GeoffC312

I went and took a detailed look at his '85 Avanti, oh several years back. He did what I want to do, adapt a C4 Corvette's IRS to the Studebaker frame. I have all kinds of information about how the shop made his adaptation work. He needed a differential that was fixed in position to run a chain drive.

I am interested in all of the internal specifications. As in, fill out a blank cam card with RS1021 information. Also noteworthy, what are the valve spring details? With today's tech., could we do with 2 springs what was originally done with 3 springs? My angle? I'd like to build up a reproduction of RS1021 that doesn't guilt me about adding miles. Had we known much sooner the history of 25, it wouldn't have been driven. My vision during the middle '90s was, once the car rolled to 100k miles, tear it down and restore it. I felt the zeroing of the odometer was a good pause point. My current project is due to my love of lateral-g vehicles, I'm working an '85 into a modernized homage of the Avanti GT. A manually shifted and modernized version of 25 would be a cool juxtaposition to that build.

I have a guesstimate about the process. Am I a couple houses away, or at least in the right neighborhood? The gist of how much I understand goes like this 1) Slather PVA on the + and - 2) Allow that to get tacky 3) Lay in material (fiberglass / carbon kevlar / carbon fiber) 4) Add resin with hardener 5) Roll out air bubbles 6) Repeat 3-5 a couple more times 7) Clamp the positive and the negative together and wait. 7 alt) I've also heard to make a large vacuum sealed bag, put the creation in there and suck all the air out. And wait.

I recall draining the Paxton with my dad in a former Avanti we had. We used an air compressor and a sprayer nozzle, one of the nozzles which also has a suction opening beneath. Attach a vinyl tube to the suction side that fits into the blower's dipstick tube, and put the tube into the blower oil. Get a bucket and a rag. Put your hand and the sprayer nozzle partway in the bucket and cover the opening with the rag. Spray away.

I'm prior owner's son. I drove 1025 to high school (and regularly summer '95- spring '97), and then a little bit to college in the SF Bay Area before I wrecked it on a Livermore back road fall '97. It experienced quite a few "down days" as it didn't make for a reliable daily driver, but while it was up, it was tons of fun! Dad in East Bay, Mom in South Bay. Dad would have me pick up my younger brother "every other weekend" in it. 580 to 680 to 280 was a fun commute with or without rush hour traffic. Anyway, the thinking at the time it was developed was, longer stroke did give a low end power bump. Vince and Andy had said 1025 was the quickest accelerating Avanti they had, that's why they loaned that particular car to magazine testers. Also, think of it this way: they'd already achieved 299 cubic inches via an increase in bore, so if you're aiming for different results than the +0.060 cars, the only remaining alteration is an increase in stroke. There's a third way to make a Studebaker V8 299 cubic inches, and it's an exactly square bore and stroke of 3 5/8 inches.

I have an '85 but I really want to put the Studebaker script back on the trunk, and then get a custom license plate frame that says, AVANTI WAS NEVER A KIT.

I could be interested but there's a caveat to that. What I really want to know, is anybody recreating (or selling extras of) the 20th anniversary car's front fascia? That's my #1 desire. The one you have looks to me like a better secondary option than the deep Saturn chin spoiler.

I can tell you how I discovered what it would have to be. I created a spreadsheet that has the constant (pi \ 4) and the equation for displacement. I entered the number of cylinders, the Studebaker bore of 3.5625", and the spreadsheet spit out 3.74957" as the necessary stroke to give an even 299 cu. in. V8. From there it was a pretty easy decipher that 3.75" would fit. I also found in reading articles online that the Paxton crew had stroked Studebaker engines out to 4" plus; I even think I read a page where one was punched to 4.25" of stroke (that'd make a nice Champ engine). After I read that (I wish I took a screenshot or bookmarked the site), it cemented in my mind that the Santa Monica guys could have easily stroked RS1021's crank.

The SDC aero thread is rooted in 2012 and this one got its origins in 2006. I don't know why year would be an issue, if it is relevant information all being compiled into the appropriate thread for reference. A 2019 Ram is .356 because all major manufacturers in recent days have aimed for lighter weight and less resistance to achieve better MPG numbers. Studebakers of the 1950s and 1960s achieving 0.31 or 0.37 or even 0.44 are incredible feats, especially since Raymond Loewy told Porsche's chief engineer that he designed the Avanti by feel and intuition. Who in the Studebaker and Avanti clubs lives in or around North Carolina? There is a wind tunnel (A2) and it is open for rented sessions https://a2wt.com/ If nobody has jumped at the opportunity by next fall, I am considering taking my '85 there to find what it is. I'd still love to see a factory Studebaker version get some figures too though.

Ron Rifkin posted to the Avanti Owners Association Facebook page, with an attached image of the book Industrial Design Raymond Loewy. "I remember when the chief engineer of Porsche in Stuttgart asked me, 'Loewy, how did you wind-test the Avanti?' I said 'Why do you ask?' 'Well, we know a little here about streamlining and your Avanti is almost perfect, no parasitic noise at high speed, skin friction reduced to practically nothing.' I said, 'I didn't test it at all.' He couldn't believe it. 'No', I said, 'I did it by feel and design intuition.'" -- R.L. in a 1978 interview, in this excellent book. So there's a solid answer about Loewy. By his own admission he went by feel and design intuition. I would argue a little though that he was aware of tried and true aerodynamic cues, which had been implemented on cars meant for speed.

Yeah, I like the blended bumper Blake cars, and have missed opportunities over the last ten years. Finally something came up when I had the funds available. I grabbed a frame out of a storage place in Utica. The owner had to clean out everything because they had to move out. It's just a stock '63 frame. In fact somewhere I have that Avanti's VIN stamp written down.

Yep. I had bigger visions, though it would have taken a little longer which would have been fine because I was willing to put more time and effort into it. YouTube THE DRIVE channel and Mike Musto's show "Big Muscle," and TheSmokingTire channel with Matt Farah's show "One Take." Get a larger audience. Put everything out there.

I recently grabbed an '85 with a shoddy underside (a lot is gone) and bought a new frame. I will be treating the replacement frame with something to ward off anything that eats metal. My main (Maine- ha ha) defense is, I won't be driving the car after Thanksgiving and before Tax Day. My second line of defense will be something like a POR-15/rust doctor application. My third line of defense is, I plan on running a belly pan on my car, at least aft of the firewall. That will cover the x-brace and the torque boxes with something like sheet aluminum. I concur to those remarks that plain water isn't the real baddie here. Soap and water aren't bad things for metal as long as drying is a step not skipped.

I grabbed the white one (VIN ending 4174) advertised on Facebook, at the end of August. She's an absolute 100% basket case but I am completely okay with that. I have many resto-mod plans. In September I bought a replacement frame, however I still need torque boxes. Step 1 for me is: Treat it like a race car and gut her. The sunroof leaked, so much, but not all of the interior is trash quality. Step 2 is next Spring: The engine, transmission, driveshaft, front suspension from wheels to control arms, and rear suspension from wheels through the differential will come up for sale. I have the arm rest off, but how do the rest of the door panel items remove? The door handle, power door lock switch, and remote mirror controls are conspiring to give me an aneurysm.

There _WAS_ an Avanti I had wanted to float his (and/or Tim Allen's) direction … Too bad it wasn't my decision, and patience wasn't this person's strong suit.

I picked up the white 1985 out of Ohio as a whole car and my intentions are to revive her via a resto-mod; she's been sitting for over 2 decades. I should reach parts acquisition mode over this winter and then I'll start installing said parts after the snow melts next spring. First thing first though, and I'll do this before cold weather comes: rip out the old dead parts. I'll clean what I can, sell off or give away what I won't use on the flip side, and keep what I need. I know I need a frame. I've seen them priced right at $1k, but that was before the Bidenflation circus came to town.

I could have sworn there were (200) 1984 and (100) 1985. At least the former avantisource.com site had those as their numbers. I spent a day in July 2013 screen saving a lot on that website. 1983 had an easy number to remember, (289) produced.