Why was the Studebaker Avanti’s windshield so odd?

(EXPANDED FROM 2/8/2022)

Why was the futuristic-looking Studebaker Avanti given a tall, flat and small windshield? That windshield ranks with the 1964-66 Imperial in looking terribly mismatched with the rest of the car.

The most detailed account of the Avanti’s development I have come across is in Richard M. Langworth’s (1993) terrific post-war Studebaker book. Although he did not specifically weigh in on the car’s windshield, he provided enough details that one can come up with a plausible scenario.

The decision to use a fiberglass body “was not really made” until a full-sized clay model was completed, according to Langworth (1993, p. 137). Is it thus possible that the design team led by consultant Raymond Loewy worked under the assumption that the Avanti might use a steel body? If so, the cowl and windshield would presumably have been based on the Hawk’s in order to keep costs under control.

One caveat to this scenario is that a full-sized interior buck was created prior to the completion of the full-sized clay model. The rake of the windshield was reportedly reduced after Studebaker President Sherwood Egbert hit his head and “insisted on this modification” (1993, p. 137).

The images of the Avanti and Hawk below suggest to me that the windshield’s rake was similar, if not identical. That raises the question: Might Egbert have hit his head on a roof edge rather than an A-pillar? At any rate, sharing the same basic cowl shape didn’t mean the A-pillars of the two cars had to be identical in rake. After all, designers had already made a major change by giving the Avanti curved side glass.

Bonsall offers a different take on Avanti’s origins

Of course, that’s only one scenario of what might have happened. Thomas E. Bonsall stated that fiberglass was decided earlier — when a one-eighth scale model had been completed. He also noted that Loewy said the car “was built without a single straight line, which was entirely true, but such a design of curves and compound curves was simply too complex for metal” (2000, p. 360).

The other commonly stated reasons for the Avanti using fiberglass was that it would reduce both the development time and cost (auto editors of Consumer Guide, 2018).

The Avanti was developed with exceptional speed. However, Studebaker Assistant Manufacturing Manager Otto Klausmeyer told Langworth that a proposed steel-bodied family car inspired by the sporty coupe could have been developed “in months, not years.” That meant ready for the 1964 model year (1993, p. 143).

Cost clearly factored into the Avanti’s styling

Langworth (1993) reported that the Avanti’s development costs totaled around $3.5 million. That was less than half the $7.5 million reportedly spent on facelifting the Lark and Hawk for 1964. A steel-bodied Avanti would presumably have cost quite a bit more. However, as discussed in our “fake Avanti” story, that extra cost could have been partly spread across the entire Studebaker line.

Also see ‘Brooks Stevens’s 1965 Studebaker Lark concept: Almost a baby Continental’

Bonsall implied that, early on, the design team was given the green light to make full use of fiberglass’s greater design flexibility. If that was the case then why did the Avanti not follow one of the most significant design trends of the early-60s — a flatter cowl with a more steeply raked and rounded windshield? Did Loewy eschew this direction to be different or because it cost too much?

Studebaker sedans were updated more than the Hawk

It is no small irony that Studebaker’s 1963-64 family cars had a more up-to-date windshield than the Hawk. When the family cars last received a new body in 1953, they sported a taller beltline than the predecessor to the Hawk but used the same windshield.

Also see ‘1951 Studebaker: Pointing in the wrong direction’

The family cars began to diverge in styling from the lower-slung coupes midway through the 1955 model year, when high-end sedans and wagons received a wrap-around windshield. From 1956-60 the entire family car lineup shared the “dogleg” windshield but the coupes — now called Hawks — kept their old windshield.

In 1961 the family cars — now called Larks — kept the dogleg A-pillar but the hood was flattened. Then in 1963 the A-pillar reverted back to a steeper rake. This gave family cars a lower, flatter and larger windshield than their predecessors from a decade earlier.

All of these changes to the family cars would have made an even bigger difference in the styling of the lower-slung Hawk. Presumably the latter car did not generate enough sales to justify the cost of substantially revising its cowl and windshield. As a result, even the updated 1962-64 Gran Turismo Hawk looked old-fashioned compared to competitors such as the Ford Thunderbird.

Avanti was cleverly distinguished from Hawk

At first glance, the Avanti appears to look very different than the Hawk. The rounded teardrop shape was ditched in favor of a strikingly original mixture of coke-bottle curves and slab-sided wedges. 

Also see ‘Might Studebaker have survived if Sherwood Egbert had stayed healthy?’

What distinguished the Avanti from the Hawk wasn’t just the shape of its fiberglass panels. Studebaker also took the wise step of switching to curved side glass. In 1963 this was still an exotic feature but within two years would be commonplace on U.S. cars.

Despite all of these differences, the Avanti’s windshield looks like it has only evolutionary changes from the Hawk’s. The top of the Avanti’s windshield was lower and flatter than the Hawk’s. This allowed a somewhat lower roofline. In addition, curved side glass resulted in the windshield sides tapering inward. Even so, the base of the windshield was still tall and rounded. The off-center power dome on the hood helped to disguise that curvature.

Keeping the roofline low resulted in a squared-off look around the tops of the A-pillars that clashed with the Avanti’s otherwise rounded styling. Thus, designers added an arching character line between the A- and C-pillars on the roof. This highlighted the curved-side glass.

One downside of the arch is that it eliminated the possibility of either a full vinyl roof or one forward of the C-pillar, as offered on the Hawk. Instead, some Avantis sported a vinyl insert within the arches — which arguably didn’t work as well aesthetically.

Avanti-inspired family cars used a different body

After the Avanti’s design was completed, Loewy went on to develop a new line of family cars. These steel-bodied models had a vague resemblance to the Avanti but were longer, taller and had flat side glass.

The proposed designs appear to have been loosely-based upon the Hawk cowl because of the unusually tall and rounded base of the windshield. However, the edges of the windshield near the A-pillars were more heavily curved, which offered a more modern look. A Daniel Strohl (2010) story includes photos of notchback and fastback prototypes.

Also see ‘1955 Studebaker President hardtop hints at a road not taken’

The proposed family cars were never built. This was probably a good thing because they were ugly. A key problem was that the coke-bottle sheetmetal clashed with the overly squared-off roofline. The Avanti’s windshield may have looked old fashioned, but curved side glass helped to compensate for that.

What lessons can we draw from this story? Perhaps the biggest one is that Studebaker tried to field two bodies when it could only afford one. The Hawk and Avanti’s windshields would have better kept up with the U.S. design trends if Studebaker’s family cars had shared their lower-slung body.

NOTES:

This article that was originally posted March 25, 2018 and expanded on Nov. 20, 2020, Feb. 8, 2022 and May 30, 2023.

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RE:SOURCES

• Auto editors of Consumer Guide; 2018. “1963-64 Studebaker Avanti.” How Stuff Works. Accessed March 25, 2018.
• Bonsall, Thomas E.; 2000. More Than They Promised: The Studebaker Story. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
• Langworth, Richard M.; 1979, 1993. Studebaker 1946-1966: The Classic Postwar Years. Motorbooks International, Osceola, WI.
• Strohl, Daniel; 2010. “Studebaker prototypes resurface.” Hemmings. Posted June 4.

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