Classic Cars, Mid Century Architecture, and the fabulous Palm Springs back drop what more can you ask for ? Featuring high quality 4k video of driving to famous spots , walkarounds, technical specs, and drone shots !
i had one of these, an aquamarine blue Corsa convertible with a black top and the four-carb 140 engine. Supposedly it was a Yenko Chevrolet special, ordered and sold by the large Chevrolet dealer in Chicago by that name. I got it maybe in 1971 and sold it in late '73 or so. I put higher-performance shocks and tires on it and did a little gymkhana-ing with it. It cornered very well, flat and fairly-well controlled. The carbs were constantly in need of synchronization but I learned to do it quickly. On the other hand, the acceleration was crisp and instantaneous, unlike the turbos. It had a power convertible top! Unheard of to us Brit sports car owners- my Corsa replaced an MGB and was in turn replaced by a new Triumph Spitfire Mk IV. That car did a fine job for me but even then it was beginning to rust. It had been cruelly "undercoated" as a rustrproofing scheme.
Very cool you owned a rare Yenko they did Camaros as well , thanks for watching and commenting , be sure to check out the West Coast Corvairs Everywhere episode as well , cheers !
Most all of the music is from an online licensing music library called Artlist , I will look at my archival hard drive for this episode and see if I have all of the music saved so I can look at the names. You might be able to set up a free trial account and get the songs. By far the 2 most popular songs are at the Avanti house, that is Dan Zeitune featuring Loren Noyman the song is called Lever de la Lune. The other is from the convertible Thunderbird house that is called This Blue Moon by Ian Post. These artists might also have soundcloud, RU-vid, or bandcamp sites. Comment the songs from the cars you are interested in ! Thank you for watching, listening and commenting ! ❤
This was a fun episode to score ! All of the music comes from a licensing library called Artlist artlist.io , you might be able to download some of the mpgs on a free trial or find them on soundcloud. Let us know the time in the video of the tracks you enjoyed and we can try to find the artist and name . Thanks for watching !
I love your channel so badly! Everything I love comes together here. Mid-century modern architecture. American culture (I love Palm Springs very much) Classic cars and jazz music! This is one of my favorite channels and on instragram as well!
Thank you so much for the kind words and for watching ! You should visit Palm Springs ( not in the summer ) Please spread the word to your friends and more videos are coming
It looks like October 25-27 this year should be great ! sites.google.com/view/inlandempirecorvairclub/events-calendar Thanks for watching and commenting !
I had the same car. It looks white but the title said Lavender. under the right light u could see the light lavender. Power 4 ways seats, power antenna, and power windows. I was living in high cotton.
The owner has driven an Elise and a race prepped M3 around the Nurburgring, we are told that traditionally ON continent the sticker goes with the car, but OFF continent the sticker goes with the driver ! Cheers and thank you for watching and commenting !
It is actually a factory color Pastel Lime but the harsh sun in PS often makes it hard to catch the true colors on camera. Here is the actual color but out in the bright sun it does tend to pop a lot more ! Thanks for watching ! www.paintscratch.com/touch_up_paint/Lincoln/1972-Lincoln-Continental-Pastel-Lime-4A-1972.html
I have to disagree the airplane influence was from Loewy's involvement with Air Force One. Sherwood Egbert, president of Studebaker and the one who commissioned the project, was a pilot. He is the one who pushed for the aircraft look including being able to switch gauge lighting between white (daytime) and red (nighttime). In fact, he would fly his own plane to Palm Springs to visit the project and make some suggestions. Yes, he "helped.". Egbert had various design input such as reducing the original rake of the windshield, probably to help make sure he would fit in the car, he was pretty tall at I think 6' 4" or so. He seemed to be about a foot taller than Raymond Loewy in photos.
True, bodies were made in the same factory as the Corvette bodies, but not for long. (It was Molded Fiberglas in Ashtabula, OH.) There were too many quality problems and Studebaker took making the bodies in house. Being inexperienced with working with Fiberglas, Studebaker was able to then create their own problems. They had a lot of production problems that delayed shipments to the point that quite a few people cancelled their orders.
Just some nitpicks. The crew was not from Detroit, but from South Bend, Indiana. Well, two of them. While Bob Andrews and John Ebstein were working for Studebaker at the time, Tom Kellogg was not. Kellogg was hired at a very young age by Loewy specifically to work on this project. Kellogg had graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and Loewy seemed very good at keeping track of talent. Kellogg recounted he received a phone call and this fellow with a French accent says he is Raymond Loewy asking, "Would you be interested in designing a new sports car?" Kellogg thought somebody was kidding him at first. Incidentally, Kellogg went on to have a fine career in industrial design including work for quite a few major car manufacturers. He also became a professor at Art Center College of Design. Kellogg would say how important the Avanti project was to him and characterized the design as "cosmic." Kellogg died two weeks after crashing his Mercedes-Benz into a center divider. The family wanted some Avantis at his memorial and I was one who provided one. I'm not sure Kellogg was even on the Studebaker payroll, he might have been hired as part of Loewy's organization. Kellogg also designed a later Avanti using many of the original styling cues and it was produced in limited numbers from 2000 to 2007.
There was actually a home, not the home, of Raymond Loewy in Palm Springs. He also had an apartment in New York where he likely spent the majority of his time. He also had a home in Monaco, and I think also a rural home in France. Not sure the timing on those, though.
For those who might not know, the Avanti was created to be a "halo" car to bring excitement back to the Studebaker brand and get people to the dealerships. And it most certainly did. So, it really DID do its job. The idea was then to sell most people Larks and Hawks and such because, after all, the Avanti sold for about the same price as a Cadillac. So, they never expected to sell many Avantis. However, most buyers fully expected Studebaker was on the way out and balked at buying a car where dealerships and support were about to disappear. So, they looked, but did not buy.
That was a VERY nicely done video. I have a white 1964 and my license plate says, "A 64 WHAT" because so many people nowadays have never seen one. I love your pointer. I just HAVE to find one of those.
Thanks for the kind words and thanks for watching and the treasure trove of info below ! It's been a few years since this episode aired but we seem to remember the owners ( who are avid Studebaker collectors and own many ) had mentioned the total production numbers included a batch of post Studebaker factory units for some reason we can't remember . We have had several comments over the years about the headlights and they assured us that they had researched the year and model info and found documentation that about 50 units had the "wrong" headlights. As for the other info we don't know, not our car. Be sure to check out the Avanti adventure episode where a lot of the Palm Springs Avantis meet up ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TYjZK0OzuGw.htmlsi=tGkk7IUQZIf0x87O
The modified car run at Bonneville he mentioned had an "R3" engine where the 289 was bored out to 299 cid, had more boost, different intake manifold, cam, pistons, and such. They kept it at 299 cid to be in a certain class. Production R3 Avantis (there were only 9) were bored out for 304.5 cid. There was also one factory special R5 with dual superchargers that Andy Granatelli drove himself for a 2-way run of 196 mph at Bonneville. A paper on that engine Studebaker submitted to the Society of Automative Engineers stated 638 hp on the dyno. There was also the more obscure R4, which was offered as an option like the R2 or R3. But no Avanti was ordered with one, but one Lark sold with it. It was like the R3, but instead of being supercharged, had twin 4 bbl carburetors.
No 1963 production year Studebaker Avanti had square headlight bezels. I suspect your car is prior to SN R4892, perhaps quite a bit prior. But sometimes funny things happened with car registration dates after cars left the factory. And sometimes, I suspect, a car languished at the factory for some reason before becoming "production." Your car otherwise has many indications of being a 1963 such as the painted dash panel instead of the later wood grain look Tenite panels. It has the earlier heater/vent controls where one lever set is a split tee instead of the later with five separate levers with chrome balls on the top. It does NOT have the vent on the cowl just below the windshield on the top of the gunsight. This was added not for the cabin, but for air to cool the tunnel for automatic transmission cars as they got so hot people couldn't comfortably touch the metal shift lever. (Do you have that problem?) That was supposedly only for auto transmission cars, but some manual transmission cars left the factory with it anyway. But the square bezels don't make sense and I wonder if this was due to a repair at one time using a front clip from a later Avanti.
Studebaker produced 4,643 Avantis. Don't know where the 5800 production number stated came from. 3,834 were 1963 model year and 809 were 1964 model year. There were a few prototypes not sold and normally not considered "production" so sometimes you see "4,647" claimed. But production cars were 4,643. SN R1001 to R5643. R5643 was the last made and had an R3 engine. Perhaps that 5,800 was a number from a time including later Avantis produced by Avanti Motor Corporation after Studebaker ended production. Also, the Studebaker parts listed the changeover from round to square headlight bezels at SN 4892. This would mean that only the last 742 of the 809 "64" models had the square bezels. And a number of "63" models had them. So that is not a defining model year feature. There really is no defining model year changeover feature(s) for the Avanti like other cars. They just made running changes and introduced them when available. Also, you could order your car with round bezels even after square was in production. Years later, some 64 model year serial numbers after the square bezel changeover otherwise have been seen with round bezels and it is suspected this may be from a repair using a round bezel front. Nice video. I have white R5586, one of the last hundred made, which has all the running changes they ever made.
Wow what a cool dad ! You must have been popular at School if he dropped you off in those, thanks for watching and commenting, more Italian beauties coming soon from the same owner as the Grifo .....
The owner told us the Chevy engine actually makes the car very reliable, however the gas mileage might be a bit prohibitive, thanks for watching and commenting !
It is from a licensing music library called Artlist , the artist is Dan Zeitune featuring Loren Noyman the song is called Lever de la Lune. Not sure if you will have access to the whole song without licensing it but some artists have their songs in libraries and on iTunes or Soundcloud. Thanks for watching and commenting ! 🎵
These were ultra luxury vehicles here. Pity that I only have the metal models of these Mercedes from my childhood in the 60’s. Beautiful setting and a rust-free one unlike Northern Europe. 👍🏻🇺🇸✌️🏴🇬🇧
spectacular. The last truly exceptional generation where it truly was a step above. Also, I cannot imagine a metal house baking in the PS sun all day long!
Lovely Palm Springs our Summer Vacation destination for 20 years from London. New developments have changed Downtown thank goodness for the mid century modern architecture of the old hotels and suburban homes, My favourite car is the convertible version but that coupe would do given the sun.
Thanks for watching and commenting! You can still rent mid century houses on air bnb and still classic hotels . The convertibles are great on the winter but not the 120F / 48C summers! Please Spread the word on our channel over there 😊
Another great video; I’ve missed them! The combination of car and architectural history is a home run. This Mercedes model is one of my favorites; thank you for taking us along on the ride.
It either moves you, or it doesn't. As a past owner of 63R3565A (with a new owner in the Saratoga California area), a beautiful Avanti Red over Fawn 4 speed R2 supercharged, I'm in the former category. With only some ~ 3,600 1963 and 1964 Avantis made, you are in little danger of seeing one unless you bi-curiously click on and watch Avanti videos. The only weird thing about owning an Avanti was when I brought my Avanti to car shows - it was inevitable that someone would want to stop and argue something or another about the car: quite a few people wanted to argue that it was an import from France or maybe Canada. One guy told me that I "ruined" my car with the supercharger and chrome engine pieces (all factory issue) - so he was left speechless when I showed him the original window sticker. The factory supercharger was a $210 line item on the window sticker, I asked him if he thought that was too much
Thanks for watching and commenting, So cool you got to experience owning an Avanti, people seem to either love them or hate them. Be sure to check out the 1963 Avanti Episode as well if you have not already. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kgKhPAS36FM.htmlsi=6Q1utUwBl5PmtC9m. Cheers and thanks again !
There were 4,643 Studebaker Avantis produced. SN R1001 to SN R5643 (which was an R3). 3,384 considered as "63" and 809 considered as "64". The transition was arbitrary and not specifically linked to any specific changes, although a number of changes occurred around that time, but also before and after. It was sometime in August 1963 when everybody else started their "new model" year. I have taken my car (R5586) to about 60 car shows and heard plenty of the myth statements about the car. "It is a Ford 289 ". "They were made in Canada." "They made one steel bodied one and my uncle had it." "GM paid the Molded Fiberglas Company in Ohio to deliberately sabotage the Avanti body production." "It is by an Italian Designer."
I had a 1970 T-bird, in 1972. It had anti-lock rear brakes and it was loaded. Loved it, but was a gas hog, hi-test gas only., and it was very expensive to maintain.
Thanks for watching ! Perhaps you are thinking of James Bond Dr. No with one of the first "bond cars" being an Alpine. Get Smart definitely featured the Tiger , in fact Don Adams loved the car so much he bought it and rumor is his daughter later wrecked it .
😃 Thanks so much for watching and replying ! We do these videos in the hope it helps you escape the problems of daily life. We did not do a 2024 episode because it was pretty much the same cars but we hope to do a new 2025 episode thanks again !
Two comments: I thought brutalist was Soviet architecture. If you fasten that shoulder belt you cannot reach anything but the steering wheel, the gear shifter and the door opener.
A quick search and Wiki says it actually started in the UK ! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture. Though it does certainly seem like it was Soviet inspired it seems to be an international time period style vs a nationality style. Yeah those early 3 point seat belt systems were something to be desired, one of the first was in the 1964 Volvo 1800 and it does limit movement for sure , thanks fro watching and commenting !
