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Carroll Shelby pretty much guaranteed the 427 Cobra could 0-100-0 in under 14.5 seconds. Ken Miles accomplished a 13.8 second time, and the record is 10.3 seconds. I don't know if the double Paxton Cobra could do much better? Well, unless slicks were involved on a VHT prep'd surface. Then decreasing braking distance requires wider front tires, stickier rubber, or as Colin Chapman said, "adding lightness." Might as well VHT the whole anticipated distance so the stickiness also helps in the 100-0 section. If that $6500 was witnessed in 1965, 2025 dollars would equal $64,729.48. I understand why they'd sit. The reliable $25k car is hard to come by these days. Flipping the values, $25k today would be $2510.45 in 1965.

I have a 1957 HRM with an article about enlarging the Packard V8…. Starting with a ‘56 Golden Hawk equipped with the Packard 352, a California mechanic bored & stroked it to 414 CI… Took it to Bonneville and ran 141 MPH with a “ malfunctioning distributor” !!

Paxton Products equipped at least one of their rare R4 engines with an R3 (supercharger) fuel pump…..True?

Any other thoughts on this one?

Yes… Carroll Shelby certainly had that little car zeroed in! There was a new 427 Cobra which sat on the showroom floor at Tasca Ford in Providence, R.I. for several months. (back in the day)….. Like Studebaker Avantis, some new Cobras were a tough sell….. If I remember correctly, the dealership was asking around $6500 for that car.

Seems the Granatellis may not have been very EPA friendly!!!

Silver solder job.. Wow!.. Talk about ‘hand built’ !!! And yes… there’s a very important component that still hasn’t been mentioned!

Somewhere I have a photo of one of the GT Hawks getting fueled at Bonneville. It shows Andy leaning in the passenger door shoutin suggestions to the driver. It’s a shot from the rear and the guy fueling the car is just removing the nozzle from the filler with fuel still coming out the hose and an immense amount of fuel gushing out from vents under both rear quarters. It is a very cool action photo depicting the real intensity of those Bonneville runs.

I think the the short mounts always referred to as R3 mounts are actually six cylinder mounts. The factory R3 mounts are the same as any V8 Stude. Im pretty sure they are needed when the high output blower drive is installed. Also it seems some Avantis with standard engines but R3 blower boxes actually clear the hood surface.

I remember that 427 Cobra was tested and had some crazy zero to 100 mph and back to zero times of something like 12 seconds? What ever the time was it was just mind boggling at the time.

To clarify beyond Dwight’s great explanation, the R3 and R4 engine breathers when installed on a California or New York delivered R3 or R4 equipped Studebaker would have the early style 6 cylinder caps with all the vent holes silver soldered shut on both valve covers. So, are we still missing one more part used on both 6 cyl and R3 R4 engine?

CSX3015 has a twin Paxton blown 427 FE engine producing 800 horsepower to motivate 2350 pounds. 60 comes in less than 4 seconds if the tires can actually find and hold traction. Oh to feel that experience some how, some day.

Good, interesting info!!

All 1964 Skybolt 6s had a breather cap intended for use with the mandated PCV system, i.e., with only two very small holes for pulling air IN. Probably most R3 and R4 engines had no PCV system, and so their breather caps were open. So, only the R3 & R4 engines with a PCV system would use a 1963-64 6-cylinder breather cap. AFAIK only the 1961-62 non-california Skybolt 6-cylinder engines had open breather caps. Those are the ones to look for at swap meets to chrome plate for an R3/R4 engine. --Dwight

I do not have direct experience here although you could buy this, https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Wheel-Fitment-Tool-for-Tire-Fit-Testing-Size-Measuring-Mockup,485869.html and try to find points of interference. Alternatively, finding your current wheels' width, backspace, & offset could go a long way to discovering how you might manipulate the existing space with new wheels. Not very many in the Avanti community deviate too far from stock diameter wheels. One Avanti owner in the AOAI Facebook group has his 1984 with the following setup: 225/45-17 on 17 x 7 wheels and 4" of backspacing front 245/45-18 on 18 x 8 wheels and 4.5" of backspacing rear Avanti through 1985 were on a different frame than Avanti 1987 and after. I don't know if or how that may play into the problem. I'm about to try to shove 17x11 wheels under all 4 corners of my Avanti later this year, although I have to lean heavily on my planned body, frame, and suspension customization to make that work.

So, if the short front engine mounts can’t be used if the hi-po crank pulley is used, THAT in itself would be another reason requiring body shimming.

Oh I don't know about that. I hit 117.7 dB about six feet away and, eh three feet off the floor, upon changing 1025 from single baffle glasspacks that were on the car from sometime in the '80s until I personally removed'em for Silvertone's loud option, August 2021. I would have loved to have the loudest option under the car while I was in high school … although if the housing development hated 1025 as it was, they would have really hated it to have been louder. I heard it as a toddler with the loud pipes, and my name for it was "Blue Noisy." So I also saw it as turquoise for a short time. Then I saw it in that Native American skin tone red primer stuff for years. These days the tuners like to purposefully screw with the engine timing so raw fuel shoots into the exhaust manifold/header causing explosions downrange of the combustion chamber; heard as pops and bangs at the exhaust tip. 1025 had quite the valve overlap, causing boost pressure and raw fuel to shoot out the open exhaust valve. It was fantastic sounding if I had to take my step-monster to SF from the east bay. Crossing the lower deck of the bay bridge (the solo trip returning home), I'd position the car against one of the steel side barriers (the fast lane or slow lane) and just hit WOT … repeatedly. The radio didn't work at times in that car and I … did … not … care. *I wasn't done with it. So I got done with him.

Here is a quote from my uncle regarding motor mounts and 1025, posted to Bob Johnstone's page: Maybe something contained therein will give a clue?

Either one……R4 was mentioned in question…. but R3 and R4 engines would share the same larger diameter oil breather caps, as used on the six (chromed of course)……True?

The oil pressure gauge and speedometer hookups are the two I'd look at closely before proceeding. Keep us posted.

Are you looking for specific to R4 not R3 to six cylinder?

Yes!… I had the R3/R4 and Skybolt Six oil breather cap as they are all of a larger diameter than regular V8….. Not sure on interchange of rocker arms or the oil pump gears… but I’ll take your word for it!

Rocker arms, breather caps, oil pump gears although none of those are R4 specific.

This again is from the Avanti production data produced by the Studebaker Museum archives. R4892 is listed in a separate section titled "Selected Running Changes". George Krem has another list of "Notable Avanti's" and no list would be complete without the factory produced R3's. It's a nice piece of gathered documentation and of course, the Museum has a production packet for most all models.

Kind of surprise R4892 isn’t on George Krem’s ‘first’ list!