Ray's R2!

[mfg]

Raymond Loewy owned two Studebaker Avantis,...and they were both R2 supercharged jobs......True?

[1963r2]

I thought he owned a Stude Avanti and an Avanti II.

I will say false with no real conviction.

[mfg]

7 minutes ago, 1963r2 said:

I thought he owned a Stude Avanti and an Avanti II.

I will say false with no real conviction.

Nope, Loewy owned two Studebaker Avantis and one Avanti ll. (as far as I know!)

[brad]

He had at least 2 Avanti IIs . One was a black 70, and of course the last one the 76 Gold one that I have worked on.

[mfg]

56 minutes ago, brad said:

He had at least 2 Avanti IIs . One was a black 70, and of course the last one the 76 Gold one that I have worked on.

Good info!...OK, R.L. owned four Avantis! (WOW!)....Now,....... on to the original question!

[scottgriggs]

I will guess that every Stude Avanti RL owned was an R2.

[mfg]

6 hours ago, scottgriggs said:

I will guess that every Stude Avanti RL owned was an R2.

And you are CORRECT about that!

[lschuc]

And the two Loewy-owned Avantis still exist. One is owned by a man in the Los Angeles area, and the other, is owned by an AOAI member in France.

Both are nearly identical, except the one still in southern  California  has exhaust cut-outs as requested by Loewy himself.  

Both cars were delivered at the factory to Loewy Designers,  one picked up and signed for by John Ebstein and one picked up and signed for by Tom Kellogg. See their signatures in the transport document  below, along with their respective production orders:

[mfg]

Very interesting documents!....I find it a bit curious that both these Avantis were produced in what might be called the mid-to-late Studebaker Avanti production period.....In other words, I'm kind of surprised Loewy didn't own/order an Avanti much earlier!.......... (I'm surprised not to see him owning a much earlier, lower serial numbered car)

[studegary]

I noticed that the "63" is covered over on the S/N in the box on the upper right of the first document and does not exist on the second document (first car).  This car was an earlier date and S/N than I had thought that the "63" was deleted from the S/N.    

I assume that the first one was picked up by Tom because he resided in California, where the car was going,  and the second one was picked up by John because he resided in New York and I assume that the car was shipped to Europe from NY/NJ.