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In or around 1962, California instituted a new DMV registration system. At that time, the chassis numbers of the cars were used for registration and licensing. The new Avantis did not have enough letters/numbers (63R-nnnn) to meet the criteria (8 characters) of the newly automated system, so some creative individual established a procedure to append an "A" or "B" to cars in this situation. Thus if you have an Avanti with a title that has this anomaly, then the car was likely to have been registered in California at some time. The chassis plate still has only the factory stamping of 63R-nnnn or after serial #3100, the 63 is omitted, as per service letter # G-1964-3B , dated 13 May 1964. This situation may have consequences in the future when a car is moved from state to state and the new owner has to verify the title and registration numbers for the new state's Department of Motor Vehicles, wheras the official chassis number of any Studebaker Avanti has only 7 characters prior to R-3100 and only 5 characters after R-3100. Avanti II's do not have this issue, as the serial number is stamped on a plate on the drivers door jamb. For 1965-1970, RQA-nnnn. The last 1970 RQA was #0423. 1970 RQB numbers start at RQB-1501 and the last 1970 RQB is #1598 ( 98 cars total) This serialization ( registration number) was used on Avanti II's until the very early 1980's, even though an actual 18 digit VIN number for all vehicles manufactured or imported into the USA was mandated in 1969. The Avanti Motor Corp., being a small manufacture was exempt from a lot of issues and had a wide berth on emission standards until that point. At the base of the windshield, viewable from outside is a 3/8" X 4" tinplate with the VIN stamped. Avanti VIN's start with 12AAV and are generally 17 digits, not the 18 on a run-of-the-mill car, so they don't work on CarFax, etc. |
