Speaking of old Stude folks...

George remembered Chris Banke's name, which I had forgotten. I assume he has since passed away. Does anybody remember Elmer Schweppenheiser (sp?) and whatever happened to him and his very original low mileage Avanti? I mentioned Bottjer Performance earlier, Walt was another purveyor of hi-po Stude parts years ago. My recollection is that he passed away, does anybody recall?

We had some reason to look up Walt this past spring. He was alive and well- had moved to a retirement community not too far from where he had lived for many years. He is just out of the hobby. Paul Johnson

I remember visiting Walt Bottjer at his home (Camden??) back in the late

1970's on one of my rare distance trips in the Avanti. A real hospital guy (and his wife) and a day well spent. He had a zillion mile '64 Avanti R1 in gray primer that he drove everywhere...

JT

Walt had a LOT of really cool speed goodies that he sold way back when...I still have one of his old "catalogs". Studebaker George

I probably last saw Shweppy in the late '80s. He used to come over to our chapter meets. I remember him making a big stink about Avanti skipping the 1986 model year. I said; how about Corvette for 1983? He was a used car dealer and big into Corvettes. He didn't believe me until he got his NADA book out of his car. Elmer had already sold that low mileage Avanti by that time. In fact, the guy that bought the Avanti from him (from NYC) bought a 1973 Laguna from me as a result of a conversation at that Studebaker meet. Several people bought new Avantis in 1973. It seems that several Studebaker dealers kept them for ten years. I last saw Walt B. at the 2005 SDC Atlantic Zone Meet. He was driing a 1987(?) ElCamino.