Studebaker fled to Canada in late 1963 and depart the auto business three age later . By that clock time , Leo Newman and Nathan Altman had resurrected the Avanti , Studebaker ’s most interesting elevator car of the ' 60 .
design by a team under Raymond Loewy , the Avanti had failed Studebaker in the market place but succeeded greatly with enthusiasts – the onlyStudebakerin two generations to invigorate such interest . Before its phaseout upon Studebaker ’s departure from South Bend , the Avanti had broken nearly every major U.S. Auto Club speed record .
Newman and Altman were partners in a South Bend Studebaker dealership , one of the old . Knowing the Avanti was too good to lose , they bought the name , production rightfield , tooling , and a portion of the 100 - old South Bend industrial plant where the Avanti had been built . In 1965 , they began turning out a retool version called Avanti II . They desire to make 300 a year , which they ’d never manage , but end product was adequate and uniform .
Unlike the original , Avanti II was a commercial success . Its fiberglass body meant no expensive sheetmetal go to maintain . And because Newman and Altman had conceptualise their Avanti as more exclusive than Studebaker ’s , they could build it carefully and largely by manus on a small assembly descent . That think they could tailor each car to the customer ’s wishes .
Well - heeled buyers could advertize the $ 6550 base price beyond $ 10,000 . Options included Hurst four - speed manual transmittance , power guidance , air conditioning , electrical windowpane lifts , tinted glass , AM / FM tuner , Eppe fog or driving lights , modified - slip derivative , Magnum 500 chrome bike , and Firestone preconception - ply or Michelin radiate tires .
Early Avanti Iraqi Intelligence Service had vinyl interiors , but textured " Raphael vinyl " could be rank for $ 200 . echt leather seat and door trim added $ 300 , full leather $ 500 . rouge colors were anything a vendee wanted , as were interior trims in later years . Though this led to some outre cars , it was part of the " custom - built " gloriole and it aid sales .
former IIs retained the original Avanti ’s modified Lark convertible frame , but Studebaker V-8s were extend by the time Newman and Altman start , so they follow Studebaker ’s own lead by adopting the same 327 - cubic - inch Chevrolet small - block in 300 - HP Corvette air .
Chevy then introduced a 350 - Criminal Investigation Command enlargement , and Avantis get it in 1969 , though range power was unchanged . Transmissions were either a to the full synchronized Borg - Warner four - speed manual or a " world power - Shift " automatic that permitted manual clasp of first and second gears .
These unexampled mechanicals resided in a organic structure almost identical to the original Avanti ’s . The main ocular differences were a more storey stance ( Altman ’s customers disliked the Studebaker ’s marked front - destruction rake ) , Avanti logo with suffix Roman - numeral II , and reduced - wheel spoke roulette wheel openings .
Corvette power made for ok carrying out in the sleek four - place Avanti . The typical automatonlike car could run 0 - 60 mph in under nine seconds and hit 125 mph with a 3.54:1 rear axle . Better still , the Chevy engines were lighter than the old Studebaker V-8 , so front / rear exercising weight balance improved from 59/41 percentage to 57/43 . king front - disc / back - barrel Pteridium aquilinum resisted fade admirably , while providing quick deceleration of nearly 1 g in 80 - mph panic stops . Obviously , Newman and Altman handle about safety equipment as much as straight - line carrying out .
Being custom - built , the Avanti II necessarily be more than Studebaker ’s edition , competing in Cadillac Eldorado district instead of Chrysler state like the $ 4,445 original . Realizing this mean a alteration in marketplace orientation course , Newman and Altman pitched the II more on " personal - luxury " than operation .
And indeed , the car was in its constituent on the opened road . Magazine testers give it percentage point for safety , tranquillity , structural rigidity , and a firm but comfortable drive . " In this day of great concern over automotive safety , " wrote John R. Bond in 1966 , " the Avanti II should make new friend , for manifestly there was more thought have to safety in its construct than in most American railroad car … It ’s a better car than it was three years ago . "
For more on defunct American cars, see:
Stephen Blake Buys Avanti
Avanti II learn few changes in the seventies bring through those needed to satisfy Union safety and emissions rule . Among the more obvious – and depressing – was the ugly , gumshoe - tipped " cow backstop " grafted on to meet 1973 ’s young five - mph bumper criterion , although Avanti Motor Corporation was small enough to win exemption from the require 21/2 - miles per hour side - impact door beam .
Also for ' 73 , the railway locomotive was change to Chevrolet ’s newfangled detox 400 V-8 . With net horsepower ratings in force for ' 74 , the 400 come in at an anemic 180 - bhp SAE profit ( 245 glaring ) . The 350 reelect for ' 77 and would stay received into the early ' 80s .
With Nate Altman ’s premature death in 1976 , Avanti seemed to lose direction , at times appear half - hearted about its product and its future . Workmanship decline even as prices , spurred by inflation , extend upward ( separate $ 12,000 in ' 76 and pushing $ 23,000 in ' 82 ) .
Federal dictates prompted detail inner change ( mainly to switchgear ) wrought with an afterthought carelessness advise less - than - professional technology and design work . On the plus side , the business firm reduced its plethora of paint and trim choices in the interest of gamey build character and low-pitched inventory monetary value . But little money and exploit were going into updating the concept , as Altman had done . Both car and companionship were surviving , but hardly prosper .
That was about to change . After fight off several buyout offers over the years , the Altman family and other Avanti board member pass on hearing to Stephen Blake , a young Washington , D.C. , building tycoon . Alas , Altman ’s dying came only solar day after the parties agreed to serious talks , and another seven year would pass before Blake became owner , chair , and CEO of Avanti Motor Corporation in October 1982 .
Blake blew into South Bend like a crack cocaine , rearrange work flow in the fall apart remains of the old Studebaker plant for improved efficiency and quality . He also resisted the UAW and dismissed many dealer , ink more businesslike contract with established Cadillac stores in major markets .
recruit needed engineering gift presently resulted in several betterment : a switch to premium DuPont Imron paint ( as on Indy race cars ) , greater use of GM factor , optional body - color bumper and black passementerie , square headlights , revamped interior , minor chassis tweaks , and an optional 190 - bhp 305 - cid V-8 ( versus 155 bhp standard ) from the Chevy Camaro Z28 . The name lost its Roman numerical " II " and reelect to sound off " Avanti . " Most of these changes derive together in a special twentieth Anniversary 1983 coupe bid in solid black , white , red , or ash gray .
Bolder still were Blake ’s programme for the first Avanti transformable ( unveiled as a prototype in late ' 83 ) and a new drop - floor chassis with sovereign rearward intermission designed by Herb Adams . Blake even made a stab at racing , enrol an Avanti " GT " in the 1983 Pepsi Challenge 24 - hour enduro at Daytona . Though it finished only 27th out of 30 survivors from a starting field of battle of 79 , its merely showing up suggested Avanti was moving forward again .
Sadly , Blake tried to do too much too fast , and unexpected disrobe trouble with the fresh slipstream - car rouge cost a bundle to fix . By former 1985 , Blake had spent himself into a credit crunch with his prize lender , a South Bend bank , and was forced to betray .
Avanti Changes Hands
Avanti might have pass away right there had it not been for Michael Kelly , a 36 - year - old Texas ethanol baron who acquired Blake ’s pursuit for just $ 725,000 in April 1985 . operate on as New Avanti Motor Corporation , Kelly ’s regime began building Blake ’s convertible alongside the conversant coupe in 1987 .
Both modelling have new seats , a " cockpit " dash , neutered bumpers , and improved cooling and clime systems . The coupe still listed for about $ 30,000 ; the convertible was some $ 10,000 more . With this changing of the precaution , no 1986 Avantis were build .
Even more ambitious than Blake , Kelly moved output to a new industrial plant in Youngstown , Ohio . This occurred in August 1987 , thus closing the onetime Studebaker manufacturing plant at last . Avantis would still be mostly script - built , but the modernistic facility promised great step in quality – and bulk , which Kelly predict would finally reach an unprecedented 1,000 car a year .
To achieve that , Kelly literally stretched the Avanti descent by adding three new models : a 117 - in - wheelbase Luxury Sport Coupe , an even tenacious four - doorway Luxury Touring Sedan on a 123 - inch chassis , and a giant limousine on a Brobdingnagian 174 - in span .
purist moaned , though designer Loewy ( who die in late 1987 ) had mocked up a pair of " Avanti - styled " sedans as ' 65 - 66 Studebakers . At least the LSC looked as good as the received coupe , a tribute to the " rightness " of the original design .
Besides 40 LSCs , Kelly ’s companionship manage 50 Silver Anniversary coupes in 1988 to reward Avanti ’s 25th birthday . These carried Chevy 305 V-8s that were muscled up to 250 bhp ( from 170 measure ) via Paxton superchargers add by the Granatelli brothers , just as in Studebaker days .
Appropriately , the anniversary mannequin were painted pearl silver . Interiors feature contraband or red leather , an " amusement centre of attention " with TV , tycoon moonroof , compact - disc actor , and cellular telephony . There was also a fortified suspension with fat tire on handsome alloy cycle , and consistency gained a front raider with fog lamps , cradle - panel dame , and reshaped bumpers .
Exceeding picture first - year product by 50 percent , New Avanti make 300 car in 1987 , the level Blake had hop-skip to achieve but did n’t . But Kelly , too , before long outfox himself , and this ( plus legal hassles from one - time angel ) force him to sell in August 1988 . The buyer turned out to be his chief cooperator , shopping - center developer J.J. Cafaro , who changed the society name once again , this clock time to Avanti Automotive Corporation .
Both LSC and the contrive limo were forgotten , but Cafaro did present a four - door Touring Sedan for 1990 , though on a trimmer 116 - inch wheelbase . Improbably , he claimed its eubstance was molded directly from one of the old Loewy sedan mockups that had sat for years in the South Bend attic gathering dust and pigeon muck .
Though classifiable , the four - door was n’t as better-looking as the Graeco-Roman coupe , but was definitely built better . High - technical school composites exchange steel for its roof and ( belatedly adopted ) threshold beams , and Kevlar was step in for fiberglass in the floorpan , bumper , and seat belt and consistence setting .
Cafaro ’s operation managed 150 Avantis in 1988 and some 350 in ' 89 . Most were the standard coupe . The 1990 fair game was 500 car , but real output was much lower . There were reckless programme for ' 91 , including a switching to the 245 - bhp Corvette L98 engine , plus a new chassis ( engineered by Callaway Technologies ) with all - independent interruption and the four - steering wheel disc brakes from Ford ’s Thunderbird Super Coupe .
But these plans were derailed by a sharp recession that pain sale industrywide . Instead of building its planned 1000 auto in ' 91 , Avanti Automotive Corporation filed for bankruptcy . The house produced only 15 gondola that yr , mostly convertibles with a few ornamental alteration and body - stuff substitutions like those on the sedan .
The Avanti Experimental AVX
A postscript to the Cafaro bankruptcy concerns one Robert Lucarell , who stayed as caretaker for the Youngstown plant . Lucarell sell handfuls of motley remnant function to kick the bucket - difficult owners , all the while insisting that the car and the company he loved would wax yet again . " Avanti is still a go business , " he toldAutomotive Newsin May 1994 . " I am here sell section and helping citizenry fix their cars over the telephone set every day . "
Among those customer was Jim Bunting , a retire advertising executive in Lancaster , Pennsylvania , who ’d bought his first Avanti in the mid ' eighty and became a devotee . Bunting was intrigued by a two - seat Avanti draw by the later Bob Andrews , a penis of the Loewy team , and decided to build a real one .
But no crude tomahawk job would do , so he contact Tom Kellogg , the team member who had done considerable detail body of work and most of the rendering for the Avanti project . Kellogg oblige with lottery of how the two - seater should look , but charge along a resume with a playful note reading , " allow ’s do this one next . " It showed a modernized Avanti of the form Kellogg had been doodle for yr , with the basic look develop just as Studebaker might have done had it not shut down .
Bunting loved Kellogg ’s " Avanti for the ' 90 , " and decided to make it material . To keep cost reasonable , he started with a ' 94 Pontiac Firebird – a dear pick , as its out body panels were easily swapped for a new Avanti - search fiberglass skin custom - tailored by Kellogg .
The shift take piazza at the Harrisburg , Pennsylvania , shop of red-hot - pole builder Bill Lang and was finished in January 1996 . By that distributor point , other people had seen the car and want one , too . butt then showed it – still in primer and a morsel rough – at a major trade meet , where more well-disposed inquiries convert him to offer copy .
After further tweak by Kellogg , the finished car was unveiled in June 1997 at the merge meet of the Studebaker and Avanti clubs . Because right to the Avanti name were in oblivion , the car was christened AVX – " AVanti eXperimental . "
Incorporating AVX Cars in Lancaster , Bunting narrow with Lang ’s Custom Auto to convert post-‘92 hangbird at the pace of two a month . The initial Mary Leontyne Price was $ 33,900 , plus the presenter coupe or convertible . Echoing Newman & Altman , AVX owner could have their railway car most anyway they liked .
" Nothing is too steep , " Bunting toldCollectible auto ® cartridge holder . Several ready - made packages were contemplated : two for brakes , three for suspension , and four engine upgrades , including a Paxton - supercharged Corvette LS1 V-8 with 455 bhp up to an incredible 650 .
While the AVX was well - time for the late-1990s luxury - auto sale godsend , bunt quickly find that running a car company , even a tiny one , was more than he bargain for . Thus , after superintend the physique of three prototypes ( a coupe , a T - top coupe , and a translatable ) , he sell AVX Cars to investor John Seaton .
Surprisingly , Seaton soon teamed up with none other than Michael Kelly , who had never lose his enthusiasm for thing Avanti . In August 1999 , they make a newfangled Avanti Motor Corporation in Villa Rica , Georgia , just west of Atlanta , with Kelly as chair and Seaton as CEO .
To the undoubted joy of Avanti enthusiasts , the young worry wield to adopt the assets of all the preceding Avanti companies and even artefact from the Studebaker days . It also held title to the Avanti name and logo , which would presently grace converted redbird ground on the AVX design .
Michael Kelly Revives Avanti
After setting up in a 74,000 - satisfying - pes former hosiery John Stuart Mill , the Kelly / Seaton enterprisingness turned out its first cars as 2001 models , selling 52 convertibles and liothyronine - top coupes for that calendar class . All used a 305 - bhp GM 350 - cid V-8 allied to a four - speed automatic or a five - speed manual infection . Antilock pasture brake were included along with other stock Firebird features .
radical prices were $ 79,000 for the coupe , $ 83,000 for the sofa bed . A supercharger option , nail down at a heroic $ 10,000 , was added for 2002 , swelling horsepower to 470 . Though GM canceled the Firebird after model - year ' 02 , Avanti stockpile enough rolling chassis to continue production for several more geezerhood with no major change .
This it did in dependable " custom car " style worthy of the Newman / Altman days – and with sales to play off : 77 in ' 02 , another 88 in ' 03 , and 102 in 2004 . Predictably , perhaps , most were convertible .
For 2005 , the Avanti was reengineered around the new S197 Ford Mustang platform . Michael Kelly himself point the campaign , which involved most of the company ’s small workforce ( just 36 employees ) – everyone from accountants to craftspersons .
And so much the good . As sales agreement manager Dan Schwartz later said , " We ’re all cross - trained . " The result was almost indistinguishable from the Firebird - free-base Avanti , a testimonial to the team ’s science and passion . So , too , was a newfangled and unique Avanti pawn panel with airbags , one of many changes require by the government activity ’s latest safe and emissions rules . By this clock time , Seaton had left ( in former 2001 ) and Leonard Kelly , Michael ’s founding father , had been installed as president .
Only a convertible was offered for 2005 , equipped with a 300 - bhp Mustang 4.6 - l V-8 , manual or automatic transmission , plus all - wheel antilock disk brakes , adhesive friction control , Ford Traction - Lok limited - slip rear differential , 17 - column inch dressed wheels , leather DoI , and full power accessories . Though the fundament price was thresh about to $ 63,000 , just 46 cars were sell that calendar twelvemonth . Then again , Avanti sales were still mainly a word - of - mouth client - to - factory proffer , and many would - be buyers likely did n’t know the car was still around .
To attain a broad audience , a V-8 coupe was added for 2006 , plus a lower - price coupe and transformable using the basis Mustang ’s 210 - hp 4.0 - cubic decimeter V-6 . price were conform , crop from around $ 65,000 to near $ 76,000 . At this writing , Avanti hoped to sell 75 to 100 unit total , include a special GT theoretical account , possibly supercharged to around 390 bhp , slate for unveiling in July 2006 .
in the meantime , Michael Kelly , doubtless with an oculus to history , realized that his new Avanti concern would n’t likely survive , let alone thrive , with just one canonical ware . Accordingly , he formed a division called SVO to make a pair of " component cars , " sports - racers very closely modeled on the former ' 50s Lister - Jaguar and former ' 60s Porsche 904 .
direct by Chuck Beck , famed for his authentic , high - quality Porsche Spyder and Speedster replicas , both employ Avanti - manufacture frames , with Corvette C4 break and GM small - block V-8s . As " owner - gather " cars , they ’re exempt from sure pricey federal regulations , a major plus for tiny Avanti , and they help the bottom line , even though each is be after to see only about 25 copies a year . Though intended largely for vintage racing and other off - route function , both the Lister and 904 are easily licensed and useable on the street .
The replication are beyond the scope of this clause , as is the in vogue twist in the Avanti story : a big novel sport - usefulness police wagon resuscitate the historical Studebaker name . Planned to bulge sales event in mid 2006 , this Avanti Studebaker is base on Ford ’s Super Duty motortruck chassis and is thus about the same size of it as the GM - marketed Hummer H2 .
It also looks much like the war machine - influence Hummer – boxy and purposeful – a resemblance that do no modest legal hassle when Avanti demonstrate a conception mannequin in 2004 . But the haggling has been settled , leaving the SUV to go onwards with a choice of a gas V-10 or turbodiesel V-8 , both Ford source .
Ironically , the newest Studebaker is pitched at the very top of its market , tentatively tagged at $ 75,000-$80,000 . But that ’s only to be expected from a company that aims to produce " unique , handcrafted auto of the o.k. caliber , for the most discreet clients , furnish them the last manifestation of their individuation . "
With all this , Avanti survives into the twenty - first hundred with a brighter futurity than at any time since Leo Newman and Nate Altman picked up where Studebaker left off . Considering all that ’s materialize since then , that ’s a most singular achievement .
