Avanti R5653!

[mfg]

In September of 2010, Studebaker Avanti R5653, an engineering prototype, sold at a Bonhams Auction for......?.......

1) $12,500.......2) $16,700......3) $21,500.....or.....4) $33,900

[murph the surf]

unbelievably 1) $12,500

[studegary]

I believe that was originally EX2946.

EDIT:  I just noticed that this was my 500th post on the AOAI Forum.  I will never catch up to my thousands on the SDC Forum.  

Edited December 23, 2017 by studegary

[Gunslinger]

Back around 1973 or so I went to look at an Avanti for sale.  It was in good condition...R1...automatic, no p/s, no a/c...pretty much a base car.  The asking was $3250 if I remember.  Being in school with little cash I had to pass it up.  

A few years later after graduation and being "gainfully" employed I purchased my first Avanti...another '63 R1 but better equipped.   I really dove into Avanti history...at least what it was at the time...and discovered the '63 I first looked at several years earlier must have been one of the original prototypes.  I distinctly remembered it had the rear view mirror mounted on a ball socket on the dash like a '61 Chrysler my dad once owned.  From what I had found out, only the original prototypes were equipped with the mirror on the dash.  

It really made little difference...if I had known that several years earlier I still didn't have the cash.  If the seller had known the price would probably have been higher.

[mfg]

That Avanti you looked at may very well have been one of the early protoypes. On the other hand, it possibly may have been a regular production R1 Avanti that someone fitted a dash mounted rearview mirror into, as the tiny 'low windshield mount' factory mirror was considered by many to be next to useless!

Edited December 23, 2017 by mfg