eBay Find of the Day | 1975 Avanti II

When the Studebaker Avanti hit the scene way back in 1963, it was unlike anything the automotive world had seen. There was no chrome grille leading the way, which in itself set the Avanti apart from pretty much everything else, but it was the rest of the super sleek bodywork that really drew admiring glances from the American populace of the time. With direction from incoming Studebaker president Sherwood Egbert and a futuristic sense of style from noted designer Raymond Loewy, the Avanti was a four-seat coupe with coke-bottle curves, an aerodynamic fiberglass body, and optional supercharged V8 power.

This is not that car. It shares a name with the classic Studebaker, and it's bodywork is basically the same, but the original Stude lasted a scant two years before the company folded. A pair of Studebaker dealers bought the tooling to the original Avanti, and created what you see here, an Avanti II. The first Avanti II showed up in 1965, made mostly of leftover original bits and pieces after the closure of Studebaker's factory in South Bend, Indiana. By 1976, the year that today's eBay Find of the Day was manufactured, the engine was a 400 cubic-inch V8 mated to a three-speed automatic transmission sourced from General Motors.

The car seen up above and here on eBay shows 93,455 original miles on the odometer, and it looks pretty nice. The seller claims that 125 Avanti II models were built in '75, which makes this a pretty rare vehicle. And, says the seller, this particular example was on display at the Smithsonian Museum as part of an exhibit centering around designer Raymond Loewy's most famous designs. It's listed with an asking price of $26,995.00 and is located in New Jersey.