1983 Avanti Spare Tire

[kboyd]

Does anyone know what type/size spare tire the 1983 Avanti was originally equipped with? A contemporary roadtest says they came from the factory with P205/75R-15 tires on the road wheels but my spare tire (mounted on a Magnum 500 wheel) is this size and fits so tightely in the well that you need a couple of tire irons to pry it out. Additionally, when in the well, tire spare tire assembly sticks up a couple of inches higher than the floor of the trunk which makes mounting the tire well cover moot. Did the car originally come with a space saver spare or were they shipped from the factory with this ill fitting spare tire?

[Gunslinger]

None of the literature I have for Avantis of that time period specifies tire size but P205/75R15 or P205/70R15 sounds right. Earlier Avanti II's listed F78-15 or F70-15 as standard and optional tires, and the P205 is the metric equivalent of those.

As far as the tires fitting tightly...that's just the way it is. Avanti Motors never modified the molds for the spare tire well to fit anything but the original 6.70-15 that Studebaker equipped them with. I have early Avanti II literature that specifies 7.15-15 as the original equipment tire they installed. That probably didn't fit the tire well either. Besides the tight fit, you can't close the cover on them very well either...if at all. If you see any Avanti sales literature from the later '70s or early '80s, if it shows the trunk interior at all, it shows much upgraded carpeting which is quite plush and tends to de-emphasize the lack of a flat floor. Maybe if one thinks of how much a full size spare intrudes in the trunk of so many other vehicles of the time, the Avanti loses almost no storage capacity in comparison.

Modifying the body molds would have necessitated modifying the tubular cross member under it. That may have simply made too high an investment in tooling changes for such a low volume vehicle for the company to absorb. It also would have decreased ground clearance under the rear of the car. Avanti Motors may have modified the spare tire wells after they discontinued use of the Studebaker frame after 1985. They had to modify the body molds when they went to the GM chassis starting in 1987, so mods to completely enclose a spare tire may have been made at the same time...I simply don't know. Maybe an owner of an '87 or later car can advise us of that. The same goes for a space saver spare...I don't know if Avanti Motors ever equipped cars with them.

When I purchased my '70, it had no spare tire or rim. The Magnum 500 wheels on the car are 15"x6" and won't allow the spare tire lid to close regardless of the tire size...the opening was designed for a 5" wide rim. I did buy a space saver spare for emergency use. I found a NOS example from a Jeep with the correct bolt circle on Ebay...with shipping it cost less than $30 and still has the transparent factory wrapping on it. That seems to have been the best way around the problem...it fits in the opening with plenty of extra room for additional items.

[Avanti83]

Does anyone know what type/size spare tire the 1983 Avanti was originally equipped with? A contemporary roadtest says they came from the factory with P205/75R-15 tires on the road wheels but my spare tire (mounted on a Magnum 500 wheel) is this size and fits so tightely in the well that you need a couple of tire irons to pry it out. Additionally, when in the well, tire spare tire assembly sticks up a couple of inches higher than the floor of the trunk which makes mounting the tire well cover moot. Did the car originally come with a space saver spare or were they shipped from the factory with this ill fitting spare tire?

When I purchased my 83 a few years back, it came with a high pressure cylinder of air. I assumed that it was for a inflatable spare originally but it may be possible that Avanti just supplied the spare mounted on the Magnum wheels with the same type of cylinder and left it underpressured to fit.

Just a thought, Bob

[Gunslinger]

Back in the day some make cars were equipped with an inflatable spare to save space and weight. It sounds like your car came with one and the air bottle is all that's left. Sounds like another little piece of Avanti history.

I doubt if a full size tire...on a Magnum 500 or other standard rim...would have been left under inflated as a spare. There might be too much legal liability to intentionally install a tire in a car that's under inflated. Besides, a Magnum 500 was a 15"x6"...still too wide to close the cover on. If the tire was uninflated or became that way over time, the air bottle probably wouldn't be able to pop the bead of the tire out to the rim.

Edited July 19, 2012 by Gunslinger