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A
1964 Studebaker Avanti owned by
Julian Poupard of Broadstirs, Kent, England was exhibited at
the Design Museum at Tower Bridge in London, England in 1997.
The show celebrated Raymond Loewy's
"Coke bottle curve"
and other Coca-Cola related design themes. The R2, 1964, serial
number 5512 Avanti was the unequivical star of the show, out
shining even the Beatles and President Clinton. The
famous bottle was designed in 1915 and was patented on Christmas
Day, 1923. The image of the car shown here captures the coke
bottle curves quite well. The actual Avanti exhibited at the
Design Museum in London, England in 1997 is shown (below top)
facing the Beatles and (below bottom) with the coke bottle shape
on the wall and a giant coke bottle at the rear. British viewers
being unfamiliar with the rare American car assumed it was a
new model! Avantis have also been
included in an industrial design exhibit at the Louvre in Paris,
in an exhibit at the Toyota Automobile Museum
in Japan, and in a Raymond Loewy exhibit
at The Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery
in Washington, D.C.
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From the Exhibit
Raymond Loewy, the colbratura genius of US consultancy
design, had long admired Coca-Cola. In a famous magazine interview
he recognized the erotic symbolism of the bottle comparing
it to Aphrodites' bottom. When Loewy designed the artistically
influencial (but commercially diastircal) Avanti for his long
term client, Studebaker, he made the famous contour into a
styling motif that influenced the motor industry for more
than a decade. The kicked-up rear haunches of this astonishing
car became known as the "Coke bottle curve" and
were most famously seen on the 1964 Ford Mustang and the 1967
Chevrolet Camaro, arriving in England with the 1971 Ford Cortina.
British author Ian Fleming's Avanti
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