Geoff

I think Sonja is pulling our leg. There is (at least) one EV converted Avanti, and it is running around Fairfield, California. I met the man and saw his car. Dave Heacock is who owned it when I saw the car, oh goodness, nearly exactly 9 years ago. His is a 1985 (car 4162). Dave had a shop build the underpinnings for his creation, and the reason I was interested in it was because he had a C4 Corvette's independent rear suspension bolted in under his Avanti. I heard that's what the SCCA raced Mid-Ohio Avanti GT had. While I was living in the SF Bay Area I asked to see how Dave's particular build was done. I wanted to install a C4's Dana 44 IRS under my creation, except now I feel I can make the C5-C7 Corvette transaxle and torque tube work, which is the direction I'll be heading with my project after this cold snowy season ends.

I took an offshoot about clearances and solutions about working within confined spaces; there is relevancy.

Gunslinger, you bring up some valid points. Motor mount locations on the chassis and block are interesting to think about with regard to clearances. An R3 parallel would be the Granatellis lowered RS1021 in 1025, whereas on the production R3's they shimmed up the body. Another area where I have experience was when I had a '69 Vette, looking through catalogs like Summit for intake manifolds. I had to be alert for the footnote, Will not clear stock Corvette hood. I probably could have gone with a repro L88 hood, though hood replacement is but one solution and must be factored in to the budget. One of my friends made fun of the "salad bowl" the Ford Thunderbolt cars had, especially when another friend was modifying the engine in his Chevelle. The jokester would dole out a good ribbing, "You're going to have to put a salad bowl in your hood, your modifications won't fit otherwise 😆" The Chevelle's mod. list altered and no salad bowl was needed. Ford however, needed that bulge and it's there for good reason.

Blake: 1983 - 1985. Variances already mentioned above. 1983 was essentially like Newman & Altman years but Blake 86'd the "II" nomenclature. Twenty-five [+1] 20th anniversary cars are made in 1983. There was 1 manual transmission prototype 20th ann. car. These are close in appearance to the following two years but are not identical. You may buy a 20th anniversary car in any color, so long as it's black. 1984 & 1985 I like to call "the twins" because they're that similar. 1984 reverse lights are landscape and hug the bumperettes. 1985 reverse lights are portrait and hug the license plate. Blake's cars are the last to use the Studebaker frame. The great paint debacle occurred under Blake which ended his run. No 1986 cars. Kelly & Cafaro: 1987 - 1991 but Kelly bowed out early. These cars adorned 'ground effects' styling cues along the front, rear, and rocker panels. 1987 introduces LSC trim, which has a longer wheelbase, visually differentiated because the rear vent windows are wider. [50] 1988s got 25th (or Silver) anniversary treatment. LSC is still a trim this year. 1990 is the only Avanti sedan produced. Many Avanti people hate it. I think it's cool it got made. 2000 Kelly came back with others. Avantis made on 4th gen. Firebird chassis, and then on the new for 2005 S197 Mustang chassis. That's where Avanti hit the || button in its life cycle. Someone will press |> again; they inevitably do. https://www.theavanti.com/chronology.html

"SBC into 63 avanti, suggestions other than don't" I would only stand on the DON'T pedestal if it was a car of marvelous condition and/or had a chance of being a complete and original car. It is possible to visually fake an early II into a Studebaker. You get more than halfway there upon cutting the front fenders to match Studebaker's profile, and raking the nose. I agree. Studebaker's block is akin to Cadillac's big block so I need a lot of convincing that a Chevrolet small block has any bigger dimension and won't fit. Newman & Altman just wanted their Avanti to be "a gentlemanly cruiser" and removed the nose down rake.

The answer is in that Hot Rod R3 article; Stacey is correct. The fact I find fascinating is 62% of each front passenger's weight attributes to the rear axle.

Supposing somebody was to treat Avanti like SVT treated the '93 & '95 Mustang Cobra R where: sound deadening, air conditioner, radio, and rear seat deletion all took place, opening the glove box on that Avanti would reveal, at one point in time, the car was a 2+2 configuration. It was that weight savings mindset that led me to the Avanti's "cup holders."

Oh hold on a second … 4 cup cutouts on the inside of the glove box? That's got to be it. Unless people were double-fisted drinkers back then?

Ah ha! Thank you both for the clarifications and suggestions. I recollect the fixes to 1025 during the summer of 2012, however they're foggy memories. I remember it having amber bulbs and I think two pieces of plastic in front of the bulb: the clear-ish light diffusing piece and then a transparent piece in front as a protect-all. The later design sounds like it would be easier to implement, and the slightly larger size might not be a bad thing either.

I write this here even though I have a Blake year because I intend to relocate my turn indicators back to the original location. I know there are some differences in how the turn indicators were built and installed along the Avanti timeline. I've heard there may be height differences, I know there were some differences in bulb color and that light diffusing plastic piece. Did some have the transparent outer cover, or did all? I'm not up to speed in this aspect and want to be more-so before I go plunge cut my car. I have (1) P/N 800734, the epoxy/FRP looking turn indicator bucket and either need a second, or I need to make a mold out of this one to make two of my own. Or I need another solution. Would someone please help me to better understand this area?

Avanti doesn't have any vent ducting under the front seats (like today's cars) to blow air to the rear. Believe me, I'm trying to think of a way to implement ones like in my Focus for my build, to do exactly that. But how about on the A/C cars, the center nozzles blowing between the front passengers?

Your best bet is to buy a slightly rundown 1984 or 1985 and build it how you want. For your stated power goals I would look to 1980s L98 or 1990s LT1. They have the same motor mount locations as those Avanti's 305, so are more plug & play friendly than jumping into the post-1997 LS/LT engines. And hey! 45 more cubic inches while you're at it. The L98 would need a little help to hit or exceed 300 horsepower, though it is attainable. If I am recalling correctly from my Corvette forum days, it takes an intake manifold & cam change.

I didn't rely on starting fluid very much. Believe it or not when my friend showed me the magic of ether, it was not really a cold start. She'd only been sitting 2 1/2 hours at most. It was a royal PITA come Monday morning if I didn't take'er out Saturday and/or Sunday. No choke. Turn the key until fuel pressure registered. Abandon cranking. Pump the gas pedal at least a dozen times. Crank again while holding WOT. She didn't always stay running, so repeat from "abandon cranking" as necessary. If I got the engine to hold up through reversing out of the garage, I'd be departing the housing development early in the morning, doing neutral revs trying to get some heat into the effing thing. Luckily I wasn't driving it in snow, that would've been a no-go since Paxton had the Dana packed/shimmed tighter. As it was, rainy days were sometimes heart-stopping. 12/12/95, I was on my way home and the power was out at some traffic signals. I got to the front of my line at a major intersection and it got to be my turn. I plopped the shift lever into 1 and eased into the throttle. That started out okay but the rear tires ran over the watered down crosswalk stripe and the rear wanted to take the lead. I got things squared away and back in line but then came the second crosswalk stripe. I just kinda danced the car across the whole intersection, like the teenage A-hole I'm sure I was perceived to have been. Although completely unintended, that was just the day, the car, and the conditions.

I drove 1025 daily from 6/95 - 10/97. Its snorkel was oriented downward (roughly 180° from the photos above). I remember that because it was very easy to spray starting fluid into the snorkel. I complained once to a friend about 25's starting procedure and he said, "Hold up, try this. Where's your intake?" You could see the pleated paper element from low in front of the bumper. A couple of nozzle squeezes from the Pyroil can and she promptly started. I had zero problems through wet El Niño years in the SF area. On freeways I followed cars throwing great rooster tails of water, and my only complaint was, the windshield wipers were woefully inadequate. There's a trick to have that snorkel face downward. You roll the unit 180° and then mount the plate to the other facing [outside vs. inside] of the radiator frame [not right side vs. left], or some such manipulation.

I inadvertently found your answer in a generic 'Net search. LSeat says they are Recaro. https://www.lseat.com/products/1980-avanti-ii-recaro-custom-real-leather-seat-covers-front.html And am I recalling correctly, the Studebaker Avanti front seats are out of an Alfa Romeo, yes?