in re:  did Avanti Motors actually produce any blown early II's?

Sometime in the early 70s I was at the factory for some minor work on a
'67 II.  The '67 was a great car:  had the quick steering box,
"dovetail" door latches, Powershift.....pre-headrest seats, cowcatcher,
etc., and no emissions to speak of.........and that fine 327 engine. At
this point in time, I can't even remember which 327 that particular car
had:  the 300 hp was standard, but they offered some options......I
recall that this one had 11.75 compression, it liked a lot of Sunoco 260
and loaded-up easily.

Anyway, Nate was as usual gracious and helped me pass some time while
the car was worked on.  He had plenty of business:  the place was
humming - making new ones and they apparently had a nice repair,
repaint, restore business, too.  I remember being dazzled with the cars
of one customer:  customer had his beloved Stude Avanti in  (it was low
mileage, turquoise with tan interior):  the guy liked it so much, he
hated to drive it, so it was at Avanti Motors with instructions to "make
it new again", after the owner had taken delivery of a II in the same
colors to be his driver.

Anyway, Nate showed me another II .....Nate's story was that it was made
for the Prez of Molded Fiberglass:  it was bright red with tan interior,
4 speed and definitely had been built by Avanti Motors with a
supercharged Vette engine.  It was a pretty car, but Nate admitted that
it was virtually uncontrollable, i.e the throttle had to be applied
judiciously.  I got the impression that they had made very few and this
may have been the only one made for a customer.  I've got a Polaroid of
it somewhere: wish I had inquired more about the engine, rear axle, etc.
but by then Nate was showing me his Caribbean.  What a great day!!!

JC