Left Side Supercharger Mount

[mfg]

Did Paxton Products ever offer a left side supercharger mount for the Studebaker V8 (as per R5 engine)? Or was that a completely 'one off' part? I've seen dual superchargers on one or two privately owned Avantis, and wondered if they used home-made brackets, or original Paxton parts?

[Gunslinger]

Most likely Paxton fabricated the brackets for the one-off twin-supercharged Bonneville engine. Anyone who added a second blower most likely had the brackets fabricated specially for their particular engine. If there was a kit designed for the purpose I think we would have seen them advertised by someone.

Avanti Motors built one (maybe two according to some) supercharged Avanti II with the blower on the left side. The design also made for an unsightly bulge in the hood for clearance. My own feeling is it was easier and cheaper to do that way rather than engineer a better way.

[mfg]

That sounds reasonable (on the twin mount question). About the supercharged factory Avanti II, I've seen photos of that car (I wonder if it still exists?) There is a fellow here in Mass that owns a Chevrolet V8 powered '63 Studebaker Avanti with a paxton supercharger. The installation is very clean, and mounts the blower exactly where Studebaker installed it on an R2 job. As a matter of fact, at a fast glimpse of this Avanti one may think he's looking at an R2 Studebaker install!

[Gunslinger]

The supercharged Avanti II does still exist...at least as of several years ago. I saw it on eBay...it was in the Minnesota-Wisconsin area I believe at the time. For some reason I decided not to go for it...maybe due to cost of transport to me. Looking back I should have gone for it but nothing to cry about.

Some have said that Avanti Motors built two blown cars but it may simply have been the car was repainted at some point. It's been reported as red and white at different times. I have an old car magazine that tested the car back around 1968. They weren't impressed with its performance, but admitted the car was in a poor state of tune at the time. The magazine stated the car was built for high-speed trials on the Salt Flats but another magazine stated the car was built for Robert Morrison of Molded Fiberglass and Nate Altman thought the car was a "monstrosity". Maybe that's why some believe there were two such cars. My mind's open about whether a second such car was built. Without examining all the build sheets to find out it will remain unknown for sure.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Gunslinger