Studebaker Avanti Drag Racing Barona Drag Strip 11-30-2013

Studebaker Avanti Drag Racing Barona Drag Strip The Studebaker Avanti was a personal luxury coupe built by the Studebaker Corporation between June 1962 and December 1963. Studebaker itself referred to the Avanti as "America's Only 4 Passenger High-Performance Personal Car!" in its sales literature.[6] The Avanti was developed at the direction of the automaker's president, Sherwood Egbert. The car's design theme is the result of sketches Sherwood Egbert "doodled" on a jet-plane flight west from Chicago 37 days after becoming president of Studebaker in February, 1961."[7] Designed by Raymond Loewy's team of Tom Kellogg, Bob Andrews and John Ebstein on a 40-day crash program, the Avanti featured a radical fiberglass body design mounted on a modified Studebaker Lark Daytona 109-inch convertible chassis with a modified 289 Hawk engine. The car was fitted with front disc-brakes which were British Dunlop designed units, made under license by Bendix,[8] "the first American production model to offer them." A Paxton supercharger was offered as an option.[9] Studebaker planned to build the car bodies at Molded Fibreglass Body Co., at Ashtabula, Ohio,[10] the same company that built the fibreglass panels for the Chevrolet Corvette in 1953.[11] Egbert planned to sell 20,000 Avantis in 1962, but could build only 1,200.[1]

Added 7 Sept 2026