Avanti Change!

[mfg]

After the fact, Studebaker Avanti  designer Bob Andrews would have liked to have seen one major change in the Avanti's frontal design...What was the change?

[pantera928]

a hood ornament🤣

[wdaly]

Quad headlights😳

[Stacey]

A small grill?

[Nelson]

Hidden wipers

[mfg]

18 hours ago, pantera928 said:

a hood ornament🤣

Nope!

[mfg]

15 hours ago, wdaly said:

Quad headlights😳

No, not quad headlights!

[mfg]

12 hours ago, Stacey said:

A small grill?

Not that!

[mfg]

11 hours ago, Nelson said:

Hidden wipers

Not hiden wipers either!

[mfg]

Other ideas?🤔

[pantera928]

hide away headlights

[Dwight FitzSimons]

Speaking of hidden wipers, that could have simplified things and saved tooling and construction costs on the Avanti.  Pontiac did this on the Fiero.  The same idea should work on an Avanti.  It would also have solved the problem of the backwards wipers.

--Dwight

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by Dwight FitzSimons

[mfg]

4 hours ago, pantera928 said:

hide away headlights

Sorry, no...not hideaways

[mfg]

42 minutes ago, Dwight FitzSimons said:

Speaking of hidden wipers, that could have simplified things and saved tooling and construction costs on the Avanti.  Pontiac did this on the Fiero.  The same idea should work on an Avanti.

--Dwight

 

Remember when the new body style '68 Vette was introduced with the movable vacuum controlled panel which concealed the wipers??!!🤣

[regnalbob]

On 4/5/2023 at 10:17 AM, mfg said:

After the fact, Studebaker Avanti  designer Bob Andrews would have liked to have seen one major change in the Avanti's frontal design...What was the change?

Adjust the hood profile to have the same angle as the leading edge of the front fender as it was on original design model.

[Geoff]

1 hour ago, mfg said:

Remember when the new body style '68 Vette was introduced with the movable vacuum controlled panel which concealed the wipers??!!🤣

LMAO, so many problems with C3 vacuum lines. I had a '69 and long before me somebody pulled out that panel and replaced the hood with a longer design. That's actually a fairly common solution. The wipers then just hide under the extended hood cowl.

Back to the change: I know a more raked windshield was one desire, but it was Egbert who nixed that notion, yah?

[pantera928]

2 hours ago, mfg said:

Remember when the new body style '68 Vette was introduced with the movable vacuum controlled panel which concealed the wipers??!!🤣

And that was crap when it started raining and one side went up and the other jammed. I drove mine without the panel after one such incident.

I was glad when they changed things in 1973. That was a good looking year

[mfg]

15 hours ago, regnalbob said:

Adjust the hood profile to have the same angle as the leading edge of the front fender as it was on original design model.

Exactly!

[Nelson]

 Im pretty certain hidden wipers were strongly considered. They would have been simple as Geoff mentioned the hood would be longer with wipers just hidden from most angles. Not sure why the idea was abandoned. The sloped windshield would have been an improvement. I think the present A pillar angle is a flaw in the design but was typical of most cars of the day. Drawing a line through the A pillar should intersect the CL of the front spindle. The Avanti’s line continues down far behind the spindle to the road. Just looks a little awkward as is.

[mfg]

3 minutes ago, Nelson said:

 Im pretty certain hidden wipers were strongly considered. They would have been simple as Geoff mentioned the hood would be longer with wipers just hidden from most angles. Not sure why the idea was abandoned. The sloped windshield would have been an improvement. I think the present A pillar angle is a flaw in the design but was typical of most cars of the day. Drawing a line through the A pillar should intersect the CL of the front spindle. The Avanti’s line continues down far behind the spindle to the road. Just looks a little awkward as is.

Wasn't it said that Sherwood Egbert "strongly suggested" that the original windshield proposal be straightened up a bit?

[Dwight FitzSimons]

I spoke with one of the Avanti's designers (Milt Antonick, perhaps) at an SDC Int'l meet at SB a long time ago and mentioned the insufficiently sloped windshield.  He replied that the current Jaguar XK-E had a similar windshield angle.  His answer might have been a politically correct answer.

IIRC, I read somewhere that Sherwood Egbert got into an Avanti prototype (or buck), hit his head, and demanded that the windshield be less angled.  As we all know management often interferes with stylists and engineers to the detriment of the resulting product ('58 Packards & sedans, etc).

--Dwight

[Geoff]

I know of a way to make the car's standing windshield more aerodynamic but purists won't like it. Take a strong look at the Cobra Daytona Coupe. Slightly in front of and outboard of its A-pillars are fences (or strakes?) that redirect airflow. Air flows both inside and outside of those fences; they pull the stream closer to the body so the windshield doesn't throw off a wide wake. That car did what it did on the Mulsanne straight with a naturally aspirated 289.

http://legendarygt.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/OVC-x-Shelby-Legendary-Cars-Caravan-Recreation-4-1024x683.jpg
http://legendarygt.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/OVC-x-Shelby-Legendary-Cars-Caravan-Recreation-5-1024x683.jpg

A-pillar fences might make an appearance on my '85 GT tribute.

[Dwight FitzSimons]

To me, another flaw in the Avanti's design is the plumpness in its mid-section (i.e., rear part of the roof).  That plumpness reminds me of the Jaguar XK-E 2+2 and Nissan 280Z 2+2.

-Dwight

[mfg]

2 hours ago, Dwight FitzSimons said:

To me, another flaw in the Avanti's design is the plumpness in its mid-section (i.e., rear part of the roof).  That plumpness reminds me of the Jaguar XK-E 2+2 and Nissan 280Z 2+2.

-Dwight

I understand what you mean...The XK-E 2+2 looks, to me anyway, especially 'bulky'.