Early Avanti IIs had Vinyl Interiors

Planned to start sale in mid 2006, this Avanti Studebaker is based on Ford’s Super Duty truck chassis and is thus about the same size as the GM-marketed Hummer H2. Considering all that’s happened since then, that’s a most remarkable achievement. Ironically, the newest Studebaker is pitched at the very top of its market, tentatively tagged at $75,000-$80,000. With all this, Avanti survives into the twenty-first century with a brighter future than at any time since Leo Newman and Nate Altman picked up where Studebaker left off. It also looks much like the military-influenced Hummer — boxy and purposeful — a resemblance that caused no small legal hassle when Avanti showed a concept model in 2004. But the wrangling has been settled, leaving the SUV to go forward with a choice of a gasoline V-10 or turbo­diesel V-8, both Ford sourced.

It also held title to the Avanti name and logo, which would soon grace converted Firebirds based on the AVX design. After setting up in a 74,000-square-foot former hosiery mill, the Kelly/Seaton enterprise turned out its first cars as 2001 models, selling 52 convertibles and T-top coupes for that calendar year. A supercharger option, pegged at a heroic $10,000, was added for 2002, swelling horsepower to 470. Though GM canceled the Firebird after model-year ’02, Avanti stockpiled enough rolling chassis to continue production for several more years with no major change. Antilock brakes were included along with other stock Firebird features. Base prices were $79,000 for the coupe, $83,000 for the convertible. All used a 305-bhp GM 350-cid V-8 allied to a four-speed automatic or a five-speed manual transmission.

This it did in true “custom car” fashion worthy of the Newman/Altman days — and with sales to match: 77 in ’02, another 88 in ’03, and 102 in 2004. Predictably, perhaps, most were convertibles. For 2005, the Avanti was reengineered around the new S197 Ford Mustang platform. And so much the better. As sales manager Dan Schwartz later said, “We’re all cross-trained.” The result was almost indistinguishable from the Firebird-based Avanti, a tribute to the team’s skill and passion. Michael Kelly himself headed the effort, which involved most of the company’s small workforce (just 36 employees) — everyone from accountants to craftspersons.

Cafaro’s operation managed 150 Avantis in 1988 and some 350 in ’89. But these plans were derailed by a sharp recession that hurt sales industrywide. Instead of building its planned 1000 cars in ’91, Avanti Automotive Corporation filed for bankruptcy. There were heady plans for ’91, including a switch to the 245-bhp Corvette L98 engine, plus a new chassis (engineered by Callaway Technologies) with all-independent suspension and the four-wheel disc brakes from Ford’s Thunderbird Super Coupe. Most were the standard coupe. The 1990 target was 500 cars, but actual output was much lower. The firm produced only 15 cars that year, mostly convertibles with a few cosmetic changes and body-material substitutions like those on the sedan.

This occurred in August 1987, thus closing the old Studebaker factory at last. To achieve that, Kelly literally stretched the Avanti line by adding three new models: a 117-inch-wheelbase Luxury Sport Coupe, an even longer four-door Luxury Touring Sedan on a 123-inch chassis, and a jumbo limousine on a huge 174-inch span. Avantis would still be mostly hand-built, but the modern facilities promised great strides in quality — and volume, which Kelly predicted would eventually reach an unprecedented 1,000 cars a year.