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1959 – 1964
The Lark: The reprieve, when it came, came from a small car built out of old parts. Under president Harold Churchill, Studebaker for 1959 cut its full-size body down into the compact Lark — the central body section of the 1953–58 cars carried over, on existing chassis and engines. It was cleverly done and it landed: Studebaker-Packard's unit sales rose from 56,920 in 1958 to 153,844 in 1959, and the Lark delivered a $28.6 million profit. But the reprieve had a term: in 1960 the Big Three fielded compacts of their own, and the senior compacts of 1961 crowded the Lark from above. Sales fell away as fast as they had come.
Egbert and the strike: Sherwood H. Egbert, a 40-year-old former Marine who had turned around the McCulloch company, took the presidency in February 1961. His first winter brought the works its hardest labor fight: a strike at the South Bend plant beginning 1 January 1962 ran 38 days before Egbert and the UAW's Walter Reuther settled it. Sales ticked up in 1962, but the continuing press speculation that Studebaker was about to leave the automobile business worked as a self-fulfilling prophecy — buyers would not risk an orphan car — and by 1963 every line was selling poorly.
The Avanti: Egbert's answer to the image was a halo car, and he went back to Loewy for it. In March 1961 Loewy assembled a small team — John Ebstein to supervise, Bob Andrews, and a 27-year-old Art Center graduate, Tom Kellogg — in a rented house at Palm Springs, California, and on Egbert's demand for a finished design in about forty days, produced one: a grille-less, wasp-waisted fiberglass coupe with a built-in roll bar in its roof structure, on a modified Lark Daytona convertible chassis with the company's 289 V8. Fourteen months after the sketches, on 26 April 1962, the Avanti — the name, chosen by the D'Arcy agency, is Italian for "forward" — was unveiled simultaneously at the New York International Auto Show and the company's annual meeting, to the show's strongest notices. The design had outrun the manufacturing: bodies and production never reached the plan, and Studebaker built 4,643 Avantis in all. It was the last new Studebaker. The Avanti's continuation under other hands is carried in the afterlife entry below.
Sources:
- Standard encyclopedia history of Studebaker — the Lark's construction from existing parts, the 1959 sales figures (56,920 units in 1958 to 153,844 in 1959) and $28.6 million profit, the erosion by the Big Three compacts and senior compacts, the 38-day strike of January–February 1962 and the Egbert–Reuther settlement, and the orphan-car effect of the exit speculation.
- Silodrome, "Factory Supercharged! An Incredible 1963 Studebaker Avanti R2," and the Piedmont Classic Car Club's Avanti account — Egbert's February 1961 arrival, the Palm Springs team of Kellogg, Andrews, and Ebstein in March 1961, the 40-day program, and the debut of 26 April 1962 at the New York show and the shareholders' meeting; Classic & Sports Car, "Studebaker Avanti: Loewy's Rider" (2025) — the rented house, the four-week model, the D'Arcy name, and the show debut.
- Unique Cars and Parts, Studebaker Avanti production account — the Lark Daytona chassis basis and the total of 4,643 Avantis built.