John Ebstein, Designer, Dies at 92; Helped Streamline Sports Car
NY Times
John Ebstein, an industrial designer employed by Raymond Loewy, the “father of streamlining,” who led the team that created the Studebaker Avanti sports car and influenced the look of products including Lucky Strike cigarettes and Greyhound buses, died on Feb. 18 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He was 92.
The cause was a heart attack, his son, Peter, said.
Mr. Ebstein contributed to the design of space capsules, Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives and Air Force One, but his most notable achievement was supervising the team of young designers that in two weeks in 1961 created the Avanti for the Studebaker-Packard Corporation.
The radically styled, powerful sports coupe did not fulfill its intended purpose of saving its maker from financial collapse, but it became revered among automobile enthusiasts and design devotees as one of the world’s most consummate sports cars. It was built in the 1963 and 1964 model years.
The Avanti, which means “forward” in Italian, had a Coke-bottle shape, with a narrowing in the middle that inspired European racing cars for a generation. It could hold four passengers and had two doors, a long hood, a host trunk, an asymmetrical power bulge on the hood, virtually no chrome trim and no fins. The interior was inspired by aircraft flight decks, with numerous toggle switches on the console.
