Avanti Power!

[mfg]

OPINION!…… Which of the following Avantis would probably make the MOST raucous, powerful, ‘60’s type’ engine noise, when under hard acceleration, with observer being inside the vehicle?

1) 1964 Avanti—R3 equipped

2) 1963 Avanti—R2 equipped

3)  1964 Avanti— R4 equipped

4) 1967 Avanti—327 Chev equipped

All four listed vehicles equipped with 3.73 rear axles, auto trans, windows rolled up, quiet exhaust system, and radios turned OFF!!

OPINIONS????

Edited Friday at 12:12 AM by mfg
Spell.

[A0136]

I would expect the R4 with the 388 degree camshaft to be the one as far as sound goes.

i would love to check that experience off the bucket list. 
Steve 

I have a 67 327 Avanti and it has a great sound but the high compression R4 with a much more radical camshaft would sound angry.  

Edited Friday at 01:36 AM by A0136

[Dwight FitzSimons]

 

A couple thoughts:

1) The exhaust sound of a Studebaker V8 is much louder than that of a Chevrolet V8, all else being equal.

2) The exhaust sound of an R3 is notably different than that of an R2.

3) Wouldn't the R4, with its two carbs, make a loud sucking sound when under full throttle?  (I haven't had an R4, so no experience here.)

4) The supercharger of an R2 or R3 will make a nice scream when under full throttle.

5) The more horsepower an engine produces the louder its exhaust.

So, it depends on what kind of exhaust sound one wants.

--Dwight

 

[mfg]

33 minutes ago, Dwight FitzSimons said:

 

A couple thoughts:

1) The exhaust sound of a Studebaker V8 is much louder than that of a Chevrolet V8, all else being equal.

2) The exhaust sound of an R3 is notably different than that of an R2.

3) Wouldn't the R4, with its two carbs, make a loud sucking sound when under full throttle?  (I haven't had an R4, so no experience here.)

4) The supercharger of an R2 or R3 will make a nice scream when under full throttle.

5) The more horsepower an engine produces the louder its exhaust.

So, it depends on what kind of exhaust sound one wants.

--Dwight

 

Good points… however, I was leaning to the sound of the engine itself from inside the passenger compartment. (if it’s actually possible to ignore the sounds the exhaust system produces!!!)

[mfg]

11 hours ago, A0136 said:

I would expect the R4 with the 388 degree camshaft to be the one as far as sound goes.

i would love to check that experience off the bucket list. 
Steve 

I have a 67 327 Avanti and it has a great sound but the high compression R4 with a much more radical camshaft would sound angry.  

Interesting… and the ‘64 R4 indeed could be the ‘ noise king’!

Your ‘67 327 sounds like a great ride!!

[mfg]

Other thoughts on this burning question??

[A0136]

The 300HP / 327 used in the 67 Avanti has hydraulic lifters. The R3/4 cams were solid lifter and noisy.           

[mfg]

I’ll toss in my two cents…..

In my opinion the answer may be the 1963 Avanti R2…. Reason being, from my own experience, the scream coming from the supercharger is LOUD at anything above 3500 RPM… (the factory air filter setup is basically unsilenced)

Although the R3 Avanti is more powerful, it’s supercharger’s air filter is located in front of the radiator, which would quiet the supercharger noise compared to the R2 under hood setup.

As far as the R4’s engine song, I’ve ridden in a 425 horse 409 Chev (dual carbs) and although the two carbs, when opened up, were very loud, (sounded great in car!) I don’t think the sound was as ‘strong’ as a wound up Paxton.

[Geoff]

A dual carbed engine does make some incredible sucking sounds although they're still very different from air being squeezed sounds.

I don't know, R2 vs. R3. Blower noise is blower noise and the actual supercharging device sits in the same location. That's where the air is getting the squish. And then it would be a question of how much each supercharger is squishing what quantity of air over how much duration?

The stories Ron and Doug Crall have regarding driving 1025 in the 1970s, "winding her out to the R" [in thousand R P M at bottom of the 6k tachometer] it made some glorious noises spun that tight, both induction and exhaust. That particular Paxton was a competition model which possibly brings in other factors. It also had loud tone mufflers initially, then Ron replaced those with glasspack style mufflers except they did have one baffle. These were the ones I knew driving it in the 1990s. I also only max spun it a skoosh over 5000 RPM; I pretty much only drove the car in its torque curve [R < 5252 RPM].

A modded-dupe is what I'd call it. I want to build a modded-dupe of RS1021 in 63R-1025.

[Dwight FitzSimons]

On 5/23/2025 at 8:35 AM, mfg said:

Good points… however, I was leaning to the sound of the engine itself from inside the passenger compartment. (if it’s actually possible to ignore the sounds the exhaust system produces!!!)

Let's use very quiet mufflers on all the engines so that we can single out the engine noises.  Then, one engine noise to consider is the sound of the pistons swapping holes in the R3 & R4 engines.  By that I mean the piston slap that one can hear with "quiet"mufflers and a nearby building to reflect the sound back to the driver when driving relatively slowly.  Under WOT that piston slap would be in the mix of all the other engine noises.  Also, aren't the valve clearances greater for R3 & R4 than for R1 & R2?  If so, then the R3 & R4 would have a bit more lifter clatter.

I'm not trying to provide the answer here; just adding up some of the component noises.

BTW, ALL Studebaker engines (excepting the 56J) have solid lifters.

--Dwight