From the archives #83 (The new Avanti)

[Studebaker Wheel]

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee285/studeq/newsgroup/avantidualheadlightsemail.jpg?t=1322804253

I think we can all agree that the dual headlights were a idea whose time had not come. I know nothing about this photo but it would be nice to see the car from other angles.

[8E45E]

And here's a photo from the side, going by the location of the park lights:



And I believe this is the rear shot:



At least the front of this one is easier on the eyes:



The longer rear overhang has better balance, stylewise, IMHO:



Craig

[Warren Webb]

Not bad Craig but it still would have needed more work in my humble opinion. I do like the parking lamps & the side sculpture from the parking lamps following thru into the doors but the lack of coke bottle" makes the side very heavy (frumpy). A wider track front & rear would have helped too. As far as the back goes I too don't like it. Too much missing, empty, incomplete.

[JBOYLE]

Covered dual units might have looked nice.
While it's nice to have more on the front to make it look less empty, the turn signals in their original location were a very neat solution to the problem, I would have hated to see them relocated, but turning them into side marker lights (I think that's what they did in the photo above) would have been neat too.

One Avanti exists with dual headlight mods. The story gioes that Loewy met an Avanti owner at a party and provided drawings of what a 65 Avanti would have looked like, so the Avanti owner turned his car over to George Barris to do the work.
The car was for sale, uncompleted, at the Spokane meet.

[DEEPNHOCK]

The only thing I liked about this design exercise was the Studebaker logo

[StudeMichael]

I would drive it!!

[Roscomacaw]

I like it. Emblem and all! The one Craig showed, that is.

[Lou Van Anne]

Ugly!...glad they scraped that idea.

[StudeMichael]

It wasn't so much that they scrapped the idea. They ran out of time. Studebaker had full intentions of releasing a line of cars that were based on Avanti styling. (it still bothers me that "Avanti" squiggles when I type it like it is a miss-spelled word)

[8E45E]

Studebaker had full intentions of releasing a line of cars that were based on Avanti styling.

That is correct, as per E.T. Reynolds, Engineer at Studebaker...





In my opinion, the 'intermediate' class of cars was getting vastly overcrowed by 1966, which would have meant this new line of Studebakers would not have had a very good chance in the marketplace; even with a 340 cubic inch engine. Even AMC was even losing huge amounts of money by then.

Craig

[kurtruk]

Craig's last picture reminds me a lot of the Merkur XR4Ti. Remember those? (Ford of Germany) TRIVIA: They were called Sierra over there. Why weren't they called that here? (Sorry for the tangent.)

[jallen]

JBoyle, The car you're referring to might belong to Jack (Packard V8), maybe he will confirm that.

[spokejr]

Ford couldn't use the Sierra name since GM owns the name for their trucks...

[JRoberts]

To be quite honest I think the two design exercises we see her are no match to what Studebaker put out on the market in '63 and '64. The dual headlight version and the version with the single headlight and an inboard parking light put too much aboard the limited area of the front panel of the Avanit. It looks cluttered.

Yes, the first thing I thought of when I saw what Craig posted was the Mekur. Why it works with that car and not the Avanit I am not sure. Perhaps it is simply a matter of scale.

[JBOYLE]

JBoyle, The car you're referring to might belong to Jack (Packard V8), maybe he will confirm that.

It is. One of these days I'd like to meet Jack. Maybe he'll show up at the chapter Chirstmas party next week.

Ford couldn't use the Sierra name since GM owns the name for their trucks...

And the Olds Cutlass Cierra.

Amazingly, I saw two Merkurs this week...one driving, one seems to be a long timed parked.
Great cars. When I lived in the UK they, the two door sport models like we got here, as well as 4-doors and wagons, were everywhere.