

July 1984 cover of Road & Track Magazine.
1984 Road & Track - Road Test: Avanti II
A good time for car design, the early Sixties. For those who are too young to remember, the evidence is still all around us: Ferrari GTOs, Stingrays, E-types, Cobras, MGBs, TR4s, Elites, Elans, 904s, etc. Detroit had just passed through its early Mannerist phase of peak bulk and tonnage-and was busy lopping off chrome, weight and excess overhang for a younger, sportier market.
Engines on both sides of the Atlantic were getting stronger and more powerful, and the U.S. industry was gearing up for its first run of ponycars. Amid all this activity, even the financially troubled Studebaker Corp. managed to bring forth an exciting new car. It was called the Avanti. Designed by Raymond Loewy, who fathered such daring Studebaker offerings as the 1939 and 1953 Champions (among others), the Avanti was intended to turn the tide of the car division's fortunes.
The car was quite advanced by 1962 standards with front disc brakes, a fiberglass body, heavy-duty suspension, bucket seats, a padded dash, recessed controls, aircraft-style over head switches, and built-in rollbar. The standard engine was Studebaker's 289 cubic inch V-8 (R1 model) rated at 240 bhp. Also available was the 300 bhp R2 version, supercharged under the guidance of Andy Granatelli.
It was boasted that there was not a straight line anywhere in the car's body, and the Avanti's flowing aerodynamic shape and raked stance were well accepted by the public. Ian Fleming ordered one in black. But even the exciting Avanti was not enough to pull Studebaker out of the red. Production delays, supply problems, strikes, quality-control difficulties and a host of other ills brought the Avanti and the U.S. car division to a halt in 1963, though the Canadian division soldiered on until 1966.
In a not-so-sad end to this tale, a pair of Studebaker dealers in South Bend, Indiana refused to let the Avanti die. Nathan Altman and Leo Newman bought a part of the old Studebaker plant, complete with parts, tooling, etc., and hired back many of the personnel who built the original cars. A supply of Chevy 327 drive trains was negotiated through GM and production resumed. This time, however, the Avanti was not to be turned out in hurried, mass-produced fashion, but as a carefully crafted, hand-built specialty car. With a boost in price and quality, the Avanti II, as Altman called it, began rolling off the assembly line in 1965. Avanti Motor Corp. has been in the black ever since, and now employs 140 workers who turn out approximately 350 cars per year. Nathan Altman died in 1976, but his brother Arnold took over the presidency of the company.
Stephen H. Blake, a Washington D.C. businessmen and Avanti enthusiast, bought the company in 1980 and assumed its chairmanship. So 22 years after the first Avanti rolled off the assembly line, you can still buy one in 1984. Not a kit or a replica, but a real car manufactured by (many of) the same people who first produced it. How does a 1962 car measure up in today's market? First of all, it's worth noting that the current Avanti is not quite the same car Ian Fleming ordered, nor is it exactly like Altman's first Avanti II. The price is gone up for one thing. The original Avanti was not an expensive car, costing $4,445, which was a fairly healthy price in 1962. Building the cars entirely by hand-an estimated 1000 hours of labor going to each one-and upgrading its overall level of luxury have not made it any cheaper. Our test car's window sticker price was $36,385.
Mechanically, the Studebaker 289 and the Chevrolet 327 are long gone, of course, and the current engine is the GM 5.0-liter (305-cu-in) HO V-8 as found in the Z 28 Camaro. The Avanti people do a little of their own tuning, however, using a less restricted air intake system and Corvette exhaust plumbing with a large catalytic converter and twin free-flow mufflers. The pay-off is a lovely deep-throated exhaust rumble and a claimed 10 percent power increase compared with the Camaro system. The transmission is a Chevrolet 4-speed automatic with an overdriven 4th. The drivetrain has a Dana 44 live axel, custom-made for the Avanti, with heavy-duty Chevy truck intrnals and a 2.87:1 limited-slip differential. Cradling these pieces is a hefty ladder-type steel frame with X-bracing, little changed from the original Avanti design. Except for shock absorbers, spring rates and anti-roll bar placement, the suspension also remains pretty much as found on the 1962 Avanti. The front end uses upper and lower A-arms with coil springs, and the rear axle is mounted on leaf springs. Anti-roll bars are used front and rear. Steering is handled by a power assisted recirculating-ball steering box originally used on late 60's Corvettes and modified for Avanti. Z28 ventilated disc brakes are at the front, with Bendix drums at the rear.
Like the frame and suspension, the Avanti's fiberglass body has changed little in appearance and construction, though it is now made with improved, sheet-molded plastics. Fiberglass panels, 117 of them, are stamped out by Molded Fiberglass in Ashtabula, Ohio, then taken to the Avanti factory for bonding and riveting. The strongest visual clues that you are not looking at an older Avanti comes from the molded plastic bumpers, which integrate nicely with the car's lines, replacing the earlier small chrome bumpers. It might be imagined that these diverse ingredients, mixing old and new components, will produce something of a functional hodgepodge, a car at odds with itself. Nothing could be further from the truth, however, and we were pleased to find that a bit of thoughtful updating has enabled the Avanti to weather it's years very well. The Avanti as always been a high-performance luxury-car, and the current 5.0-liter V-8 upholds the tradition, accelerating from 0-60 mph in 8.4 seconds and running through the quarter mile in 16.3 sec at 85.5 mph put the car in the same league as the Jaguar XJ-S HE or the Audi Quattro-and its slightly quicker than a Porsche 944, for example. While not among the very fastest cars on earth, the Avanti has enough performers to keep all but the most power-hungry drivers happy. What the numbers do not tell is the wonderfully lazy way in which the Avanti's drivetrain moves it down the road. With the 4-speed automatic transmission in 4th, the tachometer shows a loafing 1300 rpm AT 55 mph.
At any legal highway speed (and even a bit above) the engine is simply idling, which not only makes a car a relaxed Interstate cruiser, but also helps with the fuel mileage irregularities mixed with high-speed tend to make the suspension chatter a bit , but the car never gets jiggly enough to irritate or cause concern; it merely feels talked and sporty. The steering has a small amount of slackness right on center, but when engaged in either direction steers quickly and accurately through a corner. If you want to liven things up just a little, you pull the gear lever into 3rd or 2nd and the rumbling idle becomes a pronounced growl, pushing the driver and passengers firmly into their leather seats. The transmission has no computer-controlled lockout or other devices to second-guess the drivers intentions, and shifts crisply and smoothly. 4th is a good cruising gear, while 3rd is useful for quick highway acceleration or roads with sweeping curves and 2nd is marvelous for digging out of tight corners.
The body's handling is best described as "good in the classical sense." It has relatively stiff springs, firm shocks and very little body roll. Those characteristics, along with the big 15 in. Goodyear Eagle GT tires, make the car quite pitchable and fun to drive, both in town and on mountain roads. In slow turns the engine has enough power to kick the rear end out controllably, and in faster turns mild understeer keeps the car balanced and predictable. Throttle lift under hard cornering brings the rear end out just enough to make it a useful driving technique. While the Avanti ride is on the stiff side, the car handles large highway dips and bombs with much more composure than many cars (a Z28 Camaro, for instance) with similar firmness. Small road Editor John Dinkle noted (in one of his early-morning runs on his favorite stretch of canyon) a sensation that the car was turning more quickly to the right than to the left with equal amounts of steering input and felt a small amount of rear throttle steer, but found the handling well-balanced overall. What Avanti imparts more than anything, it all types of driving, is a great feeling of solidness and rugged construction.
Hand-built cars seem to come in two categories: they are either full of irregularities and subsequent groans and rattles, or they are tighter and better assembled than the average mass-produced item. The Avanti falls nicely into the latter group. Though it has a few small cosmetic glitches, the body, frame and suspension had a tough, 1-piece feel that typifies the best of the 60's performance cars and still feels good today.
Like the shape of the Avanti itself, the car's interior has aged well, with a few updates. The aircraft-style rocker switches above the windshield are still with us-headlight, the fan, rear-window heat and optional moon roof controls are all laid out at the front of the roof above the mirror. While this place is probably more novel than useful, the switches are certainly easy to find and use. A neat row of ball-shaped heater and ventilation switches-a design legacy from the 1964 Avanti-sits at the front of the center console.
Mounted in a black center panel with two wings are all the instruments you could ever want, except for oil pressure gauge. The instrument faces are round, black-and-white and easy to read, though they could use non reflective glass when the sun is low on the horizon. At night the instruments carry on another early Avanti/ aircraft tradition by glowing an easy-on-the-eyes red.
Our test car's seats were Recaros, done in startling red and black, each front bucket with a full console of seat position and air cushion controls, as well as an electric seat-heater switch on the inner ring of the side support. The seats can be made comfortable for about anyone, and they sit high enough relative the to the- dash to give a good sense of outside visibility. The rear seats, upholstered leather, are comfortable for small people or larger types who aren't planning to ride very far. Like the rear seats, the rest of the interior of our test car was all black leather, looking hand-stitched in the best exoticar tradition.
In the unusual features Department, the car still has its built-in roll-over bar, upholstered and padded into the interior roof line so it is scarcely noticeable; the sun visors still swing only up and down with no release for side movement, and the only trunk release is in the glove box. The trunk, incidentally, is not cavernous but will hold two or three medium-size suitcases and a few smaller pieces of soft luggage. In an otherwise well finished car, the one area that needed help was the side window trim on the doors, which leaves such a big gap around the glass you can look into the door cavity and see all the glue and ugly inner workings.
Paint and the general level of exterior finish on our test car were very good, though it would have been nice to see the black broken up with some contrasting trim. Most Avanti Trim and paint combinations are accustomed-ordered, to the buyer can get any interior or exterior package he or she wants. In one of our columns last month, we asked if anyone would really want a classic car from the 60's reproduced in the modern idiom, with smog equipment, buzzers and bumpers. As if in answer, the Avanti showed up at our door. It's heartening to see that a good design can be artfully updated without resorting to the usual electronic/plastic gadgetry.
The Avanti comes to us in 1984 with that rumbling, kick-the backback-end-out spirit that made performance cars of the Sixties so much fun, yet it has steering, breaks and handling to run with all but the most sophisticated open (and even more expensive) modern GT cars. Its styling attracted more admiring attention on the street and highway than anything we've driven recently, and sitting in our parking lot with a dozen other test cars, it still looks remarkably current and undated. Best of all, it has a healthy dash of that one attribute every test driver hopes for when he climbs into a newly delivered car: Character.