The Avanti was supposed to be one of Studebaker’s savior vehicles in the 1960s. But it perhaps was too little too late and not enough could be built to prevent the company from moving auto production to Canada – without the Avanti. This beautiful first-year edition has the coveted Paxton supercharger (R2) that squeezed one horsepower per cubic inch out of Studebaker’s 289 cubic inch V8. This one lived in a museum for years, but its dormancy has led to the engine being stuck, so the beautiful car is a bit of a project. Located in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, this fiberglass-bodied classic is available here on eBay. The current bid is $10,100 and no reserve is involved.

Between mid-1962 and the end of the calendar year 1963, only 4,640 Avanti luxury sport coupes were assembled. There were production delays in getting the car built and early sales looked as though they would never hit Studebaker’s desire to sell 20,000 units a year. So when the company announced it was closing its South Bend, Indiana manufacturing plant, the Avanti along with the Gran Turismo road off into the Sunset (though the Avanti would soon be revived by Avanti Motor Car Co., but that’s another story in itself).

As the story goes, this Avanti lived in a Florida automobile museum for many years. The 1979 inspection sticker on the windshield suggests it may have been off the road for 45 turns of the calendar. But it was acquired along with other vehicles from the collection and has found itself now in Indiana. The photos provided by the seller are of the glamour variety and could have been taken while still in the museum. Some of the supercharger parts in the photos are now missing, adding to the theory.

The Aqua Metallic paint looks quite good as does the Cream leather interior, though the latter shows some signs of wear after the better part of 60,000 miles. The car has its original 140 mph speedometer, but these vehicles have been known to do 170 on the Bonneville Salt Flats. For whatever reason, the original V8 is locked up and it will take some effort to rectify that. The only rust on the Avanti may be of the surface variety in the engine bay and on the supercharger. This is one sweet-looking ride that deserves a new home and the attention it needs to perform again.