By Rod Chong

So during this week, it is now up to you, the Car Domain reader, to vote on your favorites. There will be specific categories, like today’s example, the 1960’s Unknowns. In the end, sometime after the New Years Holiday, there will be one car crowned as your favorite Obscure Muscle Car, and park it in the Parking Lot, with a few CarDomain Members rides highlighted.

So, what is your favorite little known Muscle Car from the period dominated by muscle cars?
- The 1962-1963 Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfire, Americas first Turbocharged V8!
- The 1963 Studebaker R2 Super Lark, and the R2 Super Hawk, both with Supercharged V8s!
- The AMC Rambler Marlin, predecessor to the great Javelin and AMX models.
- The 1968 – 70 Oldsmobile Toronado W-34, the first Front Wheel Drive Muscle Car!
- The Ford Galaxie 500 7 Litre, from 1966 – 67, Big Power in a full sized car!
- The 1963 to 1965 Buick Riviera. Classically proportioned Muscle, that was also luxurious!
- The 1968 Dodge Dart GTS 440; a very rare compact Muscle Car.
- The 1965 Chrysler 300-L; The Bankers Hot Rod!
- The Turbocharged Corvair, an unusual choice, and the second Turbocharged American Car.
- The Beaumont SD, and mix of Chevrolet and Pontiac for our Canadian Neighbors.
- The 1968 Mercury Cougar XR7-G; A tribute model for Dan Gurney.
- The 1969 AMC Hurst S/CRambler, an outrageous Rambler, in an eye searing color scheme.
- The 1968 Pontiac Grand Prix; Different Body, the year before the Mid Sized Grand Prix debuted.
- The Studebaker Avanti – Ahead of its time, too little to save Studebaker.

So it is now up to you, the Car Domain reader, to vote on your favorites. There will be specific categories, like today’s example, the 1950s Cruisers. In the end, sometime after the New Years Holiday, there will be one car crowned as your favorite Obscure Muscle Car, and park it in the Parking Lot, with a few CarDomain Members rides highlighted.

So what was your favorite 50’s cruiser from the Series?
- The 1957 Rambler Rebel, defined as the one car that started the Muscle Car Period.
- The 1958 Packard Hawk, with it’s Supercharged V8, and were very rare.
- The 1957 Pontiac Bonneville, the car that ushered in Performance at Pontiac.
- The Studebaker Golden Hawk, with either a Packard Big Block, or a Supercharged Small Block.
- The Fabulous Hudson Hornet, a car that virtually dominated NASCAR during the first half of the 50s.
- The 1957 Supercharged Fords (Called the F-Series), which included the Thunderbird, and at least one Wagon!
- The Dual-Ghia, with Chrysler Power, and Movie Star Panache.
- The Dodge D-500, with rip snorting power, and huge tail fins!

Allegedly, Firestone did, and one of them recently turned up in South Carolina on a 1929 Studebaker chassis, and H.A.M.B.er mottsrods shared some pics of the behemoth with us. The only real clues as to its origin – beside the apocryphal Firestone story – are the “Dulce Domum – San Marino” painted on its flanks and the Advance Auto Body Works plate screwed to the body. Continue reading at Hemmings

Has an odd custom camper on top, straight 6 we drove it to where it was parked for a couple of years so all is probably well with engine and drivetrain

A grand takes it. Your thoughts?

The coolest thing about the Great Labor Day show is that it really is a weekend long family event with plenty of cruising, show cars, and music to keep you and your family entertained. And thanks to the fantastic facilities at the Orange County Fairgrounds, the event includes a huge campground area filled with tailgating barbecueing fools. Even with all the RVs, the fairgrounds offer great cruising, manufacturers midway, and even an autocross. This years event had more than 3,000 show cars in attendance for the three days, and all who attended enjoyed the always perfect southern California weather. Combine that with the OCCA’s well oiled car show running machine, sponsors like Barry’s Speed Shop, Global West, Magnaflow, Port-a-cool, Bendpack, and QA1, and you are almost guaranteed a successful show. If you didn’t make it out to this year’s show, put it on your calendar for 2010.

In the meantime, check out our gallery here.

Continue reading after the jump!

By the end of 1957 Studebaker was in serious trouble. So, in an effort to save the company, the board at Studebaker Packard Corporation hired Sherwood Egbert as President to try and turn around the company. Even in his initial discussions with the board about the president’s job, he had proposed a radical new car. It has been reported that on a lay-over at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, he bought some car magazines and once back in the air began sketching ideas about this new radical car. On March 9th 1961, he contacted Raymond Loewy, who has quite a history with Studebaker, and asked him to design a new car.

This was the stuff of legends, and it has been thoroughly written that within ten days Raymond Loewy, John Ebstein, Thomas Kellogg and Robert Andrews were working at a rented house in Palm Springs. Within two weeks they had finished the 1/8th scale clay model, and on April 2nd, Egbert flew out to Palm Springs to view the final clay model and the final drawings. With only a few minor changes, he toasted the new car with a soft drink, and said, “Let’s go!” The 1/8 scale clay was then shipped back to South Bend Indiana for the Studebaker styling crew to work on. The two-seater design became a four seater. The windsheild pillar was made more upright when Egbert bumped his head while getting into the seating buck. The “Coke bottle” shape was moderated. The asymmetrical hood bump was borrowed from some of Loewys early sketches for the Avanti. The taillights were modified to make them easier to produce, and the quad-headlights were changed to single headlights to reduce cost. By April 27th, the full-sized clay was done.

Because of Studebaker’s limited budget, the performance/suspension options were sparse. The frame for the Lark convertible was chosen and beefed up to support the Avanti’s fiberglass body. For handling, the front coil springs from the Lark heavy duty police package and rear leaf springs from the Lark station wagon were chosen with heavy duty shock absorbers added as well. The Avanti was the first American car to feature disc brakes. It used Bendix units made under license from Dunlop, the same brakes that Jaguar had been using for years.

And the engine was also a hold over. The top of the line Studebaker 289 made only 225 Horsepower. It was massaged to deliver 240 horsepower for the new performance model, but it really needed more. Fortunately, Studebaker had just acquired Paxton (of Paxton Supercharger fame), and with it came an a belt-driven centrifugal supercharger good for 300 horsepower. With Paxton, Studebaker gained a true performance engineer, Andy Granatelli, who had a few ideas on how to promote the Avanti’s performance image, along with massaging the entire Studebaker line.

The Avanti V-8 produced 240 horsepower from its 289 cubic inches. This was the normal R-l engine. For a few dollars more the R-2 option could be had with the Paxton supercharger putting the Avanti in the same performance league as fuel injected Corvettes and the sleek Jaguar XKE sports cars. The hotter Avanti R-3 used the same engine block bored out to 304.5 cubic inches. Still hotter was the R-4 with dual superchargers. Avanti stock cars broke records at Bonneville both In ‘62 and ‘63. The Avanti enhanced it’s sporting image with a set of throaty dual exhausts and the natural “rake” it had when viewed from the side, sitting nose down and tail high.

A number of firsts were introduced with this car. It was the first American four passenger car to have front disc brakes as standard equipment so it could stop as well as it could go. The doors featured “cone” locks and the fuel tank was tucked up between the back seat and trunk wall. It was equipped with a fully padded dashboard, and a collapsable steering wheel. And it was a couple of years before other “personal” cars featured a cockpit environment. A lot of original thinking went into the Avanti making it a unique and beautiful American car.

Many names were considered for the Avanti including revivals of the name Packard and Pierce-Arrow. No one knows who first came up with the name Avanti. Some credit the D’Arcy Advertising Agency and some credit Sherwood Egbert. Whoever thought of the name, it was Raymond Loewy who designed the final Avanti script nameplate. The prototype was ready in just under a year and was unveiled on April 26th 1962.

Unfortunately, Studebaker missed the deadline for the fall car buying season, due to problems with the body manufacturer (who as it turns out, also made the bodies for the Corvette), and many of the pre-production orders Studebaker received were canceled by impatient buyers. The Avanti wasn’t ready for the Indianapolis 500 either, as it was selected as the official pace car for the 1963 race, and was substituted with the Lark Convertible. Only 4,643 of the futuristic Avanti was produced between June 1962 and December 1963, when Studebaker pulled the plug from it’s US operations, and eventually shut down altogether by 1966.

CarDomain Members Rides
Believe it or not, there are 3 CarDomain members who own this classic Studebaker. Let’s look at Karl’s Avanti, with twin Superchargers! He hails from Modesto, California. There is a lot of history on his ride page, so take a look, and leave him a comment.

Then there is Mark’s Avanti, from Tiverton, Rhode Island. He converted this Studebaker from an R1 to a factory looking R2 with a Supercharger, and also ditched the Auto for a four speed stick. The period rims also look sweet!

There you have it, another Studebaker. This one is a better known performer, but I think it’s still a bit obscure. What doe you think? Does it belong onto the Parking Lot, or should it just be assigned a space within a museum? Let’s have a lot of debate on this one.

The engines were built by Paxton Products for Studebaker back when Andy Granatelli was being hired out to make horsepower and publicity for Studebaker. As is stated in the ad, engines identical to this one powered two Studes to international speed and endurance records with Andy himself behind the wheel.

It’s not the romper, stomper flashy piece that a Hemi is, but put in a light car with the right gearing, this sucker could terrorize the streets with the best of them. There was lots of super tuning done to these motors with respect to balancing and precision machining, but the coolest parts in our book are the dual quad intake manifold and the special Granatelli-only (not repopped) cylinder heads.

This is the ultimate “factory” Studebaker motor. Thanks for the tip Joe Roberts! Here’s the ad