2001 Avanti

The Studebaker Avanti was introduced in 1963. Failing Studebaker discontinued it in 1964, but sold the rights to the design to the new Avanti Motor Corporation, which revived the sports car in 1965 as the Avanti II. The company maintained limited but profitable production into the 1980s. A new generation of Avanti was introduced, and the original Studebaker chassis was eventually abandoned for a newer, more modern Chevrolet chassis. Production continued until 1991, when the company went bankrupt. In the late 1990s, a new Avanti design based on the chassis of the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird was developed, and this new design was introduced to the public in 2001.

This was an entirely new design, with little in common with the previous Avanti except the basic styling. Shown here at the 2001 Chicago Auto Show, the new Avanti was available as either a T-Top Coupe or as a Convertible. With General Motors discontinuing the Camaro and the Firebird after 2002, few of this generation of Avanti were ultimately built, and a new design based on the Ford Mustang was introduced in 2004.