Trivia!...Bonneville Avanti

[mfg]

Trivia...The R5 (Due Cento) Studebaker Avanti ran well and had no major mechanical issues at Bonneville. It didn't break the 200MPH barrier due to a slippery salt surface causing poor high speed traction....True?

[Gunslinger]

Most likely true. It was said the ground was like soup. If the salt had been hard packed the team felt they would have broken 200+ easily. I don't know the rpm's being turned but if that had been translated into traction instead of spinning they probably would have met their goal handily.

[mfg]

It is most likely true...IF...the rod that punched through the left side of the block mishap occured after the Bonneville runs back on the dyno. If it occured during the Bonneville runs, as some say it did, the answer to the question would have to be.....false.

[brad]

It didn't do catastrophic damage, as Greg Cone repaired the block. IIRC it was just the oil pan rail that was damaged.

I sent him a set of NOS Forged True pistons he was going to modify into R5 pistons (by angle milling them).

[mfg]

That's great!, and it's nice that the original R5 block could be repaired.

[r5duecento]

The R5 engine from the Due Cento never threw a rod, either at Bonneville or on the dyno. The block was put into a customers Avanti by Joe Granatelli, who removed the fuel injection unit and replaced it with dual 4bbl carbs,and later removed the engine as the customer was not happy with it. What happened after that is cloudy. It is believed it was disassembled as the customer complained that it ran too rough for the street. IF the block was ever used again, nobody knows. There is a strong possibility that it was used to assemble the last R3 known to be built for the engine that George Krem purchased from Granatelli from parts and pieces on the shelf.

The engine that Greg Cone used to build his R5 clone is absolutely not the block from the R5. Greg does however have some of the original pieces from the R5 which consists of the cog pulleys, the left blower mount and the sheet metal intake manifolds and tubing. He has built a beautiful tribute R5 engine with the original parts mentioned, but let's not put out more false information, heaven knows there is enough out there already.

[Geoff]

I always giggle to myself when thinking about the R5 Avanti doing a rolling burnout at 190+ MPH.

Driven by Joe and Andy Granatelli, the Due Cento reached speeds well over 200 mph according to the tach, but was not getting traction due to the wet salt and the best official run was 196.58 mph.

-http://www.studebaker-info.org/AVDB3/duecento/dcind2d.html

The two-way average equaled 196.58 MPH, and the tachometer indicated the car was over 200, but it doesn't take much to lower two trips by 3.42 MPH.

[mfg]

The R5 engine from the Due Cento never threw a rod, either at Bonneville or on the dyno. The block was put into a customers Avanti by Joe Granatelli, who removed the fuel injection unit and replaced it with dual 4bbl carbs,and later removed the engine as the customer was not happy with it. What happened after that is cloudy. It is believed it was disassembled as the customer complained that it ran too rough for the street. IF the block was ever used again, nobody knows. There is a strong possibility that it was used to assemble the last R3 known to be built for the engine that George Krem purchased from Granatelli from parts and pieces on the shelf.

The engine that Greg Cone used to build his R5 clone is absolutely not the block from the R5. Greg does however have some of the original pieces from the R5 which consists of the cog pulleys, the left blower mount and the sheet metal intake manifolds and tubing. He has built a beautiful tribute R5 engine with the original parts mentioned, but let's not put out more false information, heaven knows there is enough out there already.

This is interesting info, as a few folks (including Brad) seem to feel Greg's repaired block IS the original R5 block.................? (post #4)