The 21st century Avanti - built by
Avanti Motor Corporation, owes its existence to two distinct but related events in the Avanti saga. The first was a collaboration between Jim Bunting, a former advertising executive, and
Tom Kellogg, one of the designers of the original car. Their efforts produced a two-passenger coupe version. The first objective accomplished, Kellogg proposed building an updated version of the classic Avanti. AVX stands for AVanti eXperimental. The original idea was to produce one car. That vehicle was built during the winter of 1995-96, then shown at several
Studebaker and Avanti meets to wide acclaim. It was built by customizing a 1993 Pontiac Firebird. The idea of transforming the AVX into a production car began to take seed. The design was refined again, this time with limited production in mind, and the first production prototype was shown at the June, 1997 International Studebaker/Avanti meet in South Bend, Indiana.
