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Coldwater, Michigan | Jody had nothing to do with the Avanti's, but I'm crowding 2 posts in effect into this one. Same area of the country and I had mentioned to Jody we had friends next door to him!
I want to give a SPECIAL THANKS to Jody Bateman from Hastings, Florida. Jody saw my post about going to Mayo's in Jacksonville, Florida for my wife. He was gracious enough to first wish us well, but then he said once we knew our schedule to call him and we could meet.
2nd week we were there Diane only had an afternoon appointment on Tuesday with the Dr at Mayo's. Our future SIL took her for the appointment and I left Tuesday morning for Hastings, FL from Jacksonville. Jody and I met and the rest of the day he took me in one potato farm after another and numerous sod farms. We discussed what was going on in the different ones as well as the different ways they were watering (in affect irrigating) the various crops. I was a bit late for most of the vegetable crops (or very early). The potato fields that had been harvested earlier had been seeded to Sorghum. I had commented on how they should apply nitrogen to bring the crop along. That was before Jody informed me it was a cover crop designed to hold the ridges in place with the root system so they could plant on the ridges. I hope I have that right!
We rode around the whole area into some other towns, etc. At some point in time we came into a town after being in the middle of nowhere for a bit. Jody turned into the fertilizer plant and I asked if we were back in Hastings. He said that we were, and I stated that I had seen the fertilizer buggy behind a certain tractor that was parked at the fertilizer plant. I had seen it while waiting for Jody to meet me earlier in the day.
On Thursday evening after we left Mayo's Diane and I drove to St Augustine to meet some friends for the evening. I had gone past their house on Tuesday when I met Jody. We enjoyed our meal at St Augustine, love that town! After we left the restaurant Steve (our friend) handed the keys to his car for me to drive. We were headed south to a place along the Ocean for drinks and relaxing. I believe the place is called "Salt Life". Anyway Steve's car was made as a concept car in 1998/1999. 3 of these cars were built, but only one of them was a convertible. Officially it was labeled "AVX" . So here I am tooling along in the only car in the world like this. Steve's wife Lark and my wife, Diane followed in our van laughing at the way men and women were reacting to what they heard and saw.
This car has a LT1 (?) Corvette engine in it that was blueprinted and putting out around 500 HP. Fiberglass body, throaty dual exhaust, some sneaky design cues from the 63 Studebaker Avanti, and convertible. The concept was one of the original Avanti designers did a "What would the Avanti look like in the 90's if it was still being made and had been updated along the way as most cars are".
So this is the car I was driving. It was lots of fun, the stares and comments were well worth the trip down Memory Lane. I am attaching a photo of Steve's car and an original from my 1963 Studebaker Avanti that my youngest daughter used at her wedding last summer. Lots of difference between the 2, but if you look closely you will see some of the hint's in the newer car.
Edited by Bill Moyer 7/20/2016 15:25
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 190.JPG (116KB - 107 downloads)
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Special Thanks to Jody Bateman (and attached Avanti's)
