Trivia!...Avanti Assembly

[mfg]

Trivia....As Studebaker engineers had pulled a 'round light' '63 Avanti (R-4130) off the assembly line ahead of time to fashion most of the changes made for the '64 'square light' models, there was no need to shut down the assembly line before '64 'square light' Avanti production began....True?

[Gunslinger]

False...all Studebaker production was shut down for a month in summer of '63 for two reasons...the normal changeover for the new year's models plus to allow dealers to sell off the the large number of unsold Studebakers of all models sitting on dealer lots and the factory storage lots. When Avanti production resumed, roughly the first eighty built were round-eye cars with a mix of '63 parts and some '64 parts being phased in. R4892, while often considered the first 1964 Avanti, wasn't. It was the first production '64 with all the '64 updates. The round-eye cars that preceded it are considered transitional cars and are legitimate 1964 Avantis...not like many early cars that were titled out as '64s because they sat unsold for so long.

[mfg]

Agreed! (And thanks for that very clear explanation.)