Good Old Times
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By 1962 the historic Studebaker plant in South Bend was hemorrhaging cash and hurtling toward bankruptcy. Instead of cutting corners to survive, desperate executives made one final, breathtaking swing at automotive greatness. They tasked design icon Raymond Loewy to shape a fiberglass halo car, which his team famously sketched inside a rented Palm Springs house in forty days.
The resulting Avanti was unlike anything on American roads. It abandoned traditional grilles for bottom breathing aerodynamics, while the interior took heavy cues from jet aircraft with roof mounted switches and an integrated roll bar.
Beneath the fiberglass skin sat a supercharged 289 V8 tuned by racing legend Andy Granatelli. He unleashed the coupe across the Bonneville Salt Flats, shattering twenty nine speed records and blasting past one hundred seventy miles per hour. For a brief moment, a dying automaker officially owned the fastest production car in America before plant closures extinguished the dream forever.
The resulting Avanti was unlike anything on American roads. It abandoned traditional grilles for bottom breathing aerodynamics, while the interior took heavy cues from jet aircraft with roof mounted switches and an integrated roll bar.
Beneath the fiberglass skin sat a supercharged 289 V8 tuned by racing legend Andy Granatelli. He unleashed the coupe across the Bonneville Salt Flats, shattering twenty nine speed records and blasting past one hundred seventy miles per hour. For a brief moment, a dying automaker officially owned the fastest production car in America before plant closures extinguished the dream forever.
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Radical aerodynamic fiberglass body, Paxton supercharger boost, and 289-hp R2 V8 high-speed performance.
The 1963 Studebaker Avanti R2 Coupe stands as one of the most daring, futuristic designs ever to roll out of Detroit. Conceived under the direction of Studebaker president Sherwood Egbert and penned by a legendary team including Raymond Loewy, the Avanti broke every traditional styling rule with its radical wedge profile, bottom-breathing front grille, wraparound aircraft-inspired cockpit, and lightweight fiberglass body devoid of standard chrome trim.
Beneath that low-slung hood lived the high-performance R2 package: a modified 289-cubic-inch V8 force-fed by a Paxton centrifugal supercharger that squeezed out an incredible 289 horsepower—achieving the magical factory milestone of one horsepower per cubic inch. Paired with front disc brakes (a rarity for American production cars at the time) and a 4-speed manual floor shifter, the Avanti shattered multiple stock speed records at Bonneville Salt Flats.
The 1963 Studebaker Avanti R2 Coupe stands as one of the most daring, futuristic designs ever to roll out of Detroit. Conceived under the direction of Studebaker president Sherwood Egbert and penned by a legendary team including Raymond Loewy, the Avanti broke every traditional styling rule with its radical wedge profile, bottom-breathing front grille, wraparound aircraft-inspired cockpit, and lightweight fiberglass body devoid of standard chrome trim.
Beneath that low-slung hood lived the high-performance R2 package: a modified 289-cubic-inch V8 force-fed by a Paxton centrifugal supercharger that squeezed out an incredible 289 horsepower—achieving the magical factory milestone of one horsepower per cubic inch. Paired with front disc brakes (a rarity for American production cars at the time) and a 4-speed manual floor shifter, the Avanti shattered multiple stock speed records at Bonneville Salt Flats.
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RANKIN/BASS HALLOWEEN THAT REALLY SETS THE MOOD AND MEMORIES:
Add this to any seasonal watchlist, "Jack O'Lantern" is a classic 1972 animated episode from the Rankin/Bass series Festival of Family Classics.
The story follows a leprechaun who, having transformed himself into a pumpkin seed to hibernate through the winter, unexpectedly springs to life as Mr. Jack O'Lantern.
Armed with his new pumpkin shell, he uses his wits to scare away Zelda the Witch and Archibald the Warlock, making it a charming and nostalgic choice for your Halloween viewing.
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In October 1958, The Playmates released a novelty song about a little Nash Rambler torturing a Cadillac driver who could not pull away from it. The punchline had the Rambler pulling alongside at full speed and asking how to get out of second gear. The record sold a million copies.
Factory workers in Kenosha sang it on the assembly line. The timing was right. The 1958 recession had sent buyers away from big chrome gas burners toward anything economical, and the Rambler was the only domestic make to gain sales that year. AMC turned its first profit since the 1954 merger. The song was funny because it was already coming true.
The 1960 Rambler won the Mobilgas Economy Run at 28 miles per gallon, sold 120,000 units that year, and outlasted the Big Three's rush to build compacts of their own. The Cadillac in the song had been a joke. The Rambler was becoming an argument.
Factory workers in Kenosha sang it on the assembly line. The timing was right. The 1958 recession had sent buyers away from big chrome gas burners toward anything economical, and the Rambler was the only domestic make to gain sales that year. AMC turned its first profit since the 1954 merger. The song was funny because it was already coming true.
The 1960 Rambler won the Mobilgas Economy Run at 28 miles per gallon, sold 120,000 units that year, and outlasted the Big Three's rush to build compacts of their own. The Cadillac in the song had been a joke. The Rambler was becoming an argument.
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