to build a car was much higher than what it cost the Big 3 to build cars, and thus the profit per car was lower 2) the styling for the Lark was bland and out-dated compared to what the Big 3 and even American Motors were doing. 3) the build quality and engineering were not equal to what the other American companies had to offer.
Thanks for this video. 👍 I highly recommend viewers read one of the written histories and visit the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend. The cars built before WWII are truly magnificent.
Great video, now I have a better understanding of what led to Studebakers demise. My two dream cars are the Raymond Loewy designed Studebakers: the 53 Starliner Coupe and the 63 Avanti, both cars styling well ahead of their time.
Same here! Gorgeous cars. ❤
One thing: The Lark was a compact, not a subcompact, and was actually a full-size Studebaker with the ends chopped off. They did a pretty good job of it, IMO.
Again, selling the '53 Starlite under another body....
The Avante body was placed upon the Lark chassis.
I live in South Bend. My grandpa worked at the Studebaker factory all the way until it's closing. South Bend was essentially a mini company town. It was seen as a mini Detroit. The failure of Studebaker was an incredible damper on the city and led to a downturn that's only been reversed in the last couple decades. It was one of the instigators of white flight in the city, which my grandpa wasn't above.
BTW, my dad tried to steal the concerete Studebaker sign on display at the museum today. Apparently the building was transferring ownership pretty soon so they wanted to take it before it did. The new owner got wind of their plan and told them to buzz off. Not that they would have had any luck moving a one ton sign anyway. Even with the help of my uncle.
What other American company has tried to sell and resell basically the same car through three decades?
@@caribman10 Ford, GM, Nissan.
With a last name like yours I believe it, my brother in law is from Mishawaka and he worked at Dodge up there and his friends had Polish names. One ran OB's Tavern in late 70s.
@@mikekokomomike And my grandpa was well and truly a polack. I remember as a kid him unironically playing polka music in his minivan.
Bonus: how many polacks does it take to unscrew a lightbulb?
The answer is five. One to hold the bulb and the other four to spin the ladder.
@@jacobrzeszewski6527 yeah it's a great area up there, I live in Kokomo and my brother in law has one of those old split windshield Studebaker trucks. The Dodge factory he worked at was unrelated to Dodge Chrysler. It was a machine shop of some sort, maybe making pulleys or sheaves.
This is brilliant - a story I’ve always wanted to know more about. Thank you, Barchetta!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great explanation of the details of car design. I wanted to be a car designer in 7th grade and participated in GM's Fisher Body design program by building models of future designs. I loved Raymond Loewey's designs. It is a bit sad that Studibaker was under such financial pressure (as I loved the Hawk Gran Truismo series).
Fisher body Craftsman Guild was a big deal for kids my age back then. I even sent for the college catalog for the Art Center College of Design, hoping to go there and worked on a portfolio of my drawings. However my high school guidance counselor discouraged me. Apparently Native American kids didn’t do that in the early 60s. Small minded people ruled my world.
Thanks for putting this together. When showing “the competition” you showed a ‘67 Camaro… Also of note McCulloch was the founder of Paxton Superchargers, which was then purchased by Studebaker in 1962. I’m guessing Egbert convinced his new company to buy his former employer. Lastly, I may have missed it, but GM/Chevrolet threatened the fiberglass suppliers to not supply Studebaker or risk losing GM’s business.
Before retiring, my dad owned an antique car restoration business focused on Studebaker and Packard. He has a couple go through the shop over the years. They have all the same problems as fiberglass Corvettes. They can look spotless from above, but have every bit of the metal structure rotted away. The fiberglass can and does change shape over time and they weren't exactly masters of fit and finish to start with. It's a shame they aren't worth more because it's really easy to spend more getting one sorted than you'll ever get out of it. Spend $20k on a $30k Avanti and you end up with a $35 Avanti. That makes them a loser in the collector community.
A well-rounded overview of the the most beautiful post-war American car. Brilliant design and tireless creative staff could not make up for a complacent and out of touch executive class.
There is a red one of these roaming around the highways and beltways of Maryland. I was driving home from work and then this red car passed me. It was definitely a standout. At first, I didn't realize what it was because I only caught a glimpse and could only see the tail end. Once I got a bit closer and pulled closer to be alongside of it, I knew what it was.
this was because the corvette got all of the fibriglass
My father worked on the early Avanti project in Palm Springs. When it was given the green light the final work was to take place in NYC.
My mother told me she did not want to move there. She set up the introduction of Tom to Raymond over dinner. That worked out very well.
The Avanti was not a failure - at all. The Studebaker turbo Golden Hawk was not a failure either. Both the Golden Hawk and the Avanti came too late in the game to save Stuudebaker. (In a tribute to Studebaker from an unlikely source, Nikita Khruschev said in a 1957 speech that it was a disgrace to the Soviet Union that Soviet transportation still depended on Studebaker trucks from WWII lend lease.)
Too bad the employees got shafted on their retirement plan.
My first car was a '54 Studebaker coupe. Who knew that the future would decide that the Starliner look would be considered classic. It was one of the few cars I regret getting rid of.
Hey I loved this video, long time fan of yours. I was wondering if you would consider making a video on the GS line from Lexus. Truly some unique and forward-thinking cars. My favorite is the 4th gen (2013-2015).
One footnote to my Aunts love of Studebaker Hawks, in about 1995, out of the blue I received a phone call from an auto collector from Ohio who had bought the 1964 Hawk and was restoring it. He wanted to see if we had any historical pictures in our family albums of the Hawk. Surprised and flattered, we actually found a couple from early delivery days which we sent along to an appreciative Study collector.
Eh, I think its prettu neat. But like all cars you can kinda tell if it would have mass market appeal. The front is different enough to split opinions and I could see why some people would say no to it.
Studebaker was the oldest car company, celebrating its 100 year anniversary in 1957. They started out with covered wagons in 1857.
A beautiful car that came just too late to save company It is supposed to have been said by Lowery that at the time 80% of cars were Larks and 20% were Hawks Lowery said it should be the ote4 way around Had that happened the Avanti may have had more impact and Studebake4 may have liv3d longer
I read an article about 5 years ago which explained why Studebaker went out of business. It seems that Studebaker had another company make the fiberglass bodies for the new Avantis. When they came back to be installed however, Studebaker found that they didn't fit and had to be cut to fit every car. It was an expensive process that Studebaker could not afford to do. It's a shame too because Studebaker was not a bad little car. My grandparents bought their first one after the war because it was the first car available. They liked them so much that they stayed with Studebaker until they went out of business in 1965.
Years ago when I was pretty much a kid there was an Avanti dealership at the end of my street. They also had a shop of course so I saw these things every day and thought what an odd-looking car it was. Of course, it eventually closed yet some of those cars sat there for years.
Studebaker was ahead of it's time . I was at the Auto Museum in Hershey a couple years ago and they had a pick up there from 1963 that had a ladder attached to the tail gate . Sound familiar ? Small companies that brought out new tech were ignored only to see their innovations adopted by the Big 3 years later and lauded for them. AMC suffered the same fate.
As a kid this was one of my favorite cars, it looked so futuristic to me. It still looks really handsome!
The Studebaker, like the Bricklin, was buried by import taxes after they moved to Canada... Studebaker was ahead of it's time in many aspects. But,....
I have my dad's Hawk and Avanti. I have recently completed a full restoration of the Avanti. A year ago, I finished the Hawk. Both are 4 speed manuals with manual overdrives. Both are super charged, and they are a joy to drive. It's a shame Studebaker and Packard bot went out of business. My current project is a 1937 Packard Twin six.
Tge avanti wasn’t meant to save the company, it and the super lark were meant to go out with a bang. Studebaker continued to be in business until 1979, they merely just stopped making cars. And the avanti 2 was made from 1967-1989 in the original avanti factory.
The Avanti wasn't a failure, Studebaker was a failure. It wasn't the product line that killed Studebaker, Studebaker was a mess and had the highest labor cost in the auto industry. If Packard had accepted George Mason's proposal and joined AMC immediately with Nash and Hudson, Studebaker wouldn't have lasted through the 1950's, in spite of making good cars. But by the time Packard needed to merger Studebaker was the only one left on the dance floor, and for good reason.
I remember seeing an Avanti (II?) in 1971 with a hand-tooled leather bra. Absolutely gorgeous. STILL a gorgeous car today.
Studebaker did not shut its doors in 1966. The Studebaker Board had initiated diversification programs to exit the auto market back in 1961. Those strategies allow Studebaker to continue as a company for the next twenty years. Later absorbed into McGraw Industries, Studebaker was still a business unit as late as 1985. Egbert never had full support of the Board. Auto business continuation post December of 1963 was merely and exercise to fulfill contractual dealer agreements and reduction of automotive parts inventory
The dull looking front and low roof space of the Studebaker Avanti was copied on the Buick Skyhawk years later. Thanks.
There is a visual clip at 1:10 of radial aircraft engines. Did Studebaker actually produce these? Or is this just misleading visual hyperbolic filler material?
GREAT VIDEO. 1st one of yours for me...will be on the others directly.
The lost pension thing really irks me. Should be criminal - not to the company but to those who make that decision. Pension is part of the comp plan, this amounted to stolen wages.
I have to believe the car, as designed originally was stunningly gorgeous. Unfortunately the "no grille" directive, and removal of the rear fender bulges really took too much away from what could have been. The rear of the Avanti was always like 98% perfect. Seeing the sketches and the tale about the lights, it all makes sense now.
I’m going to reject at least the title immediately because that car never looked dated, has always been timeless, and while Studebaker did fail as a company, that the Avanti still succeeds as one of the most beautiful cars ever built, it is therefore NOT a failure.
Some of the mitigating circumstances surrounding Studebaker's failure, can't be deniged, but lack of emphasis on one aspect that really "tanked" them, was the thousands of orders for the Avanti, that were cancelled because of failure to deliver. And this blame can be placed solely at the feet of the Ashtabula, Ohio fiberglass factory responsible for the bodies. They gave all their output priority to GM's Corvette bodies, of which there was more orders. I loved my Avanti and wished I'd never sold it!
Studebaker sold as may Avantis as it could service.
I don't believe that.@@caribman10
wow, you may have picked out the " nail " that was missing so a whole war was lost.
The profile of this car obviously inspired the Mustang, which started the whole ponycar thing.
Avant's are even better looking in person!
A lot of the blame lies with Studebaker's board of directors. They hired Egbert in hopes of further diversification from the auto business. But he thought the auto division could be saved by a radically new car that would drive interest in their other offerings and change the stodgy image of Studebaker. When he presented the clay model to the board, they became hooked on Avanti and forgot about diversification (which was driving profits). Egbert had no experience in automobile production and pushed Avanti development through in record time for the industry. But there were a lot of hiccups...especially producing enough vehicles to satisfy initial demand and requests by dealers to have an Avanti in their showrooms. Advance orders were canceled, and new orders were few and far between. By the summer of 1963 the writing was on the wall - Avanti wasn't selling; Egbert was out sick; and dealer orders for their other '64 vehicles were down from the previous year. Egbert was bought out in November '63 and new President Byers Burlingame had the dubious distinction of shuttering the South Bend plant. Burlingame had no choice as Studebaker was losing too much money manufacturing automobiles. Fortunately for Avanti fans, two Studebaker dealers in South Bend revived Avanti and the unique car lived on until 2006.
I still have a love it / hate it opinion. It's certainly not a Jag XKE. And some elements make it feel and look like a "kit car". Still, I like it.
What was not stated was the 1963 AVANTI R3 supercharged 289ci v8 WAS the FASTEST production CAR in THE WORLD !I believe it attained 165 mph off the showroom floor!
Wasn't a 289 per se. Bored out to 299 then 304 cubes it topped 168 then Oct 63 topped 170+ MPH two way average. But actual top end was 178.5 mph.
Only USA Auto maker and car to EVER make the world's fastest production car between 1949 and 2012.
NO big 3 EVER made it.
It's ugly front end styling was eclipsed only by the 75 AMC Matador.
I remember Avanti. They were cool. There were a few of them around when we were kids . I remember because I knew what Avanti meant for some reason.
Where there is a will there is a way. As much as I like Studebaker, the company did itself in.
The company didn't fail! At least in 1966. Studebaker stopped making cars in 1967 in Haifa Israel, Studebaker continued as a Corporation until 1979. Egbert was the President of Studebaker which was a diversified company. They stopped making cars in South bend in 1963, but the company didn't fail, it was traded on the NYSE until 1979.
The company failed.
Great job on the video buddy! I wanted to tell you thank you for the excellent job of narration and your really audio quality. Well done.
I just loved that car... The *Avanti* was a great piece of design.
My swinger Aunt bought a Study Hawk back in about 1960. Years later the car drew stares and admiring glances. She traded every few years and by the trade year she had a Cadre of psychophant gas jockey buyers hanging on her every trade in move.
Of course I was hoping she would buy an Avanti as a successor car, but she went with an even nicer, up to date Hawk instead. It was really sharp, but an Avanti@!!!!!
They did the same thing that BMC and later British Leyland. Short-term vision and big splash cars.
I'd love to own one!
Fantastic design however needs to be actually built and run.
As a car, the Avanti was not a failure, rather, the company failed the car. The failure of the company began in the 1950's with labor disputes and strikes. Also, the lineup of the Studebaker models were difficult to pigeonhole as to which models were the elite and which were the "sport" models.
"It has a preserve approach, it is different"
The Avanti is a car design that from many angles shouldn’t work. And yet it does. Very avant-garde. The original round headlight under glass versions look best. As the years progressed there were several updated versions. All failed to capture what I’d refer to as the awkward symmetry of the original body style. Very cool car.
Avanti let down an otherwise eager potential buying public due to curing issues regarding method of fiberglass application during assembly. An increasing waiting list into the closing stages of 1963 ultimately for most enthusiastic to give up, and look to the far surer promise Ford had with its' exciting new Falcon based pony car waiting around the corner. Stude, with a darkening sky every which way, axed both Avanti, and the Hawk GT; the latter a sales victim of competing Riviera and Thunderbird. All there was left was a solitary line of generic cars, and the dealers ' inabilities to expect customers to rest in no harm unrealistically so, that Studebaker was becoming an orphan make. You felt far more confident that your Ford dealer could get you into a Mercury Comet, and it was only true.
Studebaker was a viable and profitable company until it was acquired by McGraw-Edison in 1979. The company was far from cash strapped in 1961, to the contrary, it was full of cash. Studebaker executed a strategy to exit the car business in 1961. The profits of the Lark funded the 1961 diversification program. Egbert did not have the support of the Board of Directors. Auto production was run through 1966 to deplete inventory and comply with various automotive contracts. The die was cast long before the introduction of the Avanti for 1963.
Everything was still running the underpinnings from 1953 all the way through to the end. Under the skin, even the Avanti was part Lark convertible, part Wagoneer.
@@seed_drill7135 Point being?
The Avanti was gorgeous and growling.
I think greed was what really was the final straw.
Dad had a white/turq 64. Great driver condition...and he did for yrs in the 90s...i got to twice.
Then had its driverside melted off...in his driveway when the travel trailer (parked Right next to it) decided to fry its breakerbox/waterheater unit and turned into its own pile...
All Dad could do was hold the garden hose on the pair of propane btls on the tounge of the trailer....probably wishing he at least had the tires aired up....😢
Before I was born, my parents owned a Studebaker. It was a station wagon, because of the kids. Years later in the 1970's when I was a teenager my pops would tell me that back in the late 1950's, he could get that Studebaker unto 120 MPH !! I couldn't imagine going that fast in a wagon on the roads in the 1950's !! IDK whatever happened to that beast ?? Nice video.
0:48 Raymond Loewy assembled the team of Bob Andrews, John Ebstein, and Tom Kellogg and the team under Loewy's supervision created the design.
1:51 Loewy presented the Starlight/Starlnerdesigns to Studebaker, but it was Loewy Associates designer Bob Bourke who penned the basic design profile. Starlight shown.
2:42 The Lark was a compact, not a sub-compact, and its passenger cabin shared dimensions with the immediatey-preceding full-size Champion and Commander models.
7:32 Don't overlook the Studebaker-Porsche project Z87.
As a kid in north Indiana in the 50-60s there were many Studebakers in our small town. Mostly Hawks, a couple Larks, some older Pioneers, and one Avanti. My favorite design series were the Hawks. Golden, Silver, Power, Sky, Flight.. even the names are cool..(Power Hawk!)
a great car. some of them were very fast.
I’m 70 and I remember seeing them around my town. I’d drive one of those in a hot second.
I was a little kid when Studebaker went out of business, but I found out about the Avanti car's about 10 years ago. I fell in love with them. They are so futuristic and just a sexy car. My other rare car that I like, is the Bricklin.
I have a real fascination those Crosleys he mentioned. The engine out of the Crosley Hot-Shot was used in some early experimental Mooneys (revealing a crankshaft weakness). Of course, Mooney went on to be a major player in high speed personal transport.
I always wanted this car. My uncle had a Hawk with the Paxton and it would really pull on the highway.
They're really cool cars. Even the replicas are cool.
My first car was a 1955 Packard Patrician and we needed a part. That was after the merger and the Studebaker dealership was located in the old Packard building in Atlanta, so while we were there, we visited the showroom. The Avanti had just been introduced and they had one. I had never seen a car that beautiful! Over 50 years later, the car is still stunning!
I wouldnt mind the Avanti, but, my heart belongs to the 53-55 coupes. I mean, id settle for a 59-61 lark, or a 64-66... Ok, yeah, i just want another Studebaker.....lol
What a fantastic car. What I wouldn't do to have one. Raymond Lowey was a genious.
For the Starliner shown early in the video, you might notice the three pointed star logo, especially at 2:16. Mercedes-Benz told Studebaker that it resembled their three pointed emblem too much and could not use it. Studebaker obliged removed the downward pointing leg making it a V instead of a tri-star. Interestingly, Studebaker became the distributor for Mercedes-Benz in the U.S. and Canada from 1957-1963. And the door locks in the Avanti are Mercedes-Benz cone style door locks. These were better door locks than the typical and part of a safety improvement.
Excellent presentation. You should have more subs ! 😊
Studebakers were not uncommon in our area in the late '50s-early '60s. My uncle had a '57 Silver Hawk in a beautiful red that was very impressive. He had it for a couple of years and then had a white Avanti for a about a year. Now that was awesome looking and attracted a lot of admiration. It reminded me of a spy car. I enjoyed this detailed look into their story especially about Raymond Loewy and the Palm Springs 'getaway'. Palm Springs was so nice in those days. An Avanti would have been perfect to cruise in.
The Studebaker, 2+2, Avanti was futuristic & timeless. THAT SAID, I believe (1) It had Edsel syndrome. Too radical. (2) New segment, 2 door Coupe but way ahead of Mustang. (3) No racing program (240 Hp, 289 cu. in. (4) GM had resources to keep updating the Corvette. Studebaker could not. (5) See (1). (6) Hitting one out of the park to save the company was a big long shot. The slow evolution not revolution is the safer path but NOT a big scorer; however, TOO DIFFERENT and you get reduced sales volume.
Cool and sad....
I was born in '57 and had Lark toy cars so knew of Studebaker at a young age.
I'm like 5 when i read about The Avanti. YIKES, Paxton's topping speed records all over the place.
Only saw one on the road, late '70s. Almost wanted to do a U turn.
ha, 76, Leslie West is playing at Winterland (car and guitar guy).
Me and 4 friends,,,,"Who's got the most gas?"
Guy with a Studebaker Hawk from like ....i can't recall....'57?
Anyways i'd park wherever but he wanted to park on site,,,,nice car.
LW slays us, Elvin Bishop,,,,"Lets leave...".
Did. Bounced a Bug out of our way,,,,i hope we didn't hurt it.
As referred to in the video, the Avanti was meant to be a "halo car" meaning to get attention and get people to the dealerships. And it did do that. They didn't expect to sell many as the price was the same as a Cadillac. Instead, once people got to the dealership they were expected to buy the regular lineup. People DID come to the dealerships but were simply afraid to buy from the shaky company. Also, at first, they really had no cars for the dealerships and flew the same two cars from town to town in cargo plane. They would set up bleachers, give out free "Avanti" stadium seat cushions, and had a lot of hoopla introducing the car. Then they would fly off with this "Avanti Airlift" marketing project to do the same in another city.
I was just a preteen and remember my older brother owning 2 of them. The car was amazing to me.
Studebaker's failure was because of poor management.
Studebaker cannibalize Packard, which may have added a few years to the life of Studebaker.
Studebaker should have followed GM business model. GM acquired car brands like Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Oakland.
GM didn't cannibalize these companies, but instead made them viable Car Companies in there own right.
Studebaker didn't take the challenge of road salt. In the late 50's road salt was destroying the car body.
Studebaker were rusting out real quick. Rusted Studebakers were advertisements to Studebaker poor build quality. So all the styling in the world could not cover come the rusting Studebaker.
All car buffs look at the Avanti with longing and regret that Studebaker could not continue to develop and sell cars. On the other hand, cars became safer by 1968, until today. An accident in an Avanti wouldn't be pretty, but I imagine most owners were careful with such a special car. Most of our cars are exponentially safer today: One of my sons crashed a 1997 Chevy Malibu, driving drunk, flying along a local road with curves and small hills . . . hit a utility pole, then the car flipped over before coming to a rest. But he did have his seatbelt on and the airbag was effective. He walked away from it---to the police who were called to the scene. The new Corvettes and Mustangs and Challengers, etc., have poor crash ratings but the boring sedans are a lot safer. Still, the Avanti is still a beautiful creation for collectors today.
I wish the guy who was 6'4" and made them raise the roof line was still designing cars. I'm 6'3" and can't fit in any of the newer cars properly. Either not enough head room or no leg room. Cars need to be designed so people of all sizes can drive them safely and comfortably. The Avanti seems to have been such a car. Beautiful too.
Studebaker Avanti deserved to become a full production car. It's a pity Studebaker was on it's last legs. But the Avanti is a timeless masterpiece.
I still don't think it is a memorable design. But once Roy Lonberger, the designer of the Chevrolet Astro 1 summed up in an e-mail why this car was great, at least on the drawing board. It introduced so many new features and ideas. But hey, that's true also for the Citroen DS, which I think is a much nicer design. Although once again, Lonberger disagrees completely on this with me. But a famous American TV figure / car collector agrees with me wholeheartedly. So: let's agree the car deserves an A for innovation, but for design, I wouldn't go much further than a C or even D, even if originality certainly would be a solid B, maybe also A.
This could have been an interesting video. The narration (be it human or AI), sounded like he or it was in a drunken stupor . . . slurred speech . . . boring.