Automodello 1963 Studebaker

The year is 1963, Studebaker is on life support since sales of their inexpensive Lark was in free fall, what to do? Think outside the box and hopefully you will hit a home-run. Didn't happen!

Studebaker took a bold chance by building an automobile that was years ahead of its time, that automobile was the Avanti which had many safety features which auto manufacturers could care less about. Such features included a built-in roll bar, padded interior and door latches that became structural body members when closed.

An Avanti with a supercharged V-8 was one of the fastest automobiles of the sixties. A supercharged model hit 168 mph, which was a staggering speed for a production street car. Twenty-nine Bonneville speed records were smashed by a supercharged Avanti, impressive numbers if you ask me.

Avanti (which is Italian for "forward") was the first mass produced fiberglass body, four passenger American cars, which used caliper-style disc brakes.

Studebaker had hoped this automobile would be its life-line but unfortunately it didn't happen and although it was a unique automobile it never took off due to production delays and problems, pre-orders got cancelled due to the delays and rumors started to swirl that this manufacturer would soon be out of business. Studebaker rode off into the sunset in 1966 after moving production to Canada for their Lark line. The Avanti was built in 1963 (3,834) and 1964 (809) the '63 had round headlight surrounds and the '64 had square ones.

As a car lover this was one of my all-time favorite automobiles, one I would own today if it was available.

Automodello nailed this one too. Talk about the "Wow Factor" this model has it, don't ask me which one to choose; I couldn't pick just one. The paint on all three which I received was flawless, glass like, just beautiful. All scribe lines were nice and deep which gave the illusion of working features. All three models include a custom base and cover and they are fastened to their base via two screws to the underside. Viewing the interior I was just extremely impressed with the attention to detail in their too. Gorgeous doesn't do justice in describing these models. Automodello and his team did an outstanding job bringing this fine automobile back to life albeit in 1:43 scale.

The Studebaker Avanti is available in multiple editions:

• Regular Edition available in Avanti Gold Metallic and Avanti Red both limited to 499 units.
• Tribute Edition available in Avanti Turquoise and limited to 50 units.
• Homage Edition in Black and limited to 24 units.

Don't miss the boat on any of these; they are truly worth a closer look if they are your cup of tea; very well done in my opinion.