Artist Fremont F. Ellis bought a Studebaker Avanti in 1963. In 1967 he traded the original car plus one of his paintings to Ray Altman, brother of Avanti Motors founder Nate Altman, in exchange for his 1967 Avanti II, which was displayed in his studio with his paintings.

The Avanti has been called "mobile art", "art on wheels", moving sculpture", and is often exhibited as an American design icon. The Avanti has been included in an industrial design exhibit at the Louvre in Paris, in a Coca Cola show in the British Design Museum in London, in an exhibit at the Toyota Automobile Museum in Japan, and in a Raymond Loewy exhibit at The Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC. Its legacy includes World speed records for a production car and notable engineering firsts, yet its reputation as a work of art is perhaps its most enduring and remarkable feat.