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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsSometimes—but the claim needs a distinction. Prepared, supercharged Studebaker Avantis made striking speed runs at Bonneville, including a reported 170.81-mph record. That figure belongs to a record car, not an ordinary showroom Avanti. The available evidence does not establish that a production Avanti beat a specific muscle car in a comparable period test.
Why Studebaker built the Avanti
The Avanti was an ambitious answer to a company in trouble. The Studebaker National Museum says the automaker had lost money in each of the previous eight years except 1959, and its board was considering leaving car manufacturing if business did not improve. Sherwood Harry Egbert became president on February 1, 1961. The museum quotes him at his first press conference: “we’re in this business to stay.” Studebaker National Museum
In March 1961, Egbert commissioned Raymond Loewy to design a new Studebaker sports car. The Avanti debuted on April 25, 1962, after a 14-month development effort, according to the museum. The compressed timetable and performance ambitions made the car a conspicuous bid to give Studebaker a new identity.
How fast was the Avanti?
The Bonneville record car
A specialist Avanti history page attributes a 170.81-mph American Class C closed-car supercharged record to the Gold Avanti, car No. 9, driven by Andy Granatelli. Treat that number as a reported record-car speed, not the top speed of a stock Avanti sold to customers. The cited history page does not by itself independently confirm the formal record category. Raymond Loewy/Avanti history
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The Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s catalog records Bonneville material in the Andy Granatelli Collection, including a note referring to 1963 record-run Avantis. That archival trail supports the context of a dedicated record program; it does not convert a prepared car’s run into a showroom performance figure. Smithsonian National Museum of American History collection catalog
Production performance and the R2
The supercharged R2 was part of Studebaker’s high-performance offering. The Studebaker National Museum’s account of the 1963 Gran Turismo Hawk describes the availability of the Avanti R2 supercharged engine as part of a broader performance package. That illustrates Studebaker’s engineering effort, but the Hawk is a different model and the account does not provide a head-to-head Avanti test or a production Avanti top-speed figure. Studebaker National Museum on the 1963 Gran Turismo Hawk
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Was it faster than a muscle car?
There is no useful single answer without naming the cars and defining “faster.” A fair comparison would need the model years, engines, equipment, and condition, plus the same measured result—such as 0–60 mph, quarter-mile time and trap speed, or top speed. It would also need to distinguish a factory R1 or R2 from a modified Bonneville record car.
The available sources document a notable supercharged record-car claim and the R2’s place in Studebaker’s performance lineup, but they do not supply a period road test comparing an Avanti with a named muscle car under matched conditions. So it is fair to call the Avanti an unusually ambitious high-performance American coupe; it is not established that it was faster than muscle cars as a class, or faster than any particular rival.
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What the speed story actually shows
- Studebaker pursued performance under pressure: the Avanti was commissioned while the company faced serious business concerns.
- Bonneville figures describe prepared cars: the reported 170.81-mph mark should not be presented as ordinary production-car performance.
- The R2 made the performance ambition tangible: Studebaker offered its supercharged engine beyond the Avanti, including in the 1963 Gran Turismo Hawk.
- A definitive muscle-car ranking remains unproven: the sources here do not establish a comparable period test against a named model.
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