Rare Studebaker owned 64 Avanti

[plwindish]

Saturday April 18th, the Blackhawk SDC (Chicago) had a car collection/ Stude show in Hillside IL. Three members of the Studebaker family were there, on driving a Scotsman pick up and Julie Studebaker driving her late father's 64 R1. The car is well traveled, having been in Europe for a time. The was redone a couple of years ago and brought back to its originally as built status. At some point in time, a regular 289 was put in the car and ran until it threw a rod. An R 1 was located and put back in the car. Two interesting items in the car are ac and a manual 3 speed overdrive. The driver had a yellow post it note by the shifter with the #1 and an arrow pointing to the rear of the car to remind her of the 1st gear position of the 3 speed. She said the car was always a 3 speed, but didn't know if it always had the overdrive or not. This is the 2nd 3speed/overdrive I've ever seen, the first being last Fall. As I heard from the owner last Fall, the car came with a 3 speed but the overdrive was dealer installed. Weren't there around 70 some 3 speed equipped Avantis? All the stats I have seen did not break the 3 speeds down into with or without overdrive.

[PackardV8]

No evidence of any factory-built/delivered 3-speed overdrives. Any extant were dealer/owner installed.

FWIW, I'm amazed any of the first 70-whatever 3-speeds survive with the T86 tranny intact. That circa-1939 econo-car lump took away any claim to the Avanti being a real luxury/performance/GT. Terrible driving experience and much too fragile for even an R1.

jack vines