We returned the Avanti to a road-worthy state and reinstalled the original tires and wheels for car shows,” Paul says. To this day, the Avanti has never been restored and only repaired as needed.

Studebaker produced fewer than 5,000 units, some of which remained on dealer lots until 1964. Only 40% of these cars were ordered with the supercharged mill, making the Avanti R2 a rare bird today.

It's as distinctive as the original Studebaker version was 13 years ago. And in 1963, the Studebaker Avanti was an absolute goddamn revelation, the best-looking American car anyone had ever seen.

The V-8 Avanti would challenge the Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Camaro, which were in design stages when the Avanti premiered. Loewy had been a designer of Studebaker’s Commander Starlight ...

Studebaker, long ago based in South Bend, produced its debut car in 1902. The first Avanti rolled off the assembly line 60 years later, made by Studebaker in South Bend until the company moved to ...