Dwight FitzSimons

Cars & Coffee meets in Charlottesville, Va are excellent (1st & 3rd Sat, 8am - 10am). There are always dozens of interesting cars, with few modern cars, and a wide range of cars from Alpha Romeos to Wartburgs (just kidding, no Wartburgs). There always seems to be an exotic or two: Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren. Plus Twin-Cam MGA, SAAB Sonnet III, etc. --Dwight

Weren't some 305 HO (high output) engines installed in Avanti IIs? Those made decent power. I once had an '84 Pontiac Trans Am with this engine (BW T-5 5-speed trans) and it was reasonably powerful for the time.

I have two sets of 1970 Avanti II doors, both with power windows. Both have a nice, substantial extra layer of fiberglass glued onto the interior side of the inner door panel. This was added to prevent fiberglass cracking. I am fairly sure that Studebaker hadn't gotten around to making that needed repair by the time Studebaker Avanti production but don't know when Avanti Motors made that change. As I said Avanti IIs had that improvement by 1970. --Dwight

By "biggest" are you referencing the volumes of the cooling systems?

I can name one: On '64s the PW wiring from the door to the door jam was protected by a steel housing. On '63s the wiring was just wrapped in tape. Some time in Avanti II production the inner door panel was reinforced by double fiberglass. --Dwight

Three

That R4 engine belonged to the late, lamented Paul Johnson.

The "date-of-assembly" engine serial numbers began with the 1964 model year (not 1963).

True

I don't remember the exact number, but it was something like 40. I, personally, have seen one (in 1965). The trans. was the T-86, which is not a heavy-duty trans. I assume it was made the base transmission to keep the base price of the Avanti down. I agree it was not a very good idea.

Kiekert, of Germany

I will say 1) Bob Doehler, because he worked for Studebaker in its own design studio.

2) Dropped front suspension spindles IIRC dropped spindles were used at Bonneville

I like your bracket, but I notice that the positive battery terminal is awfully close to the aluminum bracket. If the positive battery clamp (cable end) were to touch the aluminum bracket then the bracket would be hot. The bracket may not touch ground anywhere, but I still wouldn't want that bracket to be hot for safety reasons. One solution would be to use a type 51 (not 51R) battery. That would reverse the terminals, and the positive terminal would be to the front of the car and far away from the aluminum bracket. The positive battery cable would have to be longer, however (& the neg. cable could be shorter). --Dwight

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