cmatthes Posted January 10, 2013 Posted January 10, 2013 If someone calls you and says there's a Hamer in the Pawn shop, chances are still decent that it's a USA Model. ...or it's really a Kramer.
zorrow Posted January 10, 2013 Posted January 10, 2013 If someone calls you and says there's a Hamer in the Pawn shop, chances are still decent that it's a USA Model. ...or it's really a Kramer.
JohnnyB Posted January 10, 2013 Posted January 10, 2013 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Maybe SAAB would be a better parallel? Avanti. Just to keep it 'merican based. *If* Avanti could have survived and evolved past their early days. Eh, who am i kidding. I got nothin'... Dude, an Avanti reference. You don't get that every day. For those of you who don't know, google it. Very cool. I'm old enough to remember when the Avanti came out, and me being a sucker for the underdog, it quickly became my favorite car. Andy Granatelli set 34 land speed records in a supercharged 400 hp Avanti made available to the public. The R3 did the flying mile at Bonneville at 168.15 mph in 1962. For a good writeup, see this. The engine compartment was so tight that you couldn't order both the supercharger option and air conditioning. The Avanti was so captivating that even though Studebaker shut down in the mid-'60s, a couple of Studebaker dealers bought the rights to Avanti as well as some Studebaker manufacturing facilities to form the Avanti Motor Corporation which became a relatively large scale custom order operation. More info is available here. According to the Wikipedia article, some form of the Avanti II was made until 2007.
Gino Posted January 10, 2013 Posted January 10, 2013 Avanti looks cool, but I still think Deutsche Autos are the Hamers of automobiles...
Crimsontider Posted January 10, 2013 Posted January 10, 2013 Avanti looks cool, but I still think Deutsche Autos are the Hamers of automobiles... Agree, they are like the German auto industry as seen in America....... hurt badly by the Japanese luxury line late comers. You see a lot of Volkswagen's (XT's) while Mercedes stops selling their SUV's in America all together. But they have a loyalty.
veatch Posted January 11, 2013 Posted January 11, 2013 I'll bite... Avanti was designed by some *very* talented engineers. It was an attempt to save Stupidbaker. What they came up with was a frickin' rocket. They had to cut corners in the development cycle and used an existing Studebaker frame and outsourced the fiberglass body (much like early Hamer getting outsourced fretboards... Hmmm....) The fiberglass bodies were a problem and had finish issues. (much like Hameritis... Hmmmm.... ) Here's where we go in reverse - Studebaker went down the road of nevermore, so a couple of the engineers started Avanti Motors, a low production high end motor company. (as opposed to our entrepreneurial friends at Hamer getting bought by Kaman...) They survived for a while, but were eventually bought out by an outsider (as opposed to Kaman being bought by Fender...) That survived for a while, but eventually got shelved. (or maybe call it a "hiatus"...) Would i buy one site unseen? Probably not, but i'm not a car nut. Is Avanti *really* the Hamer of cars? Meh - i got nothin'... OK, hijack over. Edit to add: As far as different and standing out from the competition, the styling with the lack of a grill and the hood "scoop" to the side were visually aggressive. The supercharged version of the Avanti kept up with the Shelby Cobra, if i recall. Not too bad considering the size of those beasts...
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