Avanti

[pcn1]

I do find myself liking the style of these.
They have a small following, but not held in great esteem by the classic car community.
However, something tells me if it was made in Italy and sported a Alfa Romeo badge, they would be more appreciated.

Opinions ?

[aeropilot]

pcn1 said:

I do find myself liking the style of these.
They have a small following, but not held in great esteem by the classic car community.
However, something tells me if it was made in Italy and sported a Alfa Romeo badge, they would be more appreciated.

Opinions ?

Advanced car for the day for the USA, and no doubt would have been a greater success had Studebaker survived for long enough, but with the firm going to the wall barely more than a year after the launch, its sort of why there are seen as a bit of a niche. I know there were several post closure re-incarnations of the car in following decades with limited success, but I have no idea what the spares situation is like for an original 62 or 63 car with so few made relatively speaking.

I remember seeing one at a US car show in the UK, but that was 25-30 years ago, and it had been a bit attacked with the '70's era mods, so not stock.
Not even many for sale in USA, only 8 in total on Hemmings at the moment, probably only 2 of them look decent, both around the US$50k mark, one is a supercharged one though.

[gt40steve]

pcn1 said:

I do find myself liking the style of these.
They have a small following, but not held in great esteem by the classic car community.
However, something tells me if it was made in Italy and sported a Alfa Romeo badge, they would be more appreciated.

Opinions ?

I wasn't aware of an Alfa Romeo connection. To me it is the Studebaker Avanti that got another lease of life, several times, when various people took over the rights. Hence badged just Avanti or Avanti ll.

Beaten to it by Aeropilot due to my leisurely typing!

[aeropilot]

gt40steve said:

pcn1 said:

I do find myself liking the style of these.
They have a small following, but not held in great esteem by the classic car community.
However, something tells me if it was made in Italy and sported a Alfa Romeo badge, they would be more appreciated.

Opinions ?

I wasn't aware of an Alfa Romeo connection.

There is no Alfa connection, I think the OP was saying its not appreciated because its a Studebaker, but if it had been designed and built by Alfa (insert other Italian make of your choice) then people would view it differently.

I was trying to say that, its more the fact that it was a too little too late project by Studebaker and the fact that there was barely more than a relatively (by US standards) few made before the company went to the wall means that there's not too many outside of the USA that are even aware of the car most likely.
While I guess the looks are a bit marmite to many, by all accounts they were not a bad car, but hard to find good ones. or hard to find at all.

[gt40steve]

aeropilot said:

gt40steve said:

pcn1 said:

I do find myself liking the style of these.
They have a small following, but not held in great esteem by the classic car community.
However, something tells me if it was made in Italy and sported a Alfa Romeo badge, they would be more appreciated.

Opinions ?

I wasn't aware of an Alfa Romeo connection.

There is no Alfa connection, I think the OP was saying its not appreciated because its a Studebaker, but if it had been designed and built by Alfa (insert other Italian make of your choice) then people would view it differently.

I was trying to say that, its more the fact that it was a too little too late project by Studebaker and the fact that there was barely more than a relatively (by US standards) few made before the company went to the wall means that there's not too many outside of the USA that are even aware of the car most likely.
While I guess the looks are a bit marmite to many, by all accounts they were not a bad car, but hard to find good ones. or hard to find at all.

Whoops, if only I had read it correctly !

[Lotobear]

...the illegitimate child of a Facel Vega and a Ford Corsair

[coppice]

I remember seeing one of these driving through the West Riding village I grew up in , sometime in the late Sixties .God knows who it was or where they were going- probably not the Miners' Welfare Club . It looked fantastic on roads sparsely populated with basket case old Anglias and A35s .

[forsure]

I remember seeing a white one, competing at the VSCC Pomeroy Trophy in the early sixties.

Not a great photo, but I was only about 8yrs old.

[spoodler]

I love the Avanti - the original Studebaker version was much advanced over many of its contemporaries. It was also one of the first production cars to introduce many of the innovations that we take for granted - a look into its history and development is well worthwhile. Given its age, independent suspension, superchargers and the like might not be what you'd expect of an American car - its spec' and performance read more like a sixties European GT car.
I love the Avanti, and have come close to buying one on a few occasions, but I will admit that it is one of the very few cars that my other half actively dislikes, purely on its looks... so one can only wonder what middle America made of it sixty five years ago.
If you like the Avanti, the Targa Tasmania videos on You Tube are worth a watch, there is a fantastic example on there that not only looks and sounds superb, but was also highly competitive.

And much like the original poster, I agree that given a more "thoroughbred" name, it would be viewed much differently.

[sidewinder500]

Designed by one of the all time great industrial designers, lots of innovative ideas, fiberglass body, reliable drivetrains (especially with Chevrolet engines), a little odd looking in a good way, what's not to like?

Agree with spoodler, these Tasmania vids are glorious.

Edited by sidewinder500 on Monday 17th February 19:50

[thegreenhell]

forsure said:

I remember seeing a white one, competing at the VSCC Pomeroy Trophy in the early sixties.

Not a great photo, but I was only about 8yrs old.

There's the Alfa Romeo connection. But which one is being overtaken?

Incidentally, there's an article about the Avanti in the latest issue of The Automobile magazine.

[Lincsls1]

I like it

[moffspeed]

The Avanti was designed by French-born Raymond Loewy.

A great 20th C designer responsible for various railroad locos, an update on the Coke bottle, Concorde’s interior and the livery of Air Force One.

He dabbled in car design, this was his take/update on a 1955 Jaguar XK 140 chassis. Certainly more contemporary, not sure you’d call it pretty …

[shirt]

pcn1 said:

I do find myself liking the style of these.
They have a small following, but not held in great esteem by the classic car community.
However, something tells me if it was made in Italy and sported a Alfa Romeo badge, they would be more appreciated.

Opinions ?

a good comparison would be the flavia zagato

https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/29332/lot/215/196...

Rarer than the avanti, proper Italian coachbuilt by a manufacturer who built things properly and had both a sporting and luxury pedigree. Equally overlooked

[moffspeed]

However don’t forget that Loewy also “did” a Lancia - the 1960 Flaminia Loraymo. Packed full of aero details to make an aero-functional but not particularly pretty car - in the same vein as the Costin Amigo.

Note the spoiler above the rear screen - surely a first…



3 years earlier he had built a prototype based on the BMW 507. With those flared wings and recessed headlights it looked more like the work of either Lotus or Matra in the 1960’s :



..and that BMW badge offset and tunnelled into the bonnet is so groovy.

Edited by moffspeed on Tuesday 18th February 01:42

[moffspeed]

..and I know there are those on PH who love a loco.

So the 1939 Pennsylvania Railroad Class S1, a gigantic duplex-driven loco clad in a Leowy-designed art deco body.

[wibble cb]

This one ‘lives’ near a garage I use for my frogeye, it’s a later 80’s version, it’s been there at least 15 years

[moffspeed]

wibble cb said:

This one ‘lives’ near a garage I use for my frogeye, it’s a later 80’s version, it’s been there at least 15 years

From this side of the fence my first impression would be a car from 2 decades later - the 1985 Mustang GT.

Not sure that Loewry would consider that a compliment though….

[coppice]

Loewy . No matchstick men content (yes it's Lowry, but close )

[alabbasi]

A friend of mine who's in his 80's has been hankering after one of these recently. I think that they're good looking cars. They are somewhat under appreciated because the parts are harder to find and the company went bust 60 years ago after only two years of production for that model. Like Jensen, they made a few comebacks under different ownership but couldn't pull it off. Nobody can other than Morgan.