Avanti Motors launches redesigned coupe and convertible models later this month, a company statement said.
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The 2006 line will use Ford technology and company president Leonard Kelly claimed the new models are the highest quality ever produced.
“The new 2006 Avanti is in the final prototype stage. We have taken a retrospective approach to the design of the vehicle and integrated many of the elements that made the Avanti so popular when it was introduced over 40 years ago,” Kelly told employees in an internal memorandum.
Avanti is continuing to build a national and international dealer network and says it will offer new versions “from a model that price sensitive individuals can enjoy to the most hi-performance Avanti ever built complete with supercharged engine, upgraded brakes, performance seating, tuned exhaust, and upgraded suspension components”.
After the announcement that Avanti Motor Corporation would be auctioned last year, plans for the sale were scrapped when prospective buyers reportedly could not secure funding.
An Avanti spokesperson said that the decision to sell the company was made because owner Michael Kelly was retiring.
When the buyers failed to secure funding earlier this year, the handful of company staff returned and, led by Kelly, began to redesign new models “by going back to the roots of Avanti and bringing the famed performance and design elements to the forefront once again, updating the motorcar for the 21st century with more power, higher performance and added elegance”.
Designed by the renowned Raymond Loewy, described by Avanti as “the art deco mind behind JFK’s Air Force One and the Coca-Cola bottle”, the original coupe was launched by Studebaker in 1963.
Its successors are now made by the Villa Rica, Georgia-based Avanti Motor Corporation which hand-builds under 150 cars a year.
