Everyone loves a two-for-one deal. Usually, these come to you as a sale at your local grocery store. In the automotive world, they are a bit rare other than the occasional sales gimmick at a new car lot. I once saw a Cadillac dealership holding a two-for-one sale with a top-end Cadillac and a new Yugo. While I don’t think that dealership moved a lot of Cadillac and Yugo combos, they got a lot of media attention. What draws my attention to this two-for-one deal on a pair of 1963 Avantis is that, even though one seems to have been a parts car for the other one, both can be made roadworthy. One will likely end up being restored to stock. The other is missing enough parts to build it up as you wish. Normally I am a proponent of returning cars to the condition they left the factory in. However, a hot rod Avanti is right up my alley. Probably up your alley too.
Why am I interested in building up a hot rod Avanti? Two reasons to be exact. The first is rooted in my memories as a car-obsessed kid. I think it was Special Interest Autos, that magnificent automotive history periodical put out by Hemmings Motor News back in the day, that did a full write-up on the origins of the Avanti. One of the sidebars chronicled the speed records that Andy Granatelli chased in supercharged Avantis on behalf of Studebaker. Granatelli was a fixture at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, first as a driver and then as a team owner. He also came to be an owner of Paxton Superchargers. Studebaker offered Granatelli’s superchargers as an option on the Avanti and designated it the R2. Granatelli’s version was the much more powerful R3 and this more powerful engine was theoretically available as an option. At the Salt Flats, the R3-powered cars managed to break 370 speed records over ten days and hit a top speed of 170MPH.
The second story came quite a bit later. I was reading Hot Rod Magazine’s annual rundown of the Hot Rod Power Tour for that year. This was, of course, when you actually had magazines mailed to your house in what was then called a subscription. Holding a paper magazine with pictures and words on it was heady stuff back then. Anyway, they mentioned some folks who were piloting a souped-up Avanti on the tour. For whatever reason, they decided to open it up a bit on a straight highway. At around 120MPH, the force of the air coming through the open windows pushed the back glass out of its rubber gasket with the momentarily spectacular results you would expect. It must have been a bit difficult to locate an Avanti back glass in the middle of corn country while you were trying to make it to another city that night.
So when I saw this Avanti deal, all of those memories came flooding back. The story on this pair is that one of them is a complete project car and the other one is a donor car for parts. The first car was partially restored sometime in the 1980s. However, we are not told what stopped the progress on the restoration or any history whatsoever for that matter. The second car does come with an engine and transmission. Unfortunately, they are not in the car at the moment.
The ad also comes with both good news and bad news. Both cars are said to roll and will need to be trailered, as the good car has not been driven since the early 2000s. Lots of spare parts will be provided in the sale and they can help you load them up for an additional fee. While the “good” car comes with a title, the parts car will be sold on a bill of sale.
The partially restored car is still a long way from being completed. We are not told anything about the condition of its engine to transmission besides the statement telling us that it hasn’t run in quite a while. It would probably require a complete do-over with anything that was done in the initial abandoned restoration. As for the parts car, how can you not look at the car above and see the potential for a custom Avanti with tire-melting horsepower? The main consideration here is just how much was removed from it. You could probably move forward with a bare body as long as you had a good frame, steering, and suspension parts. Talk about a beautiful blank canvas…
If you are a fan of two-for-one deals, and happen to like the distinctive good looks of Avantis, then Matt H. has found the perfect opportunity for you. These two 1963 Studebaker Avantis for sale on Craigslist in Yamhill, Oregon are looking for new homes. At an asking price of $13,000, you will get a restorable car, a surprisingly solid parts car, and some extra parts with which to start your restoration journey. Thanks again to Matt H. for this interesting find!
Jeff, very nice write-up. A hot rod Avanti is interesting…I can see it: 1) Funny car Avanti where you stretch the dog house another 24 inches…big Mickey Thompson slicks on the back or 2) Gasser Avanti with raised solid axle front end/skinny spoke wheels, ridiculous over sized blower and rubbed whitewall slicks in back.
…. don’t forget the wheelie bar and double drag chutes!
@Jeff Bennett
” more powerful R3 and this more powerful engine was theoretically available as an option.”
Just to clarify; there was a total of 9 Avanti’s factory built as 1964 models that came from the factory with the R3 engine. There was also one 1964 Lark built with the R3 engine (Google “plain brown wrapper” Lark)