Trivia!...#1 Avanti Feature

[mfg]

Trivia...The #1 design feature Loewy wanted incorporated into the yet un-named Studebaker sports car was a 'Coke Bottle' shape...True?

[Guest dapy]

Did Loewy design the coke bottle? Then of course he wanted the car to look like a coke on wheels. If not, what was the design objective?

Loewy had a 'nose' for design. He memorable car credits were the 1950-51 bullet nose, and the Avanti with no nose. (No opening for the radiator. How would it breath?)

Edited June 23, 2014 by dapy

[Gunslinger]

Loewy did a redesign of the Coke bottle...some changes to it but not major. The "Coke" bottle shape is a reference to the "area-rule" for jets that pinched their waist and resulted in a more aerodynamic shape that permitted higher speeds. Loewy want that aerodynamic look for the Avanti. He also wanted the "re-entry" curve in the Avanti shape as he was enamored of it with the space program and the path space capsules followed in returning to earth.

[Guest dapy]

Is all that true? Can't picture the "re-entry" curve. In airplanes reducing the "whetted" area made them faster. That is why my Bonanza was faster than my Bellanca Viking with the same engine. Jets, I don't know about.

[Gunslinger]

The area rule reduces aerodynamic drag. I don't pretend to understand the physics of it. The most famous demonstration of what it does was with the F-102 fighter. It was not performing up to expectations. When the area rule was applied to the fuselage it became the pinched-waist supersonic F-106 and very successful as an interceptor.

Look at the wheel arch openings of an Avanti...that's where the re-entry curve was incorporated in the design. Loewy liked that type of thing...it's one part of what makes the Avanti design so striking and stands apart from its contemporaries.

[mfg]

WOW!....All great points guys!....But Dapy hit the nail on the head when he referred to the 'Nose' of the Avanti, because R.L.'s #1 design parameter for the 'New Car' was.....A body colored nose with no grille!

[StudeNorm]

And yet on his personal car he had that enormously oversized "V" installed across the nose... Certainly makes me wonder.

[Gunslinger]

Loewy was certainly an outstanding judge of talent to work for his company, and he was a very effective salesman for the company's business. Some of his personal designs were quite good but he also exhibited some, let's say..."questionable" tastes in some of his personal car designs. The best of those designs were distilled into the Avanti...and thankfully the worst were left out.

The "V" on his personal Avanti...it might have been a personal statement but it sure varied from the dictum of less is more. The Avanti design is a statement that stands on its own...it was like Loewy was simply adding a "Look at me" sign where none was needed. He did have quite the ego.

[psdenno]

Loewy was certainly an outstanding judge of talent to work for his company, and he was a very effective salesman for the company's business. Some of his personal designs were quite good but he also exhibited some, let's say..."questionable" tastes in some of his personal car designs. The best of those designs were distilled into the Avanti...and thankfully the worst were left out.The "V" on his personal Avanti...it might have been a personal statement but it sure varied from the dictum of less is more. The Avanti design is a statement that stands on its own...it was like Loewy was simply adding a "Look at me" sign where none was needed. He did have quite the ego.

Couldn't agree more. The "V" was a symbol of more is more when it came to telling the world there was a V8 under the hood. Considering what he did to some of his other cars to make them stand out from others that rolled off the same assembly line, the "V" was quite understated.

Dennis