AvantiII.
A lifetime of adventures. One extraordinary Studebaker collection.
OWNER LORNA VENEMA
The car. The memories.
A lifetime of collecting Studebakers, told through one extraordinary Australian garage.
Lorna Venema has a stunning collection of Studebakers. Lorna loves riding on the back of her son’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Lorna is 83 years old and still drives her 1974 Avanti II with a factory Chevy 400 small block V8 into town in to do the shopping.
Lorna is quietly spoken, has kind eyes a warm smile and giggles like a teenager. We chat and she attempts to fill me with sugar. “Everyone that comes to visit gets some tea and some cake or a biscuit.”
We start wandering through Lorna’s immaculately maintained Studebaker collection. “There are over 40 years of memories here,” Lorna tells me. Lorna offers stories and details of every car we pass, most of which bring a smile to her face and a laugh to the room. We walk towards the first car that her and her late husband, John, bought while on a trip to the US.
She motions to a ‘57 convertible. “We brought it from a wrecking yard outside of South Bend, Indiana in 1967. Ed Reynolds - he had the big Studebaker yard in South Bend, lent us his big old pick-up truck and we hired a trailer. We had to drag that through the desert.”
It was the first of many adventures Lorna had with John buying Studebakers. “He used to sing; ‘Travelling over the country side – looking for Studebakers,’” (sung to the tune of the Leyland brothers).
Retromotive members
Keep reading Lorna’s Avanti II story
The rest of this article is for Retromotive members. Unlock this story on its own, subscribe to read everything, or log in if you already have access.
