John Ebstein, an industrial designer employed by Raymond Loewy 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 last month in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He was 92.
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 Corp. The radically styled, powerful sports coupe did not save the automaker 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.
John Ebstein was born in Stettin, Germany, in 1912 and began his architectural studies in Stuttgart, then fled the country by motorcycle with his possessions strapped to his back when Hitler assumed power in 1933. He continued his studies in Paris and Prague, where he earned an architectural degree. He immigrated to the United States in 1938 and joined Loewy Associates the same year.
Shortly after accompanying Loewy to the White House to discuss the Air Force One design with President John F. Kennedy in 1963, Ebstein resigned from Loewy’s group so he could spend more of his time on designing and less on administration. He joined Gabriel Industries as chief designer and patented many toys and sporting goods. He retired in 1977 when he reached 65, then continued designing for eight years as a consultant.