From the car of the future department circa 1963 is Studebaker Avanti number 188. The slopey coupe is currently owned and driven by Lenny Dold, who rolled the Avanti out among the Royal Customs at the Strangers car show in San Jose, California. Lenny says he’s had the car now for over a year, and that “no one knows what the hell it is”! The fiberglass-bodied Avanti was not only designed by modernist icon Raymond Loewy, but was also the first American production car to feature standard disc brakes. Lenny’s recent adventures in driving futuristic automobiles manufactured over four decades ago have included replacing a spun radiator clutch fan, and cobbling the factory carbureted supercharger system back into boosted working order. Once the cooling bugs are worked out it will be time to re-install the centrifugal Paxton blower under the fiberglass hood, and return the 289 cubic-inch Studebaker V8 back to its factory-rated 290 horsepower for an upcoming poker run. Given a full tank of mid-sixties high-test and a set of polarized Ray-Ban Baloramas, the Studebaker Avanti would be perfect for a drive to SFO to hop a Braniff SST Concorde to Paris.
Even when I was in elementary school (in the late 80s), I knew Avantis were cool. Of course it helps a lot that my dad has an art degree, so the importance of good design was always impressed upon me as a kid. As an aside, if you want to know what kid in a toy store, looking at the 1:43 scale cars, says, “I want the Citroen!,” it turns out the answer is my dad.
I think I’ve only ever seen one or two Avantis in person, ever, but they’re such astonishingly gorgeous cars that they burn themselves into your brain forever. They proportions are right, the seemingly odd design elements that make no sense separately are completely coherent, and the fact that it’s Studebaker’s swan song just make these cars almost perfect.
Not to take away from the fascinating Avanti, but the first car with standard disc brakes was the Crosley Hot Shot in 1951.
I was under the impression that, even though only 51 were produced, that the 1948 Tucker was the first car with standard disc brakes.