Views on modifying an Avanti - 1st, my own ( RQA-0381) 1970 - from my website- For those who would protest or lament the modifications and upgrades placed on this car, I would like to offer this view. Any Avanti produced after Studebaker is really a modification of the original anyway. The latter owners of the company even tried to improve the roadability and safety somewhat. I've merely extended that principle to my liking. The car, as was the Studebaker model is a piece of rolling art. It is not remembered for it's mechanical composition, but it's visual impression. If this car had been an actual Studebaker, it has a place in history and would have been heresy to restore it to other than its original state. .../rj Bob Johnstone December 1996- rjonst@www.gsdi.org -------------- David Vineberg - 1963 ( A100prcent@aol.com ) Another Avanti on the road is a great thing. Especially if it is special enough to get an original supercharged Studebaker engine to set it apart from the pack. Front end modifications are an area where people have taken mainly two paths. The first is to enhance the stock system without changing the basic design. This way usually means fixing the worn pieces and putting in mods like delrin bushings, a bigger sway bar, better mounts and sometimes different brakes. A change to a dual circuit system is a good idea if it had a single system originally. All that is easily done and there are a couple vendors selling brackets for the bigger disk brakes, The other more expensive option is the replacement of the whole front end with a subframe from another cars. Usually because it is common and a similar size frame the Camaro/Nova front end gets grafted on. These come with decent brakes and can be adapted to a rack and pinion setup. I have one car modified like that and it has a bump steer problem. Not really a good thing in a fast car. However there is a company called Steeroids that makes a bracket to bolt a rack in and have it align correctly. There's a third route I've heard of but haven't actually seen anyone do. That is a street rod front end based on a Mustang II. A number of companies make crossmembers to put these under various cars. I heard of a company making them for the Studebaker based frame. Can't remember the name of the company though. I've always wondered why people do this. It's not like the Mustang II was known for it's great handling. Having driven cars with both suspensions in good condition (Studebaker vs. GM/Nova) my opinion is that the GM setup is a big mushier in the corners and it doesn't track quite as well as the Studebaker. One good thing about the Chevy is that it uses a more modern steering box to gives you a more firm power steering feel. The Studebaker power steering may have a bit less road feel but the Studebaker suspension seems more direct. I think this is because the "planar suspension" the Avanti is based on minimizes bump steer and steering kickback from the bumps. If you could properly adapt a rack and pinion to the Avanti you could theoretically get the best of both worlds with less turns lock to lock, a firm power steering feel and the better geometry of the Studebaker setup. The problem seems to be that most people that have attempted this haven't been able to place the rack in the most optimal position. The best position would have the tie rod joints in line with a line drawn through the suspension inner lower a arm bushings leaving the tie rods where they are horizontally and vertically in order to preserve the built in ackerman angles and resistance to bump steer. I suspect that this puts most available racks in a position that would interfere with the front of the engine. The relay or assist system in the Avanti does clutter up the engine compartment some. I'm reminded of something I saw done to some other Studebaker based cars. That is using a steering gear box off an earlier model. Studebaker used an early Saginaw system in the 50s. I'd think that changing over to that box would be easier than trying to find a modern fore and aft truck box and adapting that. The earlier Stude system seems like it should be able to be adapted without too much trouble since the 53-57 frames are quite similar to the Avanti frames. If you had one of those boxes in good shape it might be worth a try as an alternative to putting in a rack and pinion. Once again I have to say that center pin bearing makes a huge difference and I'd fix that before I thought of doing anything else. There are some good books on race care suspension design and the whole issue isn't worth considering unless you are willing to commit to doing a fair amount of research. The most "mickey mouse" part of the stock suspension is the bell crank pivot post. The main problem of the design of this part is not it's strength it is it's need for maintenance. The grease fitting for that post is hidden away and since few cars have that fitting it's rarely greased. That is too bad because the wear caused by that lack of maintenance makes a world of difference in how the front end feels. I've serviced this pivot in a number of my cars and it always made a big difference. This isn't expensive to fix and sometimes merely tightening the pinch bolt on the crank can help a lot. I recommend taking a look and seeing how easily the front ends issues can be addressed before deciding to just dump the whole thing. Even sitting in a barn all those years it's not too likely that the front end is gone. Most likely your rotors are rusty and the brake system probably needs major service. Since there is so much involved in bringing an Avanti back on the road I recommend not wasting time fixing things that aren't broken. It saves a lot of time if the goal is to have a driver. It seems like all the enthusiast groups deal with this same kind of debate. Sometimes there doesn't seem to be much agreement between the stock is best group and the change out everything group but I believe there is a middle ground. I like cars that show originality yet keep the spirit of the original design. There are certainly enough good examples to sit in museums as a relic of the time. Driving them is what makes it all worth it in my book. If the challenge of modifying your car motivates you to get it on the road then more power to you. I think myself if I was going to change the suspension of an Avanti from stock I'd be more inclined to start with the rear end and put a four link, air springs and a shortened rear end under it so some nice wide tires would fit. Perhaps all the time lately in my Starlight coupe is turning me into a basackwards kinda guy. I don't think you'd find any argument here on getting another Avanti back on the road. When you start talking particular modifications it gets down to a matter of taste on one hand and a cost benefit things on the other. You could spend a lot of money putting a different front end under it and have it ride worse than it would have if you just rebuilt the stock setup. I can see easily how that could be the case. Of course there is the wow factor. The Avanti's have so much of that to start with though. Ultimately it's your car and you'll do what you want to enhance it for your needs. I have just one request, please take a stock Avanti for a drive before you start your torch. You just might be surprised how nice it drives. David