FROM THE PRESIDENT
A
re you having a FUN Summer? If you went to
Charlotte for the International Meet, then you
got your summer off to a great start. If you
missed the national meet, plan now to attend the 2005 In-
ternational Convention in Orlando, Fla., hosted by the
John Ebstein Florida Chapter.
The amount of generosity and trust within our associa-
tion is truly amazing. Since my Avanti was still apart,
Mike Hamang let me drive his 1978 Silver Avanti to Char-
lotte. It ran great and made
some incredible times at the
Mooresville Dragway even
though it had 150,000 miles on
it. I’ve heard stories of AOAI
members letting other mem-
bers drive their Avanti to
meets or just around town
when their Avanti was in the
shop. Even some of our ven-
dors send parts to customers
before the payment is re-
ceived so we can keep our
cars running. These are attri-
butes of a Great Association.
International Meet: It was
great to see everyone, meet
many new people and renew
friendships. The week was
packed with lots of excitement. The 2005 Avanti Calendar
was debuted and it was a hot seller. Thanks to Dale and
Norma Sexton, Jeff Grohs, Joe Dolezal, Roland Vardon,
Paul Regna, Lew Schucart and others for manning our ta-
ble.
During the board meeting on Tuesday, we chartered the
Long Island Chapter. Congratulations to those members
and especially Frank Antoniello, Bruce Kaplan, and Bill
Reich for stepping forward to make this happen. Chapter
Coordinator Don Jones was delighted to help them
achieve this milestone. Mike Klein, from Plano, Texas is
planning to start a Texas chapter.
The Chapter President’s luncheon was held on Wednes-
day with representation from the following chapters: Ari-
zona, Avanti Limited, Canadian, Chicagoland, Indiana,
John Ebstein, Gateway, and Raymond Loewy. There was
great fellowship and interest in getting Chapter websites
transferred to the AOAI web site. Contact Lew Schucart
to learn how.
The concourse was loaded with 80 plus Avantis. It was
incredible to see all these near perfect Avantis. The judg-
es had a long day and some hard decisions to make. Dick
Vaux had his fully restored Turquoise 1964 Avanti. A true
original survivor, Jim Baucom’s Gold Avanti came out of
hiding with only 19,090 miles. I took plenty of pictures of
this beauty to help with the final restoration of my gold
Avanti.
4
AVANTI Magazine
The AOAI banquet dinner was delicious. National rec-
ognition awards were presented. A Lifetime Achievement
Award was presented to John Ebstein of Palm Beach, Fla.,
who is the sole surviving member of the original
Studebaker Avanti design team. Carl Doughty of Palm
Bay, Fla., and Gary Croletto of Angels Camp, Calif., re-
ceived the first Distinguished Member Award for their
contribution to their community and the promotion of the
Avanti. Best Chapter Newsletter awards were presented
to Canadian, Avanti
Limited (Avanti An-
tics), and the Florida
chapter’s Florida
Avanti News.
Thanks to Steve
Montgomery for ar-
ranging a wonderful
evening with Laurence
Loewy, who shared
memories of her father,
Raymond Loewy. She
narrated stories to
some never seen before
photographs. After-
wards, Laurence signed
the 2005 Avanti calen-
dar for members. Spe-
cial door prizes includ-
ed signed Laurence Loewy event posters. Avanti Motor
Corporation, once again, donated an Avanti timeline post-
er, which was given to the long distance Avanti driver.
In June, we reached a milestone of 2000 members!
Thanks to everyone who keeps spreading the word about
our great association. Ten new people joined our associa-
tion during the annual meet, with an average of 26 people
joining every month. Keith Phildius, our Promotions/
Marketing Chairman and board member, has sent a press
release to the media sharing the good news about our as-
sociation. Just this weekend, two more people joined the
association for the first time, and more have since joined
through website.
Speaking of websites, have you seen the enhancements
to our aoai.org site? Thanks to Jeff Grohs for updating the
officer and chapter information. Plus, he created an
Avanti Events page to list what’s happening. Just click on
the map. We’ve opened our club store on the internet
thanks to Lew Schucart! You can purchase the new 2005
Avanti calendar, and old meet dash plaques among other
things. Most importantly, you can renew your member-
ship or tell people to join AOAI online. Plus, you can reg-
ister for the 2005 “FUN in the Sun!” International Con-
vention. Shortly, we will have Avanti Magazine back
issues available too.
Did you get my e-mail message in late June summariz-
See BAKER, Page 6
Summer/Fall 2004 Issue 127