This 1963 Studebaker Avanti is a pleasing driver-quality car that looks sharp on polished hubcaps and a dark olive paint job. The paint isn’t original, and it’s a shame because the factory paint job is believed to have been red. The seller describes the Avanti as a working project that is equipped with the 289 V8 and a manual transmission. Find it here on eBay with bidding at $12,200 and no reserve.
Although I am a big fan of red on vintage cars, I don’t hate this paint job with the black interior. What’s most attractive to be is the low-spec, manual transmission configuration. The seller notes it also has manual steering, making this one of the more bare-bones Avantis I’ve seen – and personally, I love it. The car also benefits from several big-ticket maintenance items.
The interior presents well, but the seller says it needs the small details addressed for it to be more of a finished project. Recent work includes new brakes, battery, tires, an overall tuneup, and more in 2018, to the tune of $5,000+. While the later Avantis are worth a bit less, these earlier cars are worthy of the investment made here and then some.
Other maintenance updates include a new fuel pump and brake master cylinder, and even the heater core has been replaced – as opposed to just being bypassed. Still, the A/C is not functional, but at least the hard work of heater core replacement has been done. Bidding seems on-target right now, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see it creep a bit higher before tonight.
The older I get the more I am coming to appreciate the styling of this early Studebaker Avanti model, however, not enough that I would ever want to own one. It seems Studebaker designers were all about lots of window glass in their car designs.
Two words: “hog troughs”. Something to think about with this car, but I also just like saying it.
I love the early round headlights but I too think that the color change may be problematic with respect to the hog troughs.
Looks like a bit of scaling on the hog troughs. I know hog troughs, and those hog troughs look pretty good. Of course you can’t really tell about the hog troughs without getting up there and poking the hog troughs with a hog trough pick, or any other number of ways to get to the hog troughs.
A beauty. I always liked this design because it was so esoteric in its time. And it still is. Lowey and his team were able to come up with everlasting designs, which cannot be said for volume manufacterers whose idea was planned obsolescence.
Have you seen the Avanti-inspired sedan prototypes Sherwood Egbert commissioned from the Loewy team at the eleventh hour before Studebaker shut down?
SubGothius, I can’t get your link to open. Ended: Sep 01, 2019 , 7:45PM
Winning bid:US $14,400.00
[ 19 bids ]
Well bought at $14,400.
That is a slamming bargain. One of the most beautiful cars ever. Raymond Lowey put a team together that designed this car in record time. Every car has trouble spots, and yes the hog troughs did rust. I am jealous. Other than the 63 Corvette, this was the best looking American car that. Egbert tried to save the company but it was too late. I believe if he had lived longer, it may have been a different story.