Help me identify a FUGLY car.

Toronado Trofeo?

ebonyandivory said:

Gotta be an Avanti:
I really hope I’m right, I’ve never won any of these threads and this is my chance!

Thanks dude!!!

_ said:

ebonyandivory said:

Gotta be an Avanti:
I really hope I’m right, I’ve never won any of these threads and this is my chance!

Thanks dude!!!

Yaaaaaaaaay I won! Finally. I knew all this hard work would pay off one day. I’d like to thank my mom and dad. And I couldn’t have done this without you, the fans. You people make this all worth it. (Like me on Facebook and please buy my new tell-all book available at Barnes and Nobles and wherever books are sold.)

I'm glad we solved it, but I'm sad that people consider an Avanti ugly. I mean, it was styled by the guy that invented the Coke bottle as we know it (Raymond Loewy)

I immediately thought of the Aero coupe but the lights and grill didn't fit the description.

Avanti was a good call. Didn't even think of it. And yes, the Avanti us an ugly, ugly car.

I've never understood the attraction. There's not a single good line on that car.

Some things are (or should be) universally accepted. The new Civic, the grills on modern  toyotas, and Avantis.

They're all ugly in the extreme. 

The amusing part is the Avanti is a design from the early 60's, although production did continue via various owners in spurts until 2006.

I have an irrational desire for a Pontiac Aero Coupe.  I think it would be a fun car to resto-mod. 

My guess was the first Infiniti sedan, based on no grille and fugly.

They kinda look like an 80s Studebaker.

Avantis are so interesting looking.  Somewhere between hideous and awesome.  I wonder what they'd look like with fender flares, fat tires, a front splitter, etc. Hmmmm...

And this one's pretty neat

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2019/05/27/this-studebaker-avanti-eats-hellcats

The original Studebaker Avantis from 1963 were very nice, the later Avanti II cars not so much - I'm not sure just what they did to the body shape, but those later cars were sort of ungainly and ill-proportioned.

I don't think they are traditionally beautiful like, say, a '63 Buick Riviera, but they have some cool lines, especially considering it was designed in 40 days on a very limited budget. And I'm sure when it came out in 1963, it probably looked like a space ship, and certainly not what you would expect from Studebaker. I think Loewy's work on the '53/'54 Studebakers was better though.

In reply to _ :

Major problem, how can you associate the word Fugly with an Avanti!!!

In reply to Adrian_Thompson :

Celebrities I expected to endorse the Avanti: Not Ian Fleming. The "little more punch" bit is true, as some of these came with pretty stout supercharged Studebaker 289 engines. 

Yeah, even my wife thinks the Avanti is cool looking to the point that she asked me specifically about it when she saw one. Now the Lark, which I think it was based on, that could be seen as ugly...

I'd describe an Avanti as "striking" but not "pretty".

Avanti was the first car that came to mind for me and man are they fugly.  PS I actually like the Lexus and Toyota grills.

Aspen said:

Avanti was the first car that came to mind for me and man are they fugly.  PS I actually like the Lexus and Toyota grills.

Well, then, your aesthetic opinion is invalid.

I JEST.

Ever since I was a little kid, I have wanted to like Avantis but I could just never get there. I agree that there doesn't seem to be a single good line on the entire car. There were a bunch of great ideas, but none of them worked well with the others. I will concede that they are at least interesting, and I am always drawn to them when I see one.

My father wasn't really a car guy, but he always talked about Avantis.

But that interior though, especially in terms of 1963...

I like how Raymond Loewy redesigned and rebodied all of his personal cars, including a Jaguar XK140 and an E-type Jag. While I wouldn't consider the E-Type entirely successful and the XK140 was hideous, I do appreciate the mindset of a guy who buys 2 of the pretties cars to exist and goes "I can do better."

When I was a freshman in high school in the early 70's one of the seniors was this rich kid whose dad had lots of cool cars.  

Occasionally he got to take the supercharged Avanti to school.      

Dad stopped all that by buying him a '73 Firebird SD - that was the one with 300 hp, the most of any car that year and had the big decal on the hood.

Loewy's rebodied XK140:

Javelin said:

Mercury Lynx XR3?

I worked for a guy who had a Lynx RS, such a cool car.

NickD said:

I like how Raymond Loewy redesigned and rebodied all of his personal cars, including a Jaguar XK140 and an E-type Jag. While I wouldn't consider the E-Type entirely successful and the XK140 was hideous, I do appreciate the mindset of a guy who buys 2 of the pretties cars to exist and goes "I can do better."

Because he knew it:

Avanti’s are downright stunning when you compare them to Amphicars. 

So there’s that...

infinitenexus said:

Avantis are so interesting looking.  Somewhere between hideous and awesome.  I wonder what they'd look like with fender flares, fat tires, a front splitter, etc. Hmmmm...

 

And this one's pretty neat

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2019/05/27/this-studebaker-avanti-eats-hellcats

There's also an Avanti that raced the 24 Hours of Daytona. 

I love this photo: https://briancleary-bcpix.photoshelter.com/image/I0000Qdl0.9bzNrs

More info and pictures of the car: http://www.studebakerclubs.com/avanti/default.htm

ShawnG said:

NickD said:

I like how Raymond Loewy redesigned and rebodied all of his personal cars, including a Jaguar XK140 and an E-type Jag. While I wouldn't consider the E-Type entirely successful and the XK140 was hideous, I do appreciate the mindset of a guy who buys 2 of the pretties cars to exist and goes "I can do better."

Because he knew it:

You forgot his best work, the PRR T-1 Duplex (and, my god, a group is building a BRAND NEW OPERATIONAL T-1)

But, the XK140 that Duke posted above is pretty hopeless.

And while the E-Type isn't exactly vile, it's hard to say its an improvement over a normal E-Type. The front end styling isn't bad but it feels heavy and out of place on the rest of the lithe Jag body nad the weird Lexan roof spoiler is a little strange.