Born: 1964 Nationality: American
The Avanti marque started out as a coupé in fibreglass made by Studebaker in the US in 1962, designed by Raymond Loewy. Its styling and performance made it instantly popular. That original car had a 4.7-litre V8 engine of Studebaker's own design, outputting 240hp. Optional powerplants included a brace of 5-litre V8s with single or double superchargers. But after just two model years of production, Studebaker moved its car production to Canada, and stopped making the Avanti.
A pair of Studebaker dealers in South Bend, Indiana, decided to revive the model as a brand in its own right. Nate Altman and Leo Newman bought the rights to the car, along with all relevant tooling and parts, set up the Avanti Motor Corporation, and began production of a handcrafted custom-built vehicle. It was sold as the Avanti II, launching in 1965.
Despite having no dealers - and a car-building method which didn't use production lines, the company prospered. However, in 1980, with both original partners dead, it was sold by the families of the founders to enthusiast Steve Blake.
Initially his zeal, and passion for change, resulted in a growth in volumes and the conception of a race car and a convertible. But growth came at the price of poor quality management and after two years of bad reviews - 1983 and 1984 - demand plummeted. The company's assets were seized by creditors, and auctioned in 1986 to Michael Kelly, a local businessman.
Kelly's New Avanti Motor Corporation went on to produce the convertible concept and a new longer-wheelbase coupé - the LSC - at a new facility in Youngstown, Ohio, where the businessman had managed to get a city grant towards the project in return for providing jobs. A new investor, John Cafaro, also came on board. Again, build quality was dismissed as poor, and Kelly sold his shareholding to Cafaro in 1988.
The new owner of what was now the Avanti Automotive Corporation improved the build quality a year later, but was under threat by new US safety standards. After laying off most of his employees, Cafaro managed to get a two-year waiver from the regulations. He then introduced the four-door LTS in the latter half of 1989. It involved a new body of carbon fibre and Kevlar, on a Chevrolet Caprice chassis. Unfortunately, the Caprice was on runout by GM and the company commissioned a design and engineering project for a chassis of their own. This was delayed, and in 1991 the company was in disarray, its reputation and customers gone.
In 1998, another Avanti enthusiast - Jim Bunting - bought the assets of the former company. But, after building three prototypes, he sold on to one John Seaton, who formed a partnership with former owner Michael Kelly to form the Avanti Motor Corporation. From a plant in Villa Rica, Georgia, they produced their first "new Avanti" in late 2001. A month afterwards, Kelly bought out Seaton, and in 2003 he sold to an investor group which has since built some Avantis, expanded to a Special Vehicles Operation, and last year revived the Studebaker name with an SUV, the XUV.
A lawsuit with GM, who said the XUV was a copy of its Hummer, resulted in a delay in production. However, a 2005 Avanti convertible previewed last year was to be built on a Ford chassis and powered by the 4.6-litre engine from the Mustang. There's now a website, with a number of "under construction" segments.
BEST CAR: The mid-1970s Avanti II (above), for nostalgics of Avanti as an independent marque; the original Leowy Studebaker version, for purists
WORST CAR: 1983/84 models, under Blake
WEIRDEST CAR: An imaginative flying one in the Bugsport aliens comic
... - BRIAN BYRNE