From the car of the future department circa 1963 is Studebaker Avanti number 188. The slopey coupe is currently owned and driven by Lenny Dold, who rolled the Avanti out among the Royal Customs at the Strangers car show in San Jose, California. Lenny says he’s had the car now for over a year, and that “no one knows what the hell it is”! The fiberglass-bodied Avanti was not only designed by modernist icon Raymond Loewy, but was also the first American production car to feature standard disc brakes. Lenny’s recent adventures in driving futuristic automobiles manufactured over four decades ago have included replacing a spun radiator clutch fan, and cobbling the factory carbureted supercharger system back into boosted working order. Once the cooling bugs are worked out it will be time to re-install the centrifugal Paxton blower under the fiberglass hood, and return the 289 cubic-inch Studebaker V8 back to its factory-rated 290 horsepower for an upcoming poker run. Given a full tank of mid-sixties high-test and a set of polarized Ray-Ban Baloramas, the Studebaker Avanti would be perfect for a drive to SFO to hop a Braniff SST Concorde to Paris.
