bob caser

You are correct. Had and have are two different things. I have been blessed in life to own some great cars and even more fortunate today to still have some great cars. I work in the automotive business and have clients that have even greater cars to play with.

I had a Shelby Cobra at eighteen years old,what condition would that render you. Our neighborhood had numerous Corvettes , muscle cars a Ferrari Lusso among other cars. We had four Avanti's in the small confines of where I lived in New Jersey. Good times , great memories.

Parents purchased for me, I was 16 years old, I still have the car.

Bendix Motors, in Fairview, New Jersey.

I stand corrected, the R3 sold new in New Jersey was R 5532 and it was turquoise.

So, I am also a original owner delivered in New Jersey Avanti. From my experience dealers installed the mirror to the position that the customer chose, fender , door. I have never seen any order sheet that indicated to the factory to install a mirror in South Bend, but I am always willing to learn something new. My car had it's mirror installed by the dealer. As far as one of nine 1964 R3 cars one was sold new in New Jersey and from what I recall it was a black car and I think that it was delivered in Vineland, New Jersey.

Shelby American built around 1,000 cars during it's heyday. 600 odd 289 cars and some 325 427 cars. The 428 installed engine infuriated customers who believed they were getting the more expensive 427 FE engine. With a conservative estimate over the years there has probably been 30 times the amount of replicas built over the Shelby American production. Superformance, Backdraft Racing and Factory Five by themselves have easily produced over 12,000 component or kit cars. Continuation cars terminology is now a abused term in the industry. Avanti Motors was a true continuation vehicle until Mike Kelly changed the model.

It is the Superformance/ Hillbank facility in Irvine , Cal.

I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. I have regrets of not having taken photos at the time, shame on me. While still being being active in the automotive business everyday brings a surprise some good some bad. The whirlwind of the 1962 introduction of the Avanti, all of the press, advertising and Bonneville runs that were devoted to it will never be repeated.

These are for sale, personal stuff is elsewhere.

It would delight me to have a R3 powered car in the showroom. I have seen in person every Bonneville car over the years, Sherwood Egbert's personal car and # 1025 when Vince Granatelli owned it. But I have never seen your R3 Lark. A car that I consider to being very significant, and I thank you for saving it.

I cheated ! This is the view from my office.

Salisbury rear end

So , a parts and service letter was written on February,11,1963, how did this affect future cars being produced for sale. Was there a letter written by the states of California and New Jersey to Studebaker regarding the loud exhaust. I'm sure that in my stack of old documents that I still have a copy of a ticket issued by the CHP in 1965 for a loud exhaust on my Avanti.

We purchased R5051 new in New Jersey in October of 1963. It was dealer traded from New York to our dealer in New Jersey with a loud exhaust system. It was never a problem to pass the New Jersey mandatory vehicle inspection for safety. I moved to California in 1965 and accumulated many " exhaust to loud tickets " from the CHP. Also being a 1964 it was delivered with clear turn signals with amber bulbs. Possibly something was written regarding the exhaust, but I never received or saw anything from the factory on this issue.