1962 Studebaker Avanti – A Grand Touring Vision

I like to imagine this moment as a kind of full-circle pilgrimage — the Avanti, reinterpreted and reborn, gliding back to the very place where Raymond Loewy and his small design team once shaped its ancestor into existence. And here it is now, parked low and purposeful under the desert dusk, right in front of that unmistakable Palm Springs house: breeze-block walls glowing from within, sharp rooflines catching the last lavender light, and palms rising like silent witnesses to history.

Back in 1961, Loewy brought his team here for a compressed burst of creativity — a design marathon that turned into the Avanti. The desert air, the isolation, the modernist geometry of the house itself all blended into their process. And the car they produced looked as if it belonged to no decade at all: streamlined, grille-less, aeronautical, daring. Loewy always said simplicity was the ultimate sophistication, and the Avanti was proof.

Now, decades later, this modern interpretation rolls back to that same house as if returning home. The body carries Loewy’s unmistakable DNA — smooth tensioned surfaces, quiet confidence, the refusal to shout. But this time I’ve added a twist: a Jensen Interceptor-style wraparound rear glass, giving the car a sweeping panoramic exit line and a touch of grand-touring theater. It feels like something Loewy might have appreciated — European glamour blended with American optimism.

Standing there, it’s easy to imagine Loewy himself stepping out onto the patio, cigarette glowing, eyes narrowing with interest. He’d study the roofline, the stance, the rear glass, then offer one of his famously understated nods — the kind that meant, “Yes… you’ve captured the spirit.”

And as the breeze-block shadows fall across the car just as they did in ’61, I can’t help but wonder if this is where the next Avanti story begins.

If anyone knows of an old Studebaker Avanti — tired, sunbaked, maybe missing a roof or nursing a hopeless engine — I’m looking. Every legend deserves another chance to roll back into Palm Springs.