1990 Avanti Four-Door

It is a genuine shame the Avanti never became a hit because it was very genuinely a cool car and widely regarded as being years and even decades ahead of its time. Designer Raymond Loewy envisioned “a low-slung, long-hood-short-deck semi-fastback coupe with a grilleless nose and wasp-waisted curvature to the rear fenders, suggesting a supersonic aircraft.” It would have been ridiculously expensive to build such a complicated body out of steel, so management decided that the car’s body would instead be constructed from fiberglass.

Following the original discontinuation of the Avanti, the nameplate was purchased multiple times over in various revival attempts that ultimately failed. Today’s example is from 1990, which means the car is a John Cafaro Avanti.

Cafaro acquired the Avanti company and operated it from 1987 to 1991. During that time, he relocated headquarters from the Avanti’s birthplace of South Bend, Indiana to Youngstown, Ohio. Cafaro notably produced “Silver Year” Avanti coupes, meant to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the car’s creation. However, in 1989, Cafaro lost faith in the two-door design and introduced a four-door version like today’s example. 90 of these “Avanti sedans” were built in total. 405 Cafaro Avantis were constructed before the company closed its doors in 1991. The name was unsuccessfully revived once more from 1999 to 2005, until it was discovered that the owner was running a large Ponzi scheme through the business after relocating Avanti from Ohio to Cancun, Mexico, and the name has been dormant ever since.

The exterior condition of this Avanti is good. There are no areas outside the car that show major damage. In fact, there are very little minor marks to point out either. The Avanti was finished in off-white paint, and it appears to be smoothly applied around the entire car. All glass is in good condition showing no chips or cracks. The faux-wire wheels look great on the car while showing no curb rash, and although remaining tire tread looks decent, we always recommend a new set. Exterior build quality appears to be solid, with all of the panel gaps looking even throughout the entire vehicle. We cannot understand why, but it would appear that a former owner of the vehicle went out of their way to install a set of E36 kidney grilles on the front of the car. We’ll keep our design opinions to ourselves on that one. Overall, this Avanti might have a face only a mother could love, but the exterior is remarkably clean and will only require minor work at the very worst.

This Avanti has four massive, solid doors. Swing any one of them open to reveal an interior cabin that echoes the exterior. There is very little damage to report inside the car. The off-white leather seats both up front and in the back show very little creasing and no major holes or tears. Wooden inlays are plentiful throughout the car’s interior, and all of the wood pieces appear to be in good condition aside from a chip every so often. Down low, the Avanti has dark brown carpeting which could potentially benefit from deep clean, but nevertheless appears to be laying flat throughout the entire interior. The wooden dashboard is clean and all of the mounted gauges within it are tidy and easily readable. The leather headliner hangs tightly in place as do the sunshades. Overall, it would be accurate to say the inside mirrors the outside, there is very little damage to observe, and it would appear the seller went to great lengths to keep the car properly preserved. Kudos.

Under the hood, we see the same trends continue. Lifting the hood reveals a clean engine bay, all of the components appear to be in their proper locations and there is no obvious major damage to be observed. Under the car, the undercarriage seems to be equally clean. The frame and floorboards appear solid, the suspension components look tidy, and the exhaust is clean.

This Avanti’s travels are somewhat of a mystery to us, but we do know for certain that the seller acquired this vehicle sometime in March of 2013.

The original Avantis were four-seaters with massive V8s that predate the arrival of the first traditional muscle cars. For that reason, the Avanti holds an important place American motoring history as being a concept that never found mainstream success. Subsequent attempts to revive the Avanti nameplate were all unsuccessful as well, as each iteration strayed further and further from the original’s ethos. That being said, the example offered here today is highly collectable, remarkably clean, and just a small piece of the wild history that is the Avanti. Kidney grilles aside, we are confident this Avanti will have very few issues hitting its $10,000 -$20,000 estimate.

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL BIDDERS

It should be noted that this vehicle has been on static display for a number of years and there is no history available beyond that displayed in our photography section.

We have not started or driven the car so cannot vouch for its mechanical viability or functionality. It will require recommissioning prior to road use and is sold ‘as seen’.

Please note that the title for this vehicle is in transit.