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Avanti: The Complete Story

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description: Avanti is Italian for “forward” or ‘advance,” and the car lived up to its name. This book tells the amazing story from the Avanti inception in South Bend, Indiana, to its current status in Cancun, Mexico. Many original source documents, factory photographs, corporate records, advertisements and first hand accounts trace the evolution of this American classic. The Avanti design was conceived by one of the greatest industrial designers Raymond Loewy and his associates for Studebaker. The Avanti was Studebakers shining star for a brief period of time (1963-1964 models years) before the company exited the automobile manufacturing business in the United States in December of 1963. The Avanti exhibited phoenix like traits a number of times since and has gone through more than a handful of owners along with updates in design, maintaining a loyal customer base large enough to support production as a luxury specialty car on and off for more than 45 years. Get the full scoop on the companies and people who helped keep Avanti alive.

Customer Reviews

 
Avanti book
Reviewer: D. George (Fruita, CO), Date of review: August 31, 2009
Avg. Customer Rating: 5 Stars
My product was exactly what I was looking for, as it was a gift for my father. He absolutely loved it! Where I live, we only have shopping at one mall so my choices are somewhat limited. Thank goodness there is Amazon.com to aide in finding just the right gift!
Doesnn't live up to the title
Reviewer: Darren B. O'Connor (Norfolk, Virginia United States), Date of review: April 23, 2009
Avg. Customer Rating: 3 Stars

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

I currently own two Avantis, an original 1963 Studebaker, and a 1975 Avanti II built by Nathan Altman's Avanti Motor Corporation. I am also a member of the Avanti Owners Association. So needless to say, I have quite an interest in these cars. I've always found the Avanti to be a fascinating automobile (which is why I bought this book, sight unseen). It was a last-ditch attempt by the financially struggling Studebaker corporation to build an exciting, high performance vehicle that would lure buyers into showrooms. The car, despite being a lash up of existing parts that Studebaker had in its inventory (there was no money to develop something completely new), offered real performance, being faster than anything on the road at the time except the Corvette Stingray and Jaguar E Type (apart from super expensive exotic cars that no one but the really wealthy could afford). It also offered safety features like a padded dash, roll bar, and standard front disk brakes (the first ever in an American production car). All this was presented to the public in a uniquely styled vehicle that still looks modern almost half a century later.

The car might have succeeded in its purpose too but for various production bottlenecks that created long delays after the car was introduced to the public. This resulted in many impatient buyers canceling their orders. Then, when Studebaker CEO Sherwood Egbert, who was the driving force behind the car's creation, had to step down as he battled terminal cancer, the car lost its chief advocate in a company whose board was already looking at divesting itself of its ailing automotive division. Thus, after only just over 4600 vehicles were made, the Avanti was out of production, and that should have been it. But Studebaker dealers Nathan Altman and Leo Newman, who had fallen in love with the car, couldn't bear to see it come to such an ignominious end, and after failing to interest other makers, such as American Motors, and even Checker, in taking up production, decided to produce the car themselves. Accordingly, they bought the rights to use the Avanti name, a large inventory of unused parts, all the tooling necessary to continue making the car (apart from the engines, which would be sourced from Chevrolet), and two of the Studebaker factory buildings. They then hired former Studebaker engineer Gene Hardig (who had turned Raymond Loewy's design -- or his team's actually -- into an actual production car), and a crew of mostly former Studebaker employees, and continued to produce the Avanti as a limited production, hand-built car, making about a hundred vehicles a year.

After Altman's death, Steve Blake, Michael Kelly, and J.J. Cafaro, and then Steve Blake again, ran the company, but never with the success that Altman did.

Now... you really don't need to buy the book. The text doesn't go into a great deal more detail than I just did, and where it does, unfortunately, it does from the story of the Avanti II onward, and this, to me, is the book's most serious failing. If, like me, you are more interested in the original Studebaker car, and its history, you will be sorely disappointed. The author goes into surprisingly little detail about the car's origins at Studebaker, and its production history with that company. For a book that bills itself as "The Complete Story" of the Avanti, this is really an inexcusable omission.

The book offers some interesting details, and some great photos, especially of the prototypes, but it really ought to have a lot more text, especially about the Studebaker chapter of the story.
Mark's Picks
Reviewer: Mark Carson (Vancouver Canada), Date of review: August 31, 2008
Avg. Customer Rating: 5 Stars
Once again even though you think you know everything about the Avanti something comes along to enlighten you. The reader will be left with hope that the Avanti will rise once again from the ashes.
Once again the book arrived in perfect condition.
An American ICON...
Reviewer: GRH "Ex WHA Jet" (British Columbia), Date of review: August 20, 2008
Avg. Customer Rating: 5 Stars

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

The Studebaker Avanti ranks right up there with the All Time Great American automobile designs, like the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette split window coupe, the 1963 Buick Riviera, and the 1961 Lincoln Continental.
This book chronicles the creation of the car that should have saved Studebaker, right to the bitter end when the Avanti name was unfortuately placed on rebodied Chevrolet Camaros and Pontiac Firebirds. One has to wonder what might have been if Studebaker had survived. Alas, the Avanti was too far ahead of it's time, in terms of it's futuristic yet classic styling
Best single book on Avanti cars
Reviewer: Dr. Doodle (Washington State), Date of review: June 26, 2008
Avg. Customer Rating: 5 Stars
If you are into Avanti cars, this is a must have book. It covers from the original Studebaker through the Avanti IIs through the years and still being built today - well sort of.