Studebaker Avanti

The Studebaker Avanti is an automobile built by the American manufacturer Studebaker beginning in 1962, designed with a distinctive fiberglass body styled by a small team led by industrial designer Raymond Loewy in an unusually short development period, intended to reposition Studebaker as a builder of striking, sporty personal cars as the company's broader business declined. Notable for its avant-garde, aerodynamically influenced styling with no conventional front grille, and for supercharged engine options that gave it strong performance for the era, the Avanti nonetheless arrived too late and in too small numbers to reverse Studebaker's financial troubles, and the company ceased American automobile production in 1963. The Avanti name and body design were subsequently continued for years afterward by independent successor companies.