The final few years at Studebaker are fairly fascinating, considering everything the company was doing to continue building cars. There was not only the Avanti, but also the final developments of the Studebaker V-8 engine (R1 through R5) and, before the last gasp of Chevrolet-engined cars from 1965-1966, there was the attempt to turn the head-turning Avanti into a proper sedan.
Thanks to AvantiDon, writing on the My Hemmings pages, we see that the Avanti sedan was not just some myth, but an actual reality, designed in France by Raymond Loewy’s team and then brought to life first in fiberglass, then in steel. Two prototypes were actually built – one with an Avanti-like fastback roof, the other with a formal roof – and over the decades got lost in the succession of companies formed to build the Avanti. But as AvantiDon writes, both cars have recently been brought to light again and are destined for the public eye once again.
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UPDATE: Thanks to Jalopnik and its commentariat, we see there’s a photobucket album with more views of the two cars.