Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals Show - Chicago area

[adamderosa]

The MCACN (Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals) show is going on this weekend (Nov 22-23) in the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL. There are 4 Avantis there; pretty impresssive for a national muscle car show. On display is an R1 owened by Rick Shafer, an R2 and R3 owend by Ed George, and a '73 Avanti II owned by Steve Kolish. Ted Harbit's and Eric DeRosa (my brother) have their '63 R2 Larks there, and Nelson Bove has his '64 R3 Lark as well. This is a fantastic show that has a great representation of muscle cars besides '69 Camaros. If you have a chance to check it out, go!

http://www.musclecarandcorvettenationals.com

[Guest dapy]

$75,000 now on eBay...a 1967 Avanti II advertised as the prototype Avanti Muscle Car with a "Corvette" engine and Paxton. Hood changes strange. Said to be a factory prototype. Can anyone confirm?

[Gunslinger]

That car was made for Robert Morrison of Molded Fiberglass back in the day. The hump in the hood was for supercharger clearance. I guess they didn't want to do more extensive bracket changes to mount the blower like Studebaker did. Nate Altman was said to consider the car an abomination.

Supposedly the car was originally white then changed to red...or red than white and back to red. I've read claims there were two blown Avanti II's...one red and one white...but no one I'm aware of has ever backed that up with evidence.

There was a car magazine back in the day (I have it buried somewhere), that tested a blown Avanti II. Whether it was definitely this car I can't say. The story claimed the car was experimental by the factory for high-speed Bonneville runs but again...no actual evidence of that has surfaced to my knowledge. It may well have been the same car built for Morrison. The article was not complimentary towards the car...it didn't run well but they also admitted in the article the car was out of tune. Why they tested an admittedly out of tune car makes no sense...it's not a true representation of the car's performance.

This is a car that's a true anomaly...not regular production but a real special order...but much of its history is unknown or undocumented. We may never know its true story as so much is rumor, conjecture and unknown.

Is this car worth $75? Not to me...about eight years ago this car was on eBay for sale. I thought about bidding for it but decided against it...too far away (Minnesota or Wisconsin if I remember) to trust everything was as advertised plus the cost of transportation. I don't remember it's selling price then but wasn't out of line for any Avanti II at the time. Whether this is the same buyer trying to flip the car or a later owner I've no idea.

Others have installed blowers on Avanti II's...it's not a difficult thing, so this car isn't really anything truly special (again...to me), but it is a neat footnote in Avanti history. The production order would back that up or show otherwise. For the $75k asking price, I think any serious seller would spend the $25-$30 to get a copy of the production order from Nostalgic Motors to verify the car's provenance.

Edited November 23, 2014 by Gunslinger

[Guest dapy]

Gunny,

The most expensive post Studebaker, pre 2000 Avanti I have seen advertised (and sold) was less than $25K, so $75K is off the wall regardless of its unique history.

[Gunslinger]

The Avanti owned by Sherwood Egbert (R4130), which was the prototype Avanti for the '64 changes was purchased several years back for $75k by someone not very far from me. It has a R3 engine and some details slightly different from production '64 cars. The car is sharp...but still a lot of money.

We're still talking about an Avanti II...few can boast of some unique history. Some have been owned by celebrities, and then there's this factory supercharged Avanti II on eBay. No matter how unique it might be, what Avanti market there is is still basically centered on those made by Studebaker. Both versions are fine cars in their own right...but the free market speaks and it says in the world of Avantis, the value lies in the original Studebakers.

[plwindish]

There is a similar thread on the Studebaker forum about the supercharged car. I remember seeing a picture or a Utube video of a supercharged Avanti, I believe red in color with a bubble type expansion of the hood that looked a little better than this hood enlargement.

There may not have been any other supercharged II's, but what about the 30th Anniversary Avantis? A supercharged example was at the IM in Dover.

Price-wise, if the seller gets any bids above 25K, I would be very surprised.

[sat65]

Dang... I would have gone had I known about the show in advance.

[Guest dapy]

Thanks for the input on the $75K "supercharged" Avanti II. I advised the seller about this discussion and I don't think it changed his mind about the price. Still the hump in the hood is really ugly.

[mfg]

$75,000 now on eBay...a 1967 Avanti II advertised as the prototype Avanti Muscle Car with a "Corvette" engine and Paxton. Hood changes strange. Said to be a factory prototype. Can anyone confirm?

If you jump over to the SDC Forum, you'll find quite a bit of controversy over this particular Avanti.....Look for 'Avanti Misinformation' under 'General Discussion'.