1967; last of the tri carb 4.2's.  I spent a lot of time way back when
working on those monsters.  When they are running right, they are
screamers.  When they are off, they are horrors.  A friend of mine has one
(a convertible) rotting away in his back yard.  I had it running right
once...and then he just parked it.  Ten years ago those E types were hot
as fire moneywise, now not so much.  The speculators got shaken out of the
market when they found out what they were in for.  Jags remind me of some
women..best left for a one night stand only..
Studebaker George

Never, ever buy a Avanti needing restoration. The 12-20K you pay for a
nice car will seem cheap after you've spent your first 10K fixing one
up.  That's why I'm bidding on this black one.:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Studebaker-Avanti-1963-Studebaker-Avanti-R2-Super
charged-Restored_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6466QQitemZ4568336747

 The more i work on this car the more i wish i'd bought a Lark

I think my Avanti's gremlins are more or less gone after a total rebuild
of the engine - the problems I had were more because of bonehead moves
by a previous owner somewhere along the line than inherent, like putting
555 heads on an R2....
However, if you want comfort in a daily driver, don't get an R2, this
thing is warm inside, without AC it's a sweat box in the summer.
Handling is phenomenal, hard to believe it's 42 years old.

Yes and yes.  Every Avanti I have owned has aggravated me to the point where
I sold them because I was tired of messing with them.  Case in point- the
nice 49,000-mile late R-2 I bought in California in '01.  There was always
something wrong with it.  Even when I sold it on eBay for a good price I
ended up spending at least a week fixing things I kept finding wrong with it
(my buyer wanted to drive it back to the west coast and I couldn't let it go
in good conscience without fixing things that could break on the trip).  It
seems like everything is harder to work on than on a Lark, especially with a
supercharged one.  Probably the most dependable one I had was a '76, but on
the Chevrolet-engine Avantis, changing plugs involves taking off a front
wheel to get to the rear plugs.  I also had an '83 which I did absolutely
nothing too in the four or five years I had it.  However, I bought it new
when it was two years old and only put 7,000 miles on it (wife and I were
both afraid to drive it because it was so perfect).
Paul Johnson