Word: avanti
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...models from Detroit. Sports cars, once a European specialty, are sprouting in the American lines. Oldsmobile's is a coupe called Jetfire, with bucket seats in front and a turbosupercharged high-compression engine capable of delivering 215 horses (price: $3,039). Stude-baker's new Avanti (TIME, April 13) is a rakish restyling from inside out designed to narrow still further the gap between the family sedan and the gran turismo...
...barreled down the test track at the company's South Bend plant one day last week in a sleek sports coupe, the likes of which no U.S. motorist has ever seen. Still shrouded in deep corporate secrecy, the new car was nonetheless already the talk of Detroit. Christened Avanti (Italian for "Forward"), it is finless, aerodynamically clean, and fast; it may well prove the most talked-of car turned out by any U.S. automaker since Ford Motor Co. introduced its first Thunderbird...
...Avanti is harddriving, flamboyant Sherwood Egbert's own brainchild. Ever since he took over faltering Studebaker-Packard in February 1961, Egbert has been painfully aware that the company badly needs some avanti pointing. Stuck with his predecessors' designs, Egbert saw Studebaker sell only a paltry 72,155 cars last year, managed to turn a $3.1 million loss into a $2.5 million profit only by selling off the company's plastics division to Monsanto...
...Power Look. The Avanti, says Designer Loewy, "looks power." Its sloping, grill-less hood bears only single, recessed headlights, a single bar bumper, and a low-slung air scoop. Its high, rounded rump tucks under at the bottom like that of a rabbit in full flight and the waist of the car is slightly indented in Coke-bottle fashion-a design feature previously used only on supersonic jet fighters. Inside, reflecting Egbert's love of flying, the Avanti resembles a plush airplane with instruments set in neat, easy-to-reach groups, has two bucket seats in front...
Studebaker (which plans to drop the Packard half of its name at the end of this month) will introduce the Avanti on April 26 at New York's International Automobile Show. By designing and producing an entirely new car within only a year, Egbert and Loewy have set a new record for U.S. automakers. Some nervous South Benders fear that the Avanti is too radically styled to sell well on the inherently conservative U.S. market. Its failure could jeopardize Studebaker's automaking future. But Egbert is firmly convinced that the Avanti will carry Studebaker forward...