Studebaker Avanti: Loewy’s rider

| 30 Jan 2025
Classic & Sports Car – Studebaker Avanti: Loewy’s rider

Industrial design legend Raymond Loewy and the Studebaker marque are intrinsically linked.

The dapper, French-born stylist was a household name in post-war American life – the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art had created a mock-up of his studio for a 1937 exhibition and the king of streamlining even made the cover of Life magazine in 1949.

The Indiana manufacturer made the most of its expensive association with the mustachioed design dandy and, although Loewy barely lifted a pencil or clay modelling tool in the origination of such radical cars as the ʻback to frontʼ 1950 Champion or the super-sleek 1953 Starliner coupé, Studebaker strongly marketed his inspired direction.

Like so many style gurus, Loewy was the figurehead of a talented team and giving credit to the likes of Virgil Exner or Bob Burke only complicated business.

Classic & Sports Car – Studebaker Avanti: Loewy’s rider

The Studebaker Avanti’s stylish nose script; the name was chosen by design agency D’Arcy

Be it Lucky Strike graphics, a Coldspot fridge, a Greyhound bus or the awesome 6000bhp S1 locomotive, the product had to be directly associated with Loewy in the publicʼs consciousness.

You just didnʼt pose the design crew with the finished product.

Rumour has it that, when the struggling Studebaker company severed its links with Loewy in 1954, he was paid $1m.

The consultancy might have ended but the Loewy look lived on through facelifts by Richard Teague and Brooks Stevens.

By the early ʼ60s, Studebakerʼs image and order books were struggling.

The dumpy Lark compact brought short-term profit, but the management team wasnʼt happy about the dull direction in which the run-down South Bend firm was going.

Its demise seemed inevitable, but Studebaker was given one last chance when a dynamic 40-year old former Marine named Sherwood Egbert took over at the helm of the firm.

Egbertʼs blunt-talking business record was impressive, having just turned around the McCulloch chainsaw company and masterminded the acquisition of London Bridge as a desert monument.

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when Egbert announced that what the marque needed was a GT and Loewy back as design director.

You have to wonder at the sanity of Egbertʼs decision.

Loewy Associates might have been restyling French helicopters, dreaming up nuclear-powered cruise ships and designing stamps for President Kennedy, but the bossʼ own personal automobiles were candidates for ʻugliest carʼ competitions.

First a BMW 507, then a Jaguar XK and finally a Lancia Flaminia were repackaged for Loewyʼs own private use.

Classic & Sports Car – Studebaker Avanti: Loewy’s rider

The Studebaker Avanti’s understated profile

Bizarre key elements included ʻgunsightʼ asymmetric bonnet ornaments, pinched waists and bulbous glassy tail treatments.

The Lancia Loraymo (named after Loewyʼs international cabling address) is seen as a key link to the new Studebaker project, but its huge grille and headlight pods look to have taken deep-sea life as a styling cue.

Loewy might have advocated ʻclean designʼ and warned students of the monstrous decoration born in Detroit, but just being different wasnʼt the answer.

Disappointed with Studebakerʼs in-house proposals, Egbert invited Loewy out to South Bend to discuss a sophisticated sports coupe that would boost the Indiana marqueʼs image.

The financial terms of Loewyʼs comeback agreement arenʼt recorded, but he amazingly agreed to deliver the proposals in just 40 days.

The gestation of the new glassfibre GT is legendary. Loewy flew back to his Palm Springs dream home and signed up his ideal team for the challenge.

These included his multi-talented aide, John Ebstein, to supervise the experienced clay modeller Bob Andrews, whose CV included work on the ʻstep downʼ Hudson, plus young boat designer and former ArtCenter graduate Tom Kellogg.

Legend has it that when Loewy first telephoned the 27-year-old, Kellogg had put the receiver down convinced it was a hoax call.

In March 1961, the team moved into a rented house on the outskirts of Palm Springs and started to draw and mould clay.

Key influences included the dire Loraymo plus a pinboard of images including a ʼ61 Lincoln Continental and Jaguar E-type.

The brief was ʻsomething kind of California-ish with the tail up in the airʼ that would look right at home cruising the posh Palmdale Boulevard driven by young airline pilots.

Initially, the direction was confused as Egbertʼs traditional ideas clashed with Kelloggʼs more European vision.

Classic & Sports Car – Studebaker Avanti: Loewy’s rider

The Studebaker Avanti’s elegant mirror blends into the door trim

After an intensive two weeks, Loewy gave his team a three-day Easter break and apparently the influx of high-school kids to the desert retreat stimulated their creative juices.

“The sensuality of the car was intensified by our trips to downtown Palm Springs,” Kellogg recalled.

Early designs featured a conventional grille but, influenced by the Citroën DS, Loewy advised his team to rethink the nose.

After four weeks, the finished model was delivered to South Bend and its high back, Coke-bottle waist, grille-less front end and elegant blade bumpers were close to the production spec.

ʻAvantiʼ was the name chosen by Studebakerʼs design agency, DʼArcy, and there was even talk of reviving the Packard brand for the new GT.

Amazingly, Egbert talked Studebakerʼs directors into giving this radical design the go-ahead.

South Bendʼs long-suffering chief engineer, Gene Hardig, was given the challenge of turning the clay model into a production reality based around the old Lark Daytona cross-braced convertible chassis.

Studebakerʼs 10-year-old 232cu in V8 unit was stretched to 289cu in and, with a high-lift cam, revised carburation and new headers, output was boosted to 200bhp.

It wasnʼt enough, and the newly acquired Paxton division supplied a supercharger for the later R2, boosting power to 300bhp.

Borg-Warner developed a special three-speed Power-Shift auto ʼbox, with the option of a four-speed manual, and there were Bendix-made, Dunlop-patented disc brakes.

Body fabrication was contracted to Molded Fiber Glass of Ashtabula, Ohio, which also supplied GM with Corvette body parts.

To cut costs, certain design features were dropped, including independent rear suspension, wire wheels and removable roof panels.

The Avanti programme quickly overran its budget, but that was only one of its rampant problems, most of which evolved from Molded Fiber Glassʼ inexperience with assembling a complete body.

Classic & Sports Car – Studebaker Avanti: Loewy’s rider

The Studebaker Avanti’s original brief called for ‘something kind of California-ish with the tail up in the air’

Lack of proper equipment resulted in the doors and wings on the first 100 mouldings being way out of alignment.

The rear window fit was an ongoing nightmare, starting with glass falling through a too-large opening and later blowing out on the road.

When Studebaker quality controllers arrived at Ashtabula, they were stunned by the lack of body jigs.

Egbert had pledged that the Avanti would be ready for April 1962 and, despite strikes, Studebaker did get a car to the New York International Auto Show, where it was the eventʼs smash hit.

Priced at $4445, it was competitive against the Chevrolet Corvette and cheaper than the dazzling Jaguar E-type.

The following month another handbuilt prototype was the Honorary Pace Car at the Indy 500 but, behind the scenes, Egbertʼs dream was turning into a nightmare.

Production problems had wrecked delivery schedules and, by September, only 10 cars a day dribbled off the chaotic line.

Gradually, all those early orders and enthusiastic press coverage were wasted as the freshest design on the block was losing its appeal.

Egbert was worn out and then sick with cancer, and the growing stock of Avantis wasnʼt selling.

Design shortcomings such as the lack of rain channels were improved and the headlamps were revised to a square design, but this bold modelʼs days were numbered.

Tuning options were listed, yet just 3834 of the planned 20,000 Avantis were built for 1963.

Studebakerʼs car division had finally bled the company dry and, in December, the once-famous plant was closed.

A further 809 cars were finished, but production ended at just 4643 in two years and Loewy never designed another car.

Classic & Sports Car – Studebaker Avanti: Loewy’s rider

The elegant blade bumpers follow the Studebaker Avanti’s crisp snout

The core of the original team was rightly proud of this sensational GT: Loewy himself kept two cars, one in Palm Springs and the other in Paris, while Ebstein continued to drive another to his golf club after retiring to Florida in the ʼ90s.

Maybe the Avanti never stood a chance. Egbertʼs GT gamble was unbelievably brave for a struggling manufacturer but, like Gordon Buehrigʼs Cord 810/812 and Bill Mitchellʼs radical ʼ66 Oldsmobile Toronado, it was just too individual for conservative American tastes.

Had production problems been sorted earlier, and had the chassis matched the bold styling, it might have been a different story.

Two enthusiastic entrepreneurs and former Studebaker dealers, Nate Altman and Leo Newman, felt that the Avanti deserved better and in 1964 they bought the moulds, the parts, the vacant South Bend factory and the Avanti name to start production again.

Christened the Avanti II and powered by a 327cu in Corvette motor, the handbuilt cars took two to three months to make and buyers were invited for a factory tour before collection.

In the early ʼ80s the company was purchased by real-estate developer Stephen Blake, who offered a redesigned backbone chassis and independent rear suspension as well as a convertible model.

The lower look instantly identified the upgrade, but didnʼt flatter the Loewy teamʼs original styling.

By 1986 Blake had gone bankrupt and a new investor, Michael Kelly, took over, finally releasing the long-promised convertible and moving production to Youngston, Ohio, before eventually closing in 1990.

But still the Avanti wouldnʼt die. Langʼs Custom Auto of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, revived the unique looks for the AVX, based around a Pontiac Firebird donor car, and original design team member Kellogg was called in to direct the restyle.

Kelly also later relaunched his own Avanti interpretation, displaying cars at US auto shows.

Today, original Avantis are rare and views about its individual lines are never neutral.

Even enthusiastic owners argue about the visual merits of the early round or later square headlight design.

Flick through Hemmings Motor News and youʼll find disparate values, with the ultimate, supercharged manual four-speed R2 worth up to double barn-finds and customs, but none has come close to the money paid for rare muscle cars and top Corvettes.

The old Lark chassis remains its Achillesʼ heel and the box-section sills, known as ʻhog troughsʼ, are a weak point.

As with the Avantiʼs troubled arrival, this bold design deserves better.

Maybe one day Loewyʼs chiselled 1962 coupe will be invited to Pebble Beach. Loewy, a keen concours entrant and judge who died in 1986, would definitely have approved.

Images: Tony Baker

Thanks to: Dream Cars

This was first in our June 2003 magazine; all information was correct at the date of original publication


Studebaker Avanti: driving the dream

Classic & Sports Car – Studebaker Avanti: Loewy’s rider

‘Over the bumps there is no scuttle shake, but when you push on the Lark Daytona underpinnings are revealed with lots of squealing rubber, body roll and understeer’

From the moment you grab the chunky, Italian-style doorhandle and open the wide, bulky door, the Avanti has a very European feel.

Interior stylist Bob Doehler clearly had a long look at foreign GTs before shaping the controls.

The instruments are set into the veneer-faced cluster and there are no clever graphics or quirky dial shapes – just red needles and white numbers on black for the seven gauges.

The two-spoke wheel is very Alfa Romeo-like, with horn buttons in each spoke.

The veneer detailing is echoed on the centre console, which features neat aircraft-style switches while heating and light buttons are in a padded bar overhead.

The recently retrimmed leather seats provide excellent support, but the low wheel would benefit from adjustment. All-round vision is superb.

Don’t expect Ford Mustang levels of performance to match the dramatic looks. It’s easy to see why the supercharger was offered: response is sleepy via the three-speed auto, though the change is crisp and the steering is well weighted.

Over the bumps there is no scuttle shake, but the Lark Daytona underpinnings are revealed when you push on.

Hustle the Avanti into an apex and it loses its poise with lots of squealing rubber, body roll and understeer.

Thankfully those disc brakes pull up this 1.5-ton cruiser efficiently. Studebaker never had time to offer the promised independent back end, but at least the ride is excellent.

Contrary to what the press said, this wasn’t ‘a radical new performance car’.

Only in a 1964 Car and Driver feature on the death of Studebaker did the truth finally come out, calling it: ‘An ill-handling thing with a glassfibre body on a ‘53 chassis.’

Story has it even Sherwood Egbert drove a Mercedes-Benz to dealer meetings, but in the 21st century Loewy’s masterpiece still looks stylish and surprisingly modern.

With a sorted chassis set-up and stiffer anti-roll bars, I’d happily drive one every day.


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