Avanti by Studebaker

Calling the Avanti "America's most advanced automobile" was a bit of advertising hype. The styling was certainly ahead of its time -- it still looks gorgeous today -- but mechanically it was based on the standard Lark chassis, just like the original Ford Mustang was based on the compact Falcon. After Studebaker folded in 1964, various companies made the Avanti as a low-volume specialty car until 1993, by which time the aging design could no longer keep up with federal safety regs.

I once owned such a beauty, an Avanti replica on a Corvette chassis and a huge Olds engine, with a seapine green metallic body and white leater seats. Whenever I parked that baby in downtown Zurich there was always immediately a bunch of guys standing around it. I once gave it to a friend of mine, and he couldn't find the light switches -- they were located in the center, above the windshield, and when you switched them on, all the control gauges were bathed in a juke box like soft red light.

those are neat cars. They went so fast that at high speed, you would have to roll up the windows so that the rear window wouldn't blow out due to the preasure.

Good footage...I have some old film clips and may try to post some of them later on..Thanks