At the start of the 60s, having failed to introduce competitive models over several years, the venerable Studebaker Company was in deep financial trouble. In a last gasp effort to elevate the brand, the engaged Raymond Loewy and a group of talented designers to come up with a design that would resurrect the company’s flagging fortunes and be competitive with the cars coming out of Detroit. The design group holed up in a rented house in Palm Springs and came back to Studebaker with the Avanti—a four-passenger sport coupe built on the Lark platform. It was a brilliant design featuring a number of both performance and safety innovations. Studebaker put it into production within months.

To prove the Avanti’s performance, Studebaker took a modified unit to the Bonneville Salt Flats where it did not disappoint,  reaching over 170 mph with its supercharged R3 engine and breaking 29 world speed records earning it the title of “the fastest production car in the world”. Originally scheduled to produce 26,000 units of the sleek coupe, the best the factory could manage was less then 4,600 cars over a two year production run before closing down in 1963 with the last 809 cars sold as 1964 models, ending what could and should have been another design Triumph for the prolific Loewy.

You can purchase a limited edition illustration of this iconic Loewy design in your choice of exterior and interior colors as an archival print, canvas print, brushed aluminum print or backlit or unlit large-scale display. Studebaker Avanti