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Money No Object: A 1983 Avanti Done To The Nines


Money No Object: A 1983 Avanti Done To The Nines

Ah, yes, the Avanti…the car that outlived it’s original manufacturer by decades. Originally Studebaker’s last shot at a true sports car or Grand Tourer and described by Studebaker themselves as a “personal luxury car”, the Avanti took on a life of it’s own after the South Bend, Indiana Studebaker plant was shut down in 1963. Through a succession of owners and mainly mechanical updates, Avantis were being built until as late as 2006, staying more-or-less true to the original vision that Raymond Loewy’s design team had originally drawn up. I’ve said before and I’ll say again: the options for messing with a post-Studebaker Avanti are wide open. It’s not a real-deal car, and you are usually dealing with standard-fare GM or, in the case of the very later cars, Ford powertrains. Nothing exotic. Surely, building a small-block Chevy in a G-body chassis can’t be that difficult, right?

If you are familiar with the television show FantomWorks, then this 1983 Avanti should be familiar to you. Serious coin was dropped on this car, somewhere to the tune of low six figures, and it looks the part, doesn’t it? The running gear is simple but effective, a crate 350 that’s been wicked up and a TCI 700R4 automatic. The interior looks sumptuous (a word that should only apply to the most comfortable thing you can think of) and the shape…yeah, we could get behind road-tripping this beast wherever we would ever want to go. The best part is that the selling price on it’s current listing is actually pretty realistic, we think, especially considering the investment made into the car. What do you think?

eBay Link: 1983 Avanti


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4 thoughts on “Money No Object: A 1983 Avanti Done To The Nines

  1. Gary Smrtic

    One of the most beautiful cars ever built, imo. Still looks fresh today, and if that’s not enough of a compliment to the design team, I don’t know what would be. Very reasonable price, and I’d be willing to pay that for it; if they took the sbc out of it…just leave the empty hole and it’d have more value to me.

  2. jerry z

    I thought the car that left Fantonworks had a ramjet FI setup? Spending 100K on that was a poor investment like most cars.

  3. Chevy Hatin' Mad Geordie

    Beautiful apart from the Chevy motor, the wheels and the ride height.

    A Pro Charged and EFI’d Studebaker 289, 16 inch Borani wires, and a three inch drop would cure all that…

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