It was no secret that in the early 1960s, Studebaker was up against the ropes. Financial troubles that began years earlier led to a dubious merger with Packard, and the failure of that relationship left the company reeling. The product line consisted of good quality, economical cars that did not offer much in the way of excitement. What Studebaker needed was a stylish halo model to drive traffic into the showrooms, yet budgets were tight. Newly appointed company president Sherwood Egbert had the idea for a sporty personal car to compete against the likes of the Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Thunderbird. A sporty new car could boost their rather staid and conservative product line. He doodled out his idea for a four seat personal car while on a flight from South Bend to California to meet with his design team, led by Raymond Loewy. At the meeting, Egbert shared his plan and charged the designers with the task of creating an image booster for Studebaker, giving them a virtually impossible timeline with which to do it in. After just eight days of feverish work by Loewy, Tom Kellogg, John Ebstein, and Bob Andrews, the team produced a two sided clay model, one side featuring a four seat design, the other a two seater. Company brass settled on the four seater, and the styling team refined the concept for production. To power the new car, now named Avanti, engineers used the 289 cubic inch V8 and reinforced chassis from the Lark Daytona convertible.